9th Degree Grand Master

The popularity achieved in the diffusion of the martial art called Taekwon-Do, founded and systematized by General Choi Hong Hi, is really important. So important that it is considered the physical discipline that has grown the most in the last thirty years.

Such an evolution entails a series of elements that must be analyzed.

Its pedagogical system was conceived by its Founder from the beginning. Obviously many have made modifications to it, but with more sensationalist than effective achievements. The inclusion of methodologies from other contact sports allowed many distracted people to believe they had found the needle in the haystack. For those of us who have had the opportunity to evolve together with the art at a global level until the death of its Founder, it is evident that this has not had any practical use whatsoever and returning to sources has always been the best most effective solution.

Time has gone by and with it an undeniable growth in its teaching force, which due to the increase in the number of students has had to multiply to assist it. Sustained pedagogy over many years entails an undeniable growth in experience, information, and places to occupy in the profession of Degrees dedicated to instruction.

The aforementioned commitment produced Masters Promotions in the early 90’s.

These degrees were related to the training and experience of those who, both in the East and in the West, had dedicated their time to the teaching and dissemination of this Martial Art since its beginning. In the early 90’s, imagining degrees above 7th Dan was far-fetched as only a few occupied 8th Degrees.

General Choi was the only 9th Dan, which in short and until then was a symbolic number because he was the Founder and was always beyond the promotion ranking.

Time passes and with it the accumulation of the Black Belt Degrees covered all possible levels. To the point that the 9th Degree, which until just a few years ago was almost ethereal, has become so popular that it seems that today in a very short time and at any age you can be a Grand Master.

Meanwhile the federative creation of the General was represented in a single institution; there was only one set of rules to be followed by everyone.

Taking into consideration the enormous number of students who are under 14 years of age, it had already been established by regulation at that time that no one could be promoted to 2nd Dan before the age of 14 and a half.

You could not access the 3rd Dan before 17 years of age and you had to be 21 to hold the grade of 4th Dan.

This fact coincided with the legal definition of adulthood in different parts of the world.

Being 4th Dan, he had the possibility of receiving the Special Instruction to be granted the International Instructor level, a place that allowed him to test and promote categories up to the degree of 2nd Dan (that is, half of the Instructor’s hierarchy) and represent the art even outside their country of birth.

They had to stay in this grade for 4 years; therefore mathematics placed 5th Dan at a minimum of 25 years of age. Five years of education and training in this grade awaited those seeking to be promoted to 6th Dan, therefore, this places him at this grade at a minimum of 30 years of age.

Six years in this last category imposed a base age of 36 years to access the 7th degree or Master.

Seven years in that degree is the minimum required for the 8th Dan or Senior Master, which determines that whoever is in that degree will have a minimum of 43 years of age.

The maturation time in the 8th Dan to be considered a candidate for the highest category or 9th Grade is 8 years; therefore, no one accesses the degree of Grand Master with less than 51 years of age.

If you find someone in that category under that age, it is the product of some sale of cardboards or some daring god who distributes them.

 

It is important to understand that we are talking about minimum ages with uninterrupted practice at each of the levels and for someone who has started their practice in Taekwon-Do as a child.

Needless to say, years of age and time spent in the category do not mean an automatic promotion, but the basic time required among other requirements.

It is evident that each of these upper levels was contemplated by General Choi with evolution parameters that go beyond the calendar. Qualification, training, and national and international promotion of the art through teaching were the factors taken into account.

In other words, without having developed a School and not having promoted the art in your country, you cannot access these high degrees. If you have only been in sports competition, you do not have the experience required for these upper levels.

This means that the Instructor (4th Dan and above) is evolving theoretically and pedagogically. Training is a personal responsibility or submits to laziness.

To occupy a higher category, neither acrobatics nor sporting success is necessary, because the place to occupy does not require medals or showing that one is ethereal and unattainable.

But it is necessary to meet the conditions of an advanced category: irreproachable antecedents in all fields of the art, adequate protocol management, solid theoretical knowledge, and an appropriate basic physical training that justifies the occupied place.

The Master’s degree is not just another promotion; it is the theoretical & practical master’s degree.

You are not a Grand Master because you are an amazing kicker or have been a relevant competitor in your time, but because of your background in other important fields. But pay attention; it is not a retirement title either.

The place of Grand Master can only be occupied by those who have overcome such conditions and are deserving of the honor of such status due to their background as a person, as a practitioner, and as a teacher.

The institutional lag that cover us, and the arbitrary handling of this very important degree, has allowed the rule instituted by the Founder of the Art himself not to be taken into account and is used as a convenience. Today we have people who have been promoted to the 9th Dan with far fewer years of practice than required and with much less time of maturation among the senior categories that precede it. Is there any reason to justify it? I can think of two: economics and power.

