Judo Kid: Blindside is right, if you could go train at a place that worked on mma than that would be the place for you to go... but I think you are pretty young and cant drive the hour or whatever it takes to get there right? Maybe take something close by now and when your a little older and able to go out of town you could do that.
Carbon: well if you watch a couple of 3rd or 4th drgree TKD artists competing for the worlds championship you wont actually see them do any jumping or flying kicks. They are going full speed and contact and dont usually risk anything too fancy. However, they are both experts in the same martial art and know exactly how to take advantage of each other if one of them screws up a high jumping kick so it just isnt worth risking when trying to become world champion. Technical kicks for street defence are best left to the experts. The problem with TKD is EVERYONE thinks they are really good and competent, even when they are REALLY bad and slow. This is a generalisation but its true enough. The only people that should ever use a technical jumping kick in a street defence situation should be someone that can kick as fast as a jab punch and hard enough to take your head off. Only a small percent in TKD can do the flashy kicks that well....everyone else should never even consider using them.
By the way.... in TKD terms, Van Damme kicks as slow as molasses. I've never seen him move very fast in his movies when executing his kicks.
Nightingale : I Have to disagree with you, and I know this is just based on your experience so I'm not arguing with you just pointing some thiings out. You cant compare Kenpo's kicking ability to TKD. TKD works hour after hour on kicking, kicking, kicking.... were as Kenpo is more complete by having training in multiple ranges. You take someone with 4 years TKD and someone with 4 years kenpo and the TKD guy is going to have better kicks because it is almost all hes worked on for the past 4 years while the kenpo guy has been working on other things as well. I've also trained with Kenpo guys and they always marvelled at my kicking ability and then would show me all kinds of great stuff that was outside my limitted knowledge as a great kicker because I had only worked on kicks..... this was many many years ago. But I would rather take Kenpo for self defence if given the choice between a traditional TKD school and a Kenpo school.
I can use my own school as an example, I no longer teach TKD the way I was taught. I incorporate everything I've learned from various martial arts that I think is important and I always give credit to that art. What this means is that my students are by far not as good kickers as my colleagues students are in TKD. This also means that when I have a visiting student from a nearby TKD school they look like begginers when I'm showing them how to knee or elbow strike. Time put in = expertise in whatever you use that time training. That visiting student had awesome kicks though!
Fanged seamus: TKD jams by closing the gap between bodies to nullify your opponents kick while he is executing it towards you. If I did that to a Muay Thai guy he would clinch me when I jammed him and he would then knee and elbow me while throwing me around by my neck. Was there another type of jamming you were referring to? Like stopping an opponents kick by pushing their leg at the hip with your foot before they fully execute their kick?
Damian Mavis
Honour TKD
