Il Soo Sik (curriculum and impact)

[SirKicksAlot]

I have studied with a few Tang Soo Do and Taekwon Do groups and it seems there is no standard il soo sik outside of the Soo Bahk Do Association. Soo Bahk Do has 18 standardized one-step sparring with is basically only 9 but then mirrored to make 18. They also have a small standard set of Sam Soo Sik. World Tang Soo Do has like 90, divided into 30 feet, 30 hands, 30 self defense. But other orgs are just all over the place. It is billed as practice to lead into free sparring, but if that were so, wouldn't the stances and movements better simulate free sparring movements? Did it just get carried over from Shotokan's Ippon Kumite or is there a better reason? I learned them and taught them because they were mandatory parts of the art, but never found much use in them. Is this just a Korean arts thing where the need for il soo sik is mandatory? I personally would prefer if the art was only composed of Hyung, Free Sparring, and Breaking. This post may be all over the place, but basically want to know what your one-step sparring curriculum looks like and what your thoughts are on its practice.

 

[Buka]

I have studied with a few Tang Soo Do and Taekwon Do groups and it seems there is no standard il soo sik outside of the Soo Bahk Do Association. Soo Bahk Do has 18 standardized one-step sparring with is basically only 9 but then mirrored to make 18. They also have a small standard set of Sam Soo Sik. World Tang Soo Do has like 90, divided into 30 feet, 30 hands, 30 self defense. But other orgs are just all over the place. It is billed as practice to lead into free sparring, but if that were so, wouldn't the stances and movements better simulate free sparring movements? Did it just get carried over from Shotokan's Ippon Kumite or is there a better reason? I learned them and taught them because they were mandatory parts of the art, but never found much use in them. Is this just a Korean arts thing where the need for il soo sik is mandatory? I personally would prefer if the art was only composed of Hyung, Free Sparring, and Breaking. This post may be all over the place, but basically want to know what your one-step sparring curriculum looks like and what your thoughts are on its practice.

I’ve trained in a bunch of Tang Soo places over the years, taught in a half dozen as well. (not teaching Tang Soo)

All of them were different. A lot different.

I’ve found that to be the case with most Arts.

 

[Badhabits]

Yep there's a whole bunch of different ways people do one steps. I personally like one step sparring for certain things. Such as experimenting with angles and distancing. Nothing beats having what amounts to a human dummy to try things out on.
That being said, one steps for the most part aren't realistic fighting/self defense and I don't think they were meant to be. It's another training tool like everything else.
As far as curriculum, where I've been training most recently newbies are given set one steps as a starting point. Then are expected to develop their own as they progress. Our instructor will assist, critique, advise etc in this.