Good Evening everyone. Here is a clip of my senior student doing our four beginner forms. I would like any feedback possible so that I can become aware of things that I'm not catching to help her improve. Thank you so much for your time!
Help me be a better instructor
- Thread starter Azulx
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Can't help to think that the wide stance is actually supposed to be a technique where her leg enters the stance of her opponent and breaking the root. The way it's performed with walking the stance that wide seems awkward. It drives me nuts every time I see it because it looks like I have an open shot to land a groin kick or to pull her leg out from other her with a foot hook.
I'm saying this assuming that there is nothing wrong with her legs and that her bow stances are just too wide.
Other than that I didn't see anything, that stood out as being horribly wrong. I don't know any of the forms so I couldn't tell one way or the other if something was correct. I do feel confident about the structure.
If you want to be a better instructor then try to use those techniques in sparring until you are able to to each one in a free sparring situation. This will provide more insight into your system and it will help you become a better instructor, more than getting feedback from me and other's here.
From what I've seen of your own sparring, I would say that you are more than ready to take that journey. You can only go so far without trying to apply these techniques in free sparring. It doesn't have to be a requirement for your student's but it definitely should be a requirement for an instructor.
by the way keep up the good work.
The difficulty here is that what I see as wrong, you may see as correct. But here goes...
It doesn't look like you're teaching the Chang Hon forms with sine wave. That's fine; I was originally taught them without sine wave, and I still prefer them without, in large part because I'm not convinced sine wave actually adds any benefit.
That being said, this young lady is moving up and down. A lot. If you're doing sine wave, fine. In that case, she's not moving enough. But if you're not, then her head should be staying at the same level, not bouncing up and down.
When she's advancing in front stance, her feet remain at shoulder width throughout the step, rather than moving through an arc.
In Dan Gun, when she's doing the twin forearm blocks, (the first is at 1:30) her lower hand never fully rotates palm out. It's near vertical.
In Do San, the way she's doing the release (following the spearhand) is absolutely useless. That form does have you moving forward into the release (more on that in a minute), but the arm needs to be pushed downwards as it is twisted to have any chance of actually breaking a grip.
Now, personally, I think stepping into the release make zero sense. If you actually try it as done in Do San, it'll generally fail to release the grip. And you will always be at the wrong range for the spinning backfist. It just won't work. To be effective, you need to slide the front foot back and turn the body as you twist the wrist. That will not only have a much better chance of breaking the grip, it'll also put you at the right distance for the spinning backfist to be used.
At 1:39 in this video, you can see the release done in the way I'm describing.
She's doing nice, solid forms overall. Her stances are solid and consistent, as are her techniques.
It doesn't look like you're teaching the Chang Hon forms with sine wave. That's fine; I was originally taught them without sine wave, and I still prefer them without, in large part because I'm not convinced sine wave actually adds any benefit.
That being said, this young lady is moving up and down. A lot. If you're doing sine wave, fine. In that case, she's not moving enough. But if you're not, then her head should be staying at the same level, not bouncing up and down.
When she's advancing in front stance, her feet remain at shoulder width throughout the step, rather than moving through an arc.
In Dan Gun, when she's doing the twin forearm blocks, (the first is at 1:30) her lower hand never fully rotates palm out. It's near vertical.
In Do San, the way she's doing the release (following the spearhand) is absolutely useless. That form does have you moving forward into the release (more on that in a minute), but the arm needs to be pushed downwards as it is twisted to have any chance of actually breaking a grip.
Now, personally, I think stepping into the release make zero sense. If you actually try it as done in Do San, it'll generally fail to release the grip. And you will always be at the wrong range for the spinning backfist. It just won't work. To be effective, you need to slide the front foot back and turn the body as you twist the wrist. That will not only have a much better chance of breaking the grip, it'll also put you at the right distance for the spinning backfist to be used.
At 1:39 in this video, you can see the release done in the way I'm describing.
She's doing nice, solid forms overall. Her stances are solid and consistent, as are her techniques.
- Thread Starter
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Fair point , at least I can get some feedback.
Well, yes and no.
We can see what he's teaching, if not how.
If he's teaching punches with the wrist bent and the thumb tucked inside the fist, we can see that.
If he's teaching that by beating her with a broomstick every time she makes a mistake, we will never know.
Headhunter
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There's more to martial arts than forms...we can see her do some forms but that doesn't show how good her other stuff is
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Of course..... but I’m asking for feedback specifically on this. How’s the Cobra Kai dojo coming ?
Headhunter
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Um what?
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Cobra Kai , c’mon man. You were doing Katas in the back yard . A teen saw you. Now you have an opportunity to make a difference in his life . Cobra Kai style .
The input will help him critique his own instruction. If one of my students gets a "correction" when they visit another school, I get some information that might (or might not) be useful to me as an instructor. In essence, if you point out something Azulx missed, that's useful feedback for him as an instructor.