The CV of each of the people who are going to be promoted to that place should be internationally published.

There are entities that, due to their structure, have this process regulated, however there are others of very recent creation that violate the parameters of age and minimum conditions previously mentioned and originally established.

It is determined that this maximum level can only be granted by a special committee composed of nine members with 7th Dan and above. A diploma of this level cannot be awarded by the decision of a single man (Eastern or Western), pioneer or president. If someone proceeds in this way, he does not understand the art, even though he may have been in it for 50 years; he does not understand the Founder; he is mocking the system established by him and those who have respected it; what is more, he is pretending to be a god.

The Founder of the discipline has left this regulation in writing in his Encyclopedia Vol. 1 pages 94 and 96.

Now, if your interest is in someone who can astonish you with an spectacular kick, a jump, or an amazing turn, don’t look for a Grand Master, go to a demonstration.

Senior Grand Master Ricardo Desimone

To be awarded read again the previous notes

Is Taekwon-Do Evolutionary?

It is evident that nowadays the different social media have markedly displaced those elements that had always been used to inform or advertise. Although magazines have not disappeared, they no longer serve the same function of informing. Classes and virtual communications have also contributed to the change in the information and advertising mediums.

In this new media reality, thoughts and beliefs are published with a degree of authority that they do not merit based on their research or certainty.

Among these disclosures, it has been said with more assiduousness than imagined, that Taekwon-Do is evolutionary, but without explaining such assertion with scientific accuracy.

On many occasions I also have written in several notes published in different magazines that Taekwon-Do is indeed evolutionary; but I made such an assertion when its Founder was still alive, because that is how it was. Such a statement after his death is a fallacy.

Taekwon-Do was evolutionary in the hands of its creator or founder; in the hands of someone else it is a mutilation. According to the dictionary, evolutionary is something that is progressively transformed; of course only in its creator’s hands. If anybody else could do it, why do you frenetically talk about the legacy? Why worry about the technical detail if tomorrow it wills no longer matter?

Today the technical commands are from the leaders of the moment, not those derived from the Founder, which is a tacit way of ignoring him.

To the disfigurements that have capriciously given the name of evolution, we have to thank the technical and institutional diversity of today.

As a translator into Spanish of General Choi Hong Hi in more than 10 International Instructor seminars and his condensed encyclopedia in that language (version 1995), I can assert with total objectivity that the current so-called evolution is nothing more than a modification, misrepresentation, and manipulation of convenience.

In one of the seminars in which I was assisting the General with the translation, one of the instructors present there (today a 9th degree) challenged the Founder’s explanation and application of a technique in a pattern of 2nd Dan in front of the more than 500 participants, to which the General, visibly annoyed, replied: «It is as I explain it because I am Taekwon-Do», a justified response to such a daring affront. Therefore, all evolution can only come from the General.

It is impossible to think that this evolution did not exist, since for those of us who have been part of the activity since the beginning in different countries, it is easy to certify the difference between the biomechanical development used back then and how it finally ended up in 2001; the uniforms used, the protection systems, and the rules of the sport were also included in this transformation that ended without the possibility of amendment, with the death of whoever founded the discipline.

Talking today about evolutionary Taekwon-Do is trying to justify some capricious modification or to hide ignorance for not having been in those moments, it doesn’t matter in whose hands it comes, it is simply not possible.

Today there is not a single entity that uses the same acronym that contains the Taekwon-Do that General Choi founded. The diversity is enormous and this is also outside of what he carried out. Therefore, in that existing plurality, someone or several can try to explain to the student body that Taekwon-Do is evolutionary, but only hiding the date when it stopped.

To neutralize this fallacy, it can only be said that Taekwon-Do was evolutionary until 2001; from then on any evolution belongs to the delusion of someone whose rank has gone to his head.

to be aware read the previous notes

The true legacy

 Social media often posts information, opinions and beliefs that do not, for the most part, match with the reality of the subject they allude to.

Although everyone has the right to have an opinion, it is necessary to be able to differentiate between opinion and information. On several occasions, many people tend to believe what is being said just because they confuse opinion with information. The first is closely related to personal or general belief (opinion) and the second to what it really is (information).

In the case of Taekwon-Do, the legacy of Gen. Choi Hong Hi has become widespread. It is repeated tirelessly: I continue with the legacy,…. I do this to continue the legacy, etc. Everyone talks about this but most without authority. Using the initials of the Federation that he founded doesn’t mean continuing the legacy; does not identify a style because many are the entities that use such a name and yet they do not coincide with each other in their actions, furthermore, none of them has a document that endorse them as the chosen one.

