Koryo Family Taekwondo Center

The Essence of Self-Defense

Defending yourself requires that you understand some very basic yet essential information about self-defense and the nature of self-defense.

Knowing these will help you understand the reasons for the things you do during training and help you overcome attack situations.

These are the key points to remember:

• Attacks can happen when you least expect it
• Your body will react the way it was trained
• You are a walking weapons arsenal
• There are no rules on the street when it come to protecting your life
• You only need to know minimal but effective self-defense skills to protect and evade

If you want to read more about this, feel free to download The Essence of Self-Defense.

Taekwondo is well-known for its high fancy kicks.  Yet, when it all comes down to it, the most effective kick for self-defense is the most basic of all kicks–the front kick (AKA front snap kick).  Why?  I will explain.

First and foremost, the front kick is the simplest and easiest kick to learn.  It doesn’t take years to perfect it.  For some, one lesson will do.  For others, a little longer.  Nevertheless, people can quickly learn it.

Second, it is one of the hardest to see, if you are on the receiving end.  Yes, you can see it if you are expecting it, but if you are some bad guy who is accosting someone who looks like a victim, you aren’t expecting and will have difficulty seeing something coming from below.  The kick can be delivered quickly before anyone can react to it.

Last and most important, the kick doesn’t have to be exact in terms of distance and target to be effective.  Remember, if you are applying the front kick in a self-defense situation, it is because you are creating the necessary distraction for escape, and not initiating a toe-to-toe fight.  If the kick is applied closer than expected, the shin or the knee could end up hitting your opponents groin; this is good enough for the purpose intended.  If the kick fails to line up with the opponent’s center line, it could hit the shin or the knee; both of these are good enough targets for distraction purposes.

Because it is easy to learn, hard to see, and doesn’t need much accuracy, it is one of the most effective self-defense kicks in Taekwondo’s arsenal of kicks.

Got your goal set for 2012?(credit: Dream Designs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

With 2011 behind us, and 2012 ahead, have you met your 2011 resolution/goal?

If you said “yes”, then congratulations!

You have 2012 ahead, and should be setting a new goal for the year. If you answered “no” or “what goal?”, then remember that one of the most powerful tools in life is setting goals and going for them; so go set a goal already.

You can set any goal provided it is within the realm of possibility (be realistic).  Set a high goal and go for it.   This goal must be breakable into smaller objectives. These objectives must be realistic, as well, and be measurable (in some way); this way it is easy to see if you’ve met it.

Completing all your objectives should lead to your goal.  Sounds simple enough?  Well it is.  It is in the execution where most people fail; but you can do it; just stay focused.

Anyway here’s an example. Let’s say that your goal is to write a book by the end of the year. To do this, you must create multiple objectives as follows:

1. Write an outline for the book by the end of January.  Book target size is 100 pages.
2. Write 10 chapters–a chapter per month, starting in February, with an average number of pages per chapter of 10.
3. Wrap up the book in December (add usual parts like acknowledgments, table of contents, etc.).

You can turn each item above into an objective.  You can probably make ten (10) separate objectivs for the second item.

If you approach your future goals this way, you will almost always reach them.  If you run into issues, learn from them so you can be better next time.

OK.  Now that we’ve got that straight, start thinking of your 2012 goal or resolution.  Don’t wait too long; make sure you get it set this week.

This is an illustration of how you would tie the belt.  Please pause it where necessary so that you can see every detail of the tying process.  If you need to, replay it until you learn how to tie your belt.