# Hi :)



## donnaTKD (May 5, 2014)

HI i'm donna aged 37 and a half live in the UK and have been training and competing in Muay Thai for best part of 20years and gained my 1st degree black belt 2 years ago --- am i really that old lol :jaw-dropping:  --- and recently i took up TKD (white belt) as something that was different but utilising similar techniques and there are a lot of similarities between two plus i have 2 very infectious sensei's as well which has made everything even more fun  :boing1:.

i love my training - i run everyday, go swimming when i can, walk my border collie dog around 15 miles a day - oh and i train in the gym 6 days a week too lol   in case you're wondering i work for myself from home which makes things really easy for me to accomodate all the activites.  i live for MT and now TKD too - my life has more or less been built around my MA.

i used to compete at club level but too many injuries (broke and rebuilt legs/ both hands and wrists and a shoulder) outside of competition (i love motorcycles too much) forced me to reconsider the competition side of things - for now anyways.

my MT sensei (4th dan) is what i call a "beastmaster" - it feels like going to hell and back every session but i wouldn't part with him :EG:  my TKD sensei (5th dan) still has a fair amount to prove to me but he knows his stuff and a lot of his students are black belt level so only time will tell how good he really is.

any Q's please feel free to ask 

thankyou for letting me join in your amazing boards with an outstanding amount of intel in them - i've read a lot from all parts of these boards and found it very stimulating :boing1:

donna


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## wingchun100 (May 5, 2014)

Hi Donna,

I am the same age but in the US and studying wing chun kung fu. Glad to have you here.


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## donnaTKD (May 5, 2014)

thankyou - do you find that things in general get more difficult as you get older ?  like trying to remember where you put your car keys so you can go to training ?


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## wingchun100 (May 5, 2014)

donnaTKD said:


> thankyou - do you find that things in general get more difficult as you get older ?  like trying to remember where you put your car keys so you can go to training ?



Haha, no. I'm not into that phase yet.


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## donald1 (May 5, 2014)

donnaTKD said:


> HI i'm donna aged 37 and a half live in the UK and have been training and competing in Muay Thai for best part of 20years and gained my 1st degree black belt 2 years ago --- am i really that old lol :jaw-dropping:  --- and recently i took up TKD (white belt) as something that was different but utilising similar techniques and there are a lot of similarities between two plus i have 2 very infectious sensei's as well which has made everything even more fun  :boing1:.
> 
> i love my training - i run everyday, go swimming when i can, walk my border collie dog around 15 miles a day - oh and i train in the gym 6 days a week too lol   in case you're wondering i work for myself from home which makes things really easy for me to accomodate all the activites.  i live for MT and now TKD too - my life has more or less been built around my MA.
> 
> ...



hello... im Donald studying Okinawan goju ryu(karate) and kobudo(weapons)


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## sfs982000 (May 5, 2014)

Welcome to the forums!


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## oftheherd1 (May 5, 2014)

Welcome to MT!  Will be interesting to see how you relate your MT and TKD training.


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## tshadowchaser (May 5, 2014)

Welcome to MT.  
I'm one of the old ones here , seems like I've been around forever.
Happy to have you join use and hope you know your free to ask or answer questions anytome


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## donnaTKD (May 5, 2014)

the MT training that we do is very similar - i'm finding that the kicking and punching are virtually the same but each have their own little tweeks to them which is the only real way to distinguish them - the forms and patterns are pretty much the same again with their own little tweeks to them 

i am not claiming to be an expert in TKD - i've only had about 14 sessions so am still learning the art. my mauy thai is my primary focus cos i'd really like to go to 2nd degree, aparently i should've gone in for the assessment last year but didn't feel that i would've made the grade which is why i'm still at 1st degree which for me was an outstanding peformance and one that i could only dream of when i first started.

if i end with a 1st degree black in TKD i'll be very surprised as they only grade every four months or so - just different timelines i guess.  

thankyou for all the good wishes 

donna


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## Takai (May 5, 2014)

donnaTKD said:


> thankyou - do you find that things in general get more difficult as you get older ?  like trying to remember where you put your car keys so you can go to training ?



Welcome to MT.

Wait a minute...my car needs keys?


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## Tony Dismukes (May 5, 2014)

donnaTKD said:


> the MT training that we do is very similar - i'm finding that the kicking and punching are virtually the same but each have their own little tweeks to them which is the only real way to distinguish them - the *forms and patterns are pretty much the same again *with their own little tweeks to them



Hmm. The punching & kicking techniques of Muay Thai feel pretty different from those of TKD to me, but I guess it's a matter of perception what you consider to be a "tweak" vs a major difference. I'm curious about the reference to "forms and patterns." Are you saying that you do forms in Muay Thai?


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## Brian King (May 5, 2014)

Welcome to Martial Talk, Donna. Looking forward to reading your contributions to the conversations. 

Regards
Brian King


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## Tames D (May 5, 2014)

Welcome.


