Expanding My Training

[OnlyAnEgg]

Last week, I returned to take TKD one night a week from Master Cho in Lancaster, Ohio. The plan is that it will supplement and expand my training in Seieikan karate that I take 2x/week. My karate class is great and Sensei is great; but, there's not much in the way of conditioning and, as I was reminded last week, TKD is loaded with conditioning.

Is there anyone else taking more than one art at a time? How does this help or hinder?

 

[ajs1976]

I have taken some boxing classes along with my TKD.

Since I have been doing TKD longer, it causes me some problems with boxing. When sparring I fall back into the TKD habits or downblocking body shoots instead of covering up and dropping.

There is a lot more conditioning in boxing, so that helps with my TKD classes.

 

[karatekid1975]

I did WTF TKD and jujitsu together. Great combo. Now I do ITF with Jujitsu. Problem. They (my ITF dojang) also mix jujitsu into the curriculum. Some stuff is slightly different in both styles of jujitsu, and I get a little messed up with stuff, mainly terms and some techniques.

 

[savior]

i do TKD, cardio kickboxing, and Xc

XC helps keep my endurance up
TKD helps develop... well... my TKD technique
Kickboxing reminds me that my hands are just as important as my kicks

 

[zDom]

My first TKD instructor's instructor, GM Jeff Forby, once told us:

If you like using your feet, work on getting good with your hands. Make them respect your hands, and then it makes it easier to use your foot tecniques on them.

If you like using your hands, work on getting good with your kicks. Make them respect your feet, and then it makes it easier to use your hand tecniques on them.

 

[exile]

My first TKD instructor's instructor, GM Jeff Forby, once told us:

If you like using your feet, work on getting good with your hands. Make them respect your hands, and then it makes it easier to use your foot tecniques on them.

If you like using your hands, work on getting good with your kicks. Make them respect your feet, and then it makes it easier to use your hand tecniques on them.

This is a good way to train in general---work on your weaker points, even though it's way more fun to train your stronger points: if you're very righthanded/right-sided, train your left side more than your right; train the poomsae you don't much care for as much as, or even more than, the ones you really like, etc.

 

[Grenadier]

My old teacher taught both Karate and Jiu Jitsu at the same dojo, and encouraged many folks to try the other art. Many elements of one system would be taught in the other system's classes, and he was able to make it work in a very seamless manner.

As for taking from two different schools, that's difficult to say. It depends on how well the two systems mesh together, the instructors abilities, and the ability of the student to keep things properly organized in all of that grey matter.

It can be done, and I've known several folks who simultaneously trained in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, and made it work. At the same time, I've also seen many a strong student in one art, give up on trying to cross train at the same time, simply because it was difficult to keep things separate when necessary.

 

[exile]

It can be done, and I've known several folks who simultaneously trained in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, and made it work. At the same time, I've also seen many a strong student in one art, give up on trying to cross train at the same time, simply because it was difficult to keep things separate when necessary.

TKD and Hapkido are probably inherently compatible---along the lines that Last Fearner was suggesting in a recent post, TKD and Hapkido are really late-separated specialized branches of a single Korean fighting style and have offer a lot of genuinely complementary skills and techniques. And I can see the same thing with Karate and Jiu-jutsu. But it's hard for me to imagine an easy program cross-training, say, Kenpo and Aikido... their strategic approaches are kind almost from different planets. That's probably the sort of scenario you're talking about where the mix just isn't going to work.

 

[terryl965]

Only an egg good for you to expand your training

 

[searcher]

I take TKD, American Boxing, and Okinawan Kobudo in Addition to teaching Chito-ryu. I have recently started looking for a new EPAK school to return to my roots. I looked for styles that would complement each other, so they are definately a help in my training.

 

[exile]

I take TKD, American Boxing, and Okinawan Kobudo in Addition to teaching Chito-ryu. I have recently started looking for a new EPAK school to return to my roots. I looked for styles that would complement each other, so they are definately a help in my training.

