Striking vs. Grappling
Years ago, the pop culture martial arts question was "Who would win in a fight, Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris?" Today people who don't practice martial arts, or who are new students, often ask a different question, "Which is better:…
Taekwondo as Sport and Spectacle
Taekwondo as Sport and Spectacle The Republic of Korea (ROK, i.e. South Korea) has never been hotter, as K-pop, K-drama, Korean food, computer and electronics, cars—and, yes, Taekwondo—enjoy surging popularity around the world. Although the ROK is a highly developed…
Choi Bong Young and Jidokwan
Choi Bong Young founded the line of Jidokwan Taekwondo we practice at RVTKD. What's the story of this important Korean master, what's Jidokwan, and why do they matter?
Seniors and Juniors in Martial Arts Training
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…
Comfortable Being Uncomfortable, Part II
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…
Attacking the 10-Minute Conditioning Challenge
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…
Improve Your Korean: Directions and Categories
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…
Improve Your Korean: Dojang, Tti
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…
Looking Back on Pandemic Taekwondo Practice
Thinking back on my Taekwondo practice since March 2020, I see the effect of training all around me. Not only in the day-to-day workouts that are the heart of Taekwondo experience, but in the way its lessons shaped my actions…