@wab25 @dvcochran
I decided to give this question another go somewhere else. Somewhere where it wouldn't end up with me just arguing with you two again. So I posted it here:
The double knife-hand block : taekwondo
I'll sum up the conversation I had with a few of the commenters:
Them: It's a guarding block, except you use the other hand to help bring your upper body momentum into it.
Me: But what about the off-hand position at the end? Why palm up?
Them: As a chamber for your next strike.
Would you look at that? Their answer was concise and to the point. When I questioned the specifics of their answer, they were able to follow up with specific answers. Those answers met all 3 of my criteria: the 2 primary ones I've asked for here, and the third I've asked in previous threads:
- It uses the technique as done in the form (main hand is a knife-hand block, off-hand comes from outside-in, and ends palm up).
- It makes sense (the main hand makes sense as a block, the off-hand makes sense as to why it's moving in the direction it does, and why it ends in the exact position it does)
- It uses the technique as described in the form (as a block). This was a secondary requirement in my post, the other two were "musts" and were met.
Now, this doesn't 100% change my opinion on the forms. However, it's opening me up to gathering more data and seeing if I can change my mind on my analysis. I still think the forms don't teach it very well, especially since you guys seem to have missed this, and half of the comments on the thread I linked missed it as well. I'm also skeptical of some of the later techniques, especially half of Keumgang. But I'll do one a day or one a week, and go through the different moves in the poomsae.
I think you guys (and most of the others that I've watched/read) have really overthunk the double knife-hand block. I'll see how people feel about some of the other techniques I mentioned above.