Searcher---I'm curious: what do you see as the main points of complementarity and compatibility between TKD and EPAK? I've got a couple of very general ideas about it but I'd like to know your view of it...

 

[Miles]

Not quite off-topic since it is "expanding my training," my wife and I have recently started a Hatha Yoga class. While I don't think it is all that physically demanding (it is a beginner class), I find that I do enjoy discovering the differences (and similarities) in breathing exercises and body alignment.

Miles

 

[TraditionalTKD]

My thoughts on this:

First, wait until you are sufficiently advanced in one art before you try another. By this I mean do not get a 1st dan in Tae Kwon Do or any other style and then immediately cross train thinking you have enough knowledge. You don't and should not. Wait until at least 3rd Dan, preferably longer. Until then, you are simply not grounded well enough in one style. Nothing worse than "3rd Dan Tae Kwon Do, 2nd Dan Hapkido, 2nd Dan BJJ, 1st Dan Judo".
Second, try a style unrelated to whatever you are doing. Tae Kwon Do has its kicking, punching, blocking, moving, and self defense techniques separate from karate, hapkido, kung fu, or kenpo. You cannot practice TKD kicking and karate kicking simultanously. They are not complimentary. If you are far enough advanced in a striking art, try aikido or tai chi. I wouldn't even recommend TKD and judo, since the biomechanics are opposites.

 

[searcher]

Searcher---I'm curious: what do you see as the main points of complementarity and compatibility between TKD and EPAK? I've got a couple of very general ideas about it but I'd like to know your view of it...

Most would look to the obvious, external points: Kicking and punching. Though they do help each other there are others as well. The TKD is so rigid and straight-forward, whereas the EPAK is very flowing and circular. With the 2 I am able to change up the rhythm in a sparring match or fight better after having worked in both styles. On the punching/kicking aspect, the TKD lends to the technical side of the kicking and the EPAK lends to the techniques that just are not there in TKD.

 

[exile]

Most would look to the obvious, external points: Kicking and punching. Though they do help each other there are others as well. The TKD is so rigid and straight-forward, whereas the EPAK is very flowing and circular. With the 2 I am able to change up the rhythm in a sparring match or fight better after having worked in both styles. On the punching/kicking aspect, the TKD lends to the technical side of the kicking and the EPAK lends to the techniques that just are not there in TKD.

Very interesting. I very much like what I've seen of EPAK---even though I do TKD and train kicks pretty intensely, I've always been drawn to the hand-technique side of kenpo. What I like in EPAK (this could well be present in many other kenpo/kempo styles) is the speed and intensity of the punch delivery---the `barrage' effect, is how I think of it---the quickness of it, reminiscent of the little I've seen of Wing Chun. I have the feeling that an `EPAK-ized' TDK is sort of the individual interpretation of TDK I'm ultimately interested in working out for myself, down the road somewhere. So what you were saying really rang a bell.

 

[searcher]

Exile, you will also love how your perception of blocking and linking of techniques will change. Epak is a wonderful style.

 

[exile]

Exile, you will also love how your perception of blocking and linking of techniques will change. Epak is a wonderful style.

I still have a huge amount of the technical content of TKD to master. But I've been repeatedly struck by the fluent threading together of techniques in the EPAK I've seen, and by the sheer speed of delivery---strike, and right away on to the next strike. That's the approach that impresses me as the one that is going to give you your best chance of ending a violent alternation quickly, on your own terms, and mostly intact.

 

[jfarnsworth]

Is there anyone else taking more than one art at a time? How does this help or hinder?

I think it would be tough to do a couple at a time. Well, if they were closely related arts. One instructor will say do it this way the other might do it a different way. When I switched to kenpo there's more than enough cardio in just doing the forms alone without the sets we have plus all of hte self defense training. I love the thursday night class. There's a lot of cardio involved.