I was thinking that is a very wide stance, perhaps it's the style? I was always taught that when doing that stance ( though ours is less deep anyway) the legs/feet should be a shoulder width apart no more. I find Korean forms/katas are more staccato and slower than Japanese ones which I think flow more, that's not a criticism just an observation.
Okay, since you've gotten feedback from someone who knows the forms and art well, I'm going to provide feedback from someone who knows neither, so definitely take my observations with that in mind.
She's not very connected to the ground. I think this is actually the same comment as DD's about her rising too much (or not enough), but I look at it from the feet/legs. Watch her transitions from stance to stance at the beginning of the first form, and she loses her link to the ground. She has no chance of real power between stances, can't really control for change of direction between them, and is open for both sweeps and power strikes. Obviously, she might not be doing that so much in sparring, but the movement in forms should support (rather than clash with) the movement used in application (including sparring), so I'd be concerned about that. I have only the vaguest notion of what the "sine wave" movement is, but I have to believe it has more of a link to the ground than that movement. This problem lessens as she progresses, but I still see it throughout. Mind you, some of that is coming from a grappler's eye - I immediately see that it should be easy to upend her during any of the transitions, and I've seen striking forms where I didn't think that, at all.
It is. This is a martial art - the correct implement is a rattan or bamboo stick.
oftheherd1
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When I studied TKD we were also taught to keep our feet shoulder length apart for just about everything. We we were also taught deeper stances. As I see, she sometimes has her feet at shoulder width, sometimes more. Doesn't look as stable too far apart. That may have something to do with the fact that her shoulders aren't squared forward all the time.
@Azulx it appears to me she has some speed so some power in her punches, but they end weak, and the wrist doesn't seem rigid. Some of her down blocks look to me like she is not really striking. One of the purposes of forms is to learn moves correctly and powerfully. She also doesn't seem to be striking a kick to the side, but just down. Down requires more strength, hence more danger to the blocker, since you are going directly against the power. To the side, you don't really care how much strength the kick has, just that it goes past you.
That seems true for some of her upper hand blocks. The ones over her head don't really go above her head, nor even enough to block over her head, and and in front blocking to the side with bent elbow, there doesn't seem to be any strength.
@Dirty Dog Do I understand that your video the spin and move of the hand to the back is to break a wrist grab? When I look at both sides of the video it seems the hand isn't going to quite the same place in both. I couldn't see where Azulx' student was doing anything like that, which is probably why you brought it up. Could you give a time reference please. BTW, shouldn't that almost last move reaching up with both hands be a grab to the head rather than a reach for the stars, and wouldn't a knee be more appropriate? Just curious.
In the Hapkido I studied, we had a move that began like your video shows, but we continued our spin and grabbed the opponent's wrist and twisted it to break the opponent's wrist, or throw him, or both. I know it doesn't sound right. When I was first taught it I didn't see how it was going to work. But, I was there to be taught and my GM was watching, so I tried it, expecting no good result. I turned, placing the grabbed wrist behind me, spun and reached around with my free hand, and lo and behold, without really knowing how, I had a handful of the opponent's wrist that I could control as I continued my turn. Magic!
oftheherd1
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What one can learn.
Glad to be of service.
Balrog
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She has nice timing, correct execution of technique and is developing good power.
Looks good to me!
Looks good to me!
Yes, that is much the same issue I was describing. The bouncing and width of the feet during transitions.
Yes. Acknowledging that it's really difficult to do releases in a one-person form, the idea is that you've attacked with a speahand, and they've grabbed your wrist. The obvious release is to move the hand in a circle, levering against the thumb. In the Palgwae 4 video, the body is also twisted and pulled back to aid in the release. This also sets the distance and starts the movement for the spinning back fist.
In his video, the spearhand is at 2:01. She brings the rear foot forward and twists the spearhand to a palm down position. The way I was taught Do San, this is almost correct. The major difference is that as you stpe forward, you're supposed to twist the hand and push the arm down to try and lever out of the grip. As I said, I find this to be an ineffective method of releasing a wrist grab, and in the context of the form, will result in your being far too close to use the spinning backfist.
I'm not sure what you're referencing here. Azulxs' video, or the Palgwae 4 video? Can you clarify and provide a time reference?
In the Hapkido I studied, we had a move that began like your video shows, but we continued our spin and grabbed the opponent's wrist and twisted it to break the opponent's wrist, or throw him, or both. I know it doesn't sound right. When I was first taught it I didn't see how it was going to work. But, I was there to be taught and my GM was watching, so I tried it, expecting no good result. I turned, placing the grabbed wrist behind me, spun and reached around with my free hand, and lo and behold, without really knowing how, I had a handful of the opponent's wrist that I could control as I continued my turn. Magic!
There's a move similar to what you're describing in Palgwae 8. It starts with a knifehand block. The wrist is then grabbed and pushed down a bit as you spin, but since this is a striking art, the spin is done to the targets front and ends with an elbow strike to their solar plexus.
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