What’s a good martial art to blend with Taekwondo?

[Brandon Miller]

Starting Taekwondo next week. Found a good school. What’s another martial art that blends well with Taekwondo that I could possibly cross train in the future?

 

[Yokozuna514]

Starting Taekwondo next week. Found a good school. What’s another martial art that blends well with Taekwondo that I could possibly cross train in the future?

Welcome to the forum, Brandon. That's a loaded question you are asking . For some of us, style is less important than finding quality instruction. I train in Kyokushin, for example, and I find pursuing one MA is sufficient for me given my available time.

I would say your question depends on your future goals and what you want to be doing with your MA.

 

[Hanzou]

A grappling art. Judo, BJJ, Wrestling, etc. would fit the bill.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Any style that can teach you how to catch your opponent's kicking leg.

 

[Flying Crane]

I will suggest that if you believe you have found a good Tae Kwon do instructor, then don’t even think about cross training for at least three to six years. Just focus on your TDK and build your skills and understanding. Later, after you are SOLIDLY grounded with your TKD, then it MIGHT be appropriate to think about cross training.

If you are already looking to cross train before you have even begun, you are going about it the wrong way.

 

[Buka]

Welcome to Martial Talk, Brandon. And good luck in your quest.

 

[Brandon Miller]

Sounds good. I’ll stick with Taekwondo until I reach first dan. Then consider cross training in possibly a grappling art. But I will continue my Taekwondo journey forever.

 

[Brandon Miller]

http://www.mltkda.com/ This is the TKD school I’m looking at joining next week. Let me know if any of you experts see red flags of a potential mcdojo. Thanks for your help.

 

[Headhunter]

You've only just started taekwondo don't worry about anything else or you'll get confused and won't get a good base

 

[DaveB]

You've only just started taekwondo don't worry about anything else or you'll get confused and won't get a good base

With one possible exception, which would be Shotokan Karate.

They go like whipped cream on hot chocolate, with one emphasising hands the other feet, while both fight primarily by managing distance.

Although that is WT/kukkiwon style TKD, not itf.

 

[skribs]

First, see what your school teaches as you advance. You may think "I want to learn how to punch, too, so I'll take boxing," and then find out that you focus on punches a LOT more than what you would expect. Or you might think "I want to learn grappling, too" and discover your instructor is also a Master in Hapkido and that influences a lot of his curriculum.

I've been taking Taekwondo at my school for 5 years (had 4 years as a kid). My Master also teaches Hapkido, and I've been in that for about 3.5 years as well. It's only in the last few months that I've started looking at what's next for me, and even then, it's a ways in the future.

 

[dvcochran]

Starting Taekwondo next week. Found a good school. What’s another martial art that blends well with Taekwondo that I could possibly cross train in the future?

Welcome to the forum Brandon. I would recommend you slow your roll. You will likely find one Martial Art daunting after a couple months. If it is a good school, there should be enough there to keep you busy for a while.

 

[dvcochran]

http://www.mltkda.com/ This is the TKD school I’m looking at joining next week. Let me know if any of you experts see red flags of a potential mcdojo. Thanks for your help.

I recommend trying the $49 and see what you think. It is very hard for anyone from a forum to give a strong opinion of what they can learn from a website. That is not where the lessons come from so give it a try and have an open mind. If you have other school choices take your time and try them as well. Best of luck.

 

[Martial D]

Boxing.

Then you'll have feet and hands.

Also any grappling style.

 

[drop bear]

 

[DaveB]

http://www.mltkda.com/ This is the TKD school I’m looking at joining next week. Let me know if any of you experts see red flags of a potential mcdojo. Thanks for your help.

If you're just starting martial arts, why do you know the term McDojo?

 

[DaveB]

I had no idea Taekwondo had such a respectable showing in MMA.

But then stuff like this is why I think it's foolish to rule out wing chun etc. Just because an art hasn't got a base of full contact fighters doesn't mean it won't.

After the early UFC for years all you heard on forums like this was "high kicks don't work".

Dogma was made to be broken.

 

[Dirty Dog]

For what it's worth, the web site is pretty skimpy on info about the programs, to my cursory reading.
It's a Kukkiwon TKD school. So if it follows what seems to be the usual pattern for KKW schools, it will be heavily sport oriented and it'll take a couple years to get a 1st Dan.
Beyond that, your best bet is to just go try it.

 

[Buka]

I think why there's so many TKD Black Belts is because there's so many opportunities to train in TKD schools. It would be my guess that TKD would be the most available style/type of martial opportunity for the general population to find a place to train, at least nation wide here in America. I could be wrong, I haven't done any actual research, that's just my guess from what I've experienced.

Also, years wise, it's not as time consuming as some other avenues of Martial training to achieve a black belt.

But - all the guys shown in that vid, which I loved BTW, those guys are professional MMA fighters in the UFC. You know darn well they've done more than train TKD. And while MMA is just a small slice of the Martial Arts - it really is, there's just so much more to martial Arts than fighting, it is, however, one serious high level of fighting. Tough, nasty, stuff, MMA is, especially in the UFC.

And, as I'm just home from work, early, too I'm watching Saturday's UFC show right now as I type and have a cold one. Life is pretty darn good.

 

[drop bear]

I had no idea Taekwondo had such a respectable showing in MMA.

But then stuff like this is why I think it's foolish to rule out wing chun etc. Just because an art hasn't got a base of full contact fighters doesn't mean it won't.

After the early UFC for years all you heard on forums like this was "high kicks don't work".

Dogma was made to be broken.

There was a guy in here that made me sign on to a Chun facebook forum to see a video. And I have just kept it on. They are slowly getting their act together in that respect.