The Senpai(先輩) Kohai (後輩) Relationship by Andrew Benioff Ee Dan, Jidokwan Taekwondo; San Dan, Aikido [ed: the Korean translation for "senpai" is 선배 (seonbae) and "kohai" is 후배 (hubae).] In Japan, the senpai-kohai system underlies nearly all relationships. Although there…
A post called "Comfortable Being Uncomfortable" from May 2016 is probably one of the top five in terms of generating feedback from students of all levels. In early July 2022, while we were all training in masks, in an unairconditioned…
The dojang leadership has set a reopening date of Sunday, April 3. We've been closed longer than we'd hoped when we moved classes to an outdoor model in January, but if trends continue, it looks like we've reached a meaningful…
The dojang leadership met over the weekend and concluded that it's in everyone's best interest to remain closed through March. We will meet again in two weeks to reassess, and it's possible that if favorable trends continue, we may reopen…
I'm loving RVTKD Instructor Luke Ryan's new ten minute fitness challenge, and if you're a member of our dojang, I encourage to do so. For me, part of the fun of this exercise is the way it forces us to…
With New Year’s resolution time upon us, you may be pleased to learn that Luke Ryan, RVTKD Instructor and Partner, has created a deliciously agonizing conditioning routine to share with all RVTKD students and instructors. The challenge: perform ten varied…
If learning Korean Taekwondo terminology seems daunting, it's understandable: the US State Department has included Korean in the top tier of "most difficult" languages for native English speakers to learn.1 The alphabet isn't hard to learn, but the sounds don't…
While doing research for another project, I stumbled upon a term that I thought I knew well, but which I recently realized I've been mispronouncing for decades. The word 도복, which is usually Romanized as "dobok" is usually pronounced like…
In support of our effort to use Korean terminology for techniques and routine commands in class, these flash card decks are now available for our instructors and students. Be aware that all flash cards use Hangeul (the Korean written alphabet)…
We are excited to welcome RVTKD students back into the dojang for classes. You may have noticed that a lot has changed since we last trained together in March 2020. Here are a few things that you need to know…