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The bigger they are the harder the fall!

Round kicks are effective!

How it began

It all began along, long ago in a place and time much unlike the present.

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” -Genesis 1:1

This was a bad place, certainly not a place for humankind, or any other form of life. However, God changed all that. He created the heavens, the earth, and, on the earth, he created plants and the Garden of Eden, and in the garden:

“…God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” -Genesis 2:3

To accompany man, God created animals and gave man dominion over the animals. However, man was lonely so:

“...God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” -Genesis 2:21

Man and woman brought forth children, two of whom were Cain and Able, and all lived in harmony until the woman ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This brought disharmony and pain upon humankind, which culminated in Cain killing Able. Since that time, humankind has thrived upon fighting and killing each other to attain power and position in society.

To make fighting more effective and efficient, mankind developed methods of hand-to-hand fighting, and, to practice these methods of fighting in a relatively safe manner, mankind developed sparring.

Taekwondo sparring

As previously stated, Taekwondo is a martial art, a self-defense system, and a competitive sport. To test their Taekwondo skills in a realistic context, Taekwondo students spar. Sparring is one-on-one combat between two Taekwondo students using controlled techniques. Students test the offensive and defensive techniques they have learned through hyung and class practice against an actual opponent in controlled circumstances.

The "founder"  of one of the "realistic" martial arts states that he has "No idea what those martial arts instructors are trying to accomplish." In his opinion, when you see sparring in a martial arts school, one of three things is happening:

• The instructor did not prepare a lesson and is just killing time.

• The instructor does not like his students.

• The instructor does not realize that he is not teaching street self-defense.

In his opinion, any self-defense style in which you may spar is just a game and is ineffective. Of course, his style is effective and cannot be used in competition. He is right about one thing, he has no idea of what sparring is trying to accomplish.

During sparring, students demonstrate their ability to effectively defend themselves using Taekwondo techniques. They must demonstrate effective, well-defined, and controlled punches and kicks, in a manner that demonstrates an understanding of Taekwondo principles. The techniques should be executed in a manner that, even if blocked, they display power and a understanding of strategy and placement. Technically perfect techniques that lack power and placement are useless. Sparring should been as realistic as possible without causing injury to the opponent.

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