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## donnaTKD (May 6, 2014)

when going through new things at MT we do a sort of "form" for it and then practise that --- to me it feels like form anyways given what i've learnt thus far at TKD.

i'm finding that the set up and end result of the kicks and punches to be similar --- don't know what you make of them but for me the 2 styles marry quite well and some of the things i'm learning in TKD i find i can use in MT and vice versa.  i chose these 2 styles cos of the similarities - i was brought up kicking and punching so for me ground work was always going to be a no no --- 

i'm not saying that grappling or wrestling or of no use it's just that i hate being on floor i'd far rather stay on my feet if possible   old age creeping up on me i guess lol 

thankyou for the welcomes 

donna


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## Tony Dismukes (May 6, 2014)

donnaTKD said:


> when going through new things at MT we do a sort of "form" for it and then practise that --- to me it feels like form anyways given what i've learnt thus far at TKD.



Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing - a "form" in the normal TKD/Karate/Kung Fu sense is a pre-set, standardized sequence of movements (punch/kick/block/step/etc) which the practitioner executes solo, without the aid of a training partner, focus mitts, heavy bag, or anything like that. We're not talking about a simple combination that you might use while shadow boxing, but something more like a complete choreographed dance routine with a martial application behind it. Are you doing that in your Muay Thai?

(Oh, and welcome to MartialTalk, since I neglected to say that earlier.)


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## donnaTKD (May 6, 2014)

thankyou for the welcome 

every new MT move i've ever done is sequenced first solo without needing others to be there - so the set up, bodylines, hand and arm positions etc..... are worked out prior to introducing a bag, pads or whatever.

it's not shadow boxing -  iunderstand where you're coming from but this is like the preamble to actually practising the moves with a bag or whatever, so we stand in front of a mirror and get positioning right and the moves for kicking/punching and blocking etc are worked out before the bag comes into play so that when you get to the bag your positioning is almost spot on straightaway.

didn't feel too much different to the set up in TKD.

the only other point that i will maake is that there are only 10 people at a time in the MT dojo whereas there are nearly 30 at a time in the TKD dojo.

i can see me quitting TKD sooner rather than later too....... sensei's good but there's not enough interaction between student and instructor so if you do things wrong then he's not really going to notice it so's as to correct it.  whereas my muay thai sensei is on top of the students all the time and corrects things there and then which i find really good.

donna


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## Tony Dismukes (May 6, 2014)

donnaTKD said:


> every new MT move i've ever done is sequenced first solo without needing others to be there - so the set up, bodylines, hand and arm positions etc..... are worked out prior to introducing a bag, pads or whatever.
> 
> it's not shadow boxing -  iunderstand where you're coming from but this is like the preamble to actually practising the moves with a bag or whatever, so we stand in front of a mirror and get positioning right and the moves for kicking/punching and blocking etc are worked out before the bag comes into play so that when you get to the bag your positioning is almost spot on straightaway.
> 
> didn't feel too much different to the set up in TKD.



When you say "moves" are you referring to a set combination? For example, if you were going to practice switch kick, cross, hook, outside round kick you would practice the combo in front of the mirror first before moving on to using the combination on the thai pads or the heavy bag?


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## donnaTKD (May 6, 2014)

yes that's the way that i was taught 

basically everything is done in front of the mirror so that you get used to where your hands, feet and body are at certain points.  

for example - the body kick you set yourself up then kick into thin air using the mirror to show you how high your kick is.  every move is done this way and i find it really easy to step up from the mirror to the pads/bags etc....... 

we don't actually shadow box at all everything is either being choreographed or tested out on the pads or in sparring.

every session no matter what rank you've got in the dojo you start by practicing all the moves that you will be employing during the session - we use it as a warm up too 

hope this helps 

donna


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## Tony Dismukes (May 6, 2014)

Thanks for clarifying. It's a bit of an unusual approach for Muay Thai, but I wouldn't consider it quite the same as forms in TKD/Karate/Kung Fu. In those arts, the forms are longer - not just a single combination, but an extended sequence which theoretically teaches a set of important principles for that art. They aren't thrown together as just a lesson for the day - each art has a limited number of standardized forms which may be practiced throughout the practitioner's career. Also, I'm pretty certain most of the TKD/Karate/Kung Fu practitioners here will say that you shouldn't be looking in the mirror when practicing your forms.


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## K-man (May 6, 2014)

Welcome to MT. :wavey:


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## Xue Sheng (May 6, 2014)

Welcome to MT


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## Brian R. VanCise (May 6, 2014)

Welcome to MartialTalk!


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## donnaTKD (May 6, 2014)

hi and thankyou for the welcomes 

maybe we shouldn't be looking in the mirror but the mirror stretches the full length of one wall so hard to escape seeing yourself lol 
i used the term "form" loosely as i said up top the 2 styles are similar but each have their differences and things form are something that i've taken into MT training as a way to try things out before going anywhere near a bag etc......

things like punches you can see them in the mirror so you can see your hand position as you're doing the exercise same with other aspects of the art --- a lot of it comes down to control - slowing things down and disecting moves so that better results can be acheived for the same amount of effort.

the only other way to know if you're doing it right is to have someone like my sensei watching like a hawk (not that he doesn't) to correct you - the mirror allows you to correct yourself and create good practise within yourself so that when you progress to the next level the foundations have already been laid and therefore make each move easier to carry out 

there are some students that are going for their next belt and find it a lot easier if they can see what they're doing as they're doing it --- seems sensible in a way as you want to pass the grade first time.

also i said that there were similarities between MT and TKD --- they're not the same there are differences but not major ones and a lot of the things from both styles can be interchanged to make either one better

this is just my opinion.

TKD is out cos the sensei ducked class..........

donna


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