A style is a set of special features that characterize a thing, a person, a group or a way of acting. In the case of the work bequeathed by General Choi Hong Hi, this characteristic is unique and is represented by the system he established. This is composed by a pedagogical method, a particular biomechanics of its movements, the uniform worn by its members and its philosophy. In the current diversity, all unity of criteria is lost.

Associations, federations or confederations are only names that describe administrative instruments and their scopes, which are legal only when registered, but they are not a style. The acronym used in the general language, beyond to describe an administrative method, also can be utilized to establish the big difference between Taekwon-Do and Taekwondo. But if it is the same thing!!!. No, under none point of view. One is the originally conceived name and the other the usurped name used in Olympics, which as it is known, does not coincide biomechanically nor in their intentions.

For many, another form of belonging is having a photo with Choi Hong Hi. Having a photo with the General only feeds the anecdote of the one that appears there next to him. In many restaurants around the world, General Choi photographed himself with the waiter who served him without becoming his heir for being in that photo.

If we are talking about a federation, there is no possible inheritance beyond the federated matter; because legal systems that require elections of their members to fill positions with non-perennial mandates, cannot legally be inherited. If someone has told you otherwise, do not believe him because the laws that authorize such entity to operate would have to be modified and that up to now is not possible.

It is worth remembering in this context the words of the Founder of the discipline so many times repeated in countless seminars, reports and in his bibliography: «Taekwon-Do is free from all political, racial or religious ties and does not belong to any particular country.»

So what is the legacy of General Choi Hong Hi that is so much talked about and so many became heirs despite not being bequeathed?

The true legacy is the Art called Taekwon-Do with it pedagogical system and particular biomechanics, its philosophy, the history that feeds it written in handwriting by its Founder and reflected in his Encyclopedia and in his memoirs. 

Not others born in hands of novel historians, many with some coincident parts and others that have nothing in common with what was written by the Founder; therefore, they only feed fantasy and can be used to fill gaps that are politically convenient for some, but which do not contribute to anything, nor can they modify what really happened. In short, the only valid story is that written by Gral. Choi himself, the others are just speculations with dark intentions.

In the psychophysical aspect, the legacy is to maintain what is established in his biomechanics. So we were instructed as the most advanced categories of that time. In an effort to differentiate itself from other competitors’ entities that use the same name, business conveniences imposed modifications that distort that legacy. To the point that in some entities has been instituted as good what is wrong. 

A sine wave is illustrated with a saw tooth movement that General Choi himself always emphasized as  incorrect. Remember that not always a downward movement describes a sine wave.

The use of the original theory has been avoided, allowing with this erroneous practice to install the personal theorization of the hierarchs on duty in this proliferation of entities.

It has become popular to speak about Do, which the majority doesn’t know and of course no one teaches, but which is conveniently used to continue with the sale of an oriental mystery that originally did not have that destiny.

As in any inheritance, heirs appear everywhere demanding their part and pulling strongly for what they consider to be their property and having made shreds of the legacy. If you haven’t tried yet, don’t worry,  there is still time to add a name of your convenience to the acronym used by all and with that you can also claim your share.

to be aware read the previous notes

 

The system

The founding patronage of Taekwon-Do is not questioned today, however when it is called the discipline, it is described as a Martial Art created and systematized by General Choi Hong Hi.

It should not be thought of as a mysterious fact enclosed in a context that is difficult to explain and apply. It is framed by a philosophical and anatomical process. This last part has a unique biomechanical development supported by the use of Newtonian laws and the kinetics of motion. Almost 3,200 techniques that make it up allow us to respond to most of the circumstances that self defense may pose. Each of its movements was designed with a specific purpose, beyond that sometimes and due to ignorance, a double utility is given to certain movements.

It is wrongly believed that all techniques are contained in the 24 patterns or Tul established as the backbone of art. These only add up to 970 movements, many of them repeated. Therefore, they are far from containing all the techniques. However, it is necessary to point out that part of what the Founder intended is that all movements are designed to produce maximum power in accordance with scientific formulas and the principles of kinetic energy.

It is also necessary to take into account the distance and angle of the objective, plus a particular biomechanics that accompanied by the correct breathing process, let to achieve the proposed objective.

The movements demand precision and respect for health care; therefore, the purpose and method must be clear and simple to facilitate the teaching and learning process. The 24 patterns or Tul are a fundamental part for understanding the aforementioned purposes. Many of these techniques will be of very sporadic application because they require a special circumstance to be used. Others that are easier to incorporate due to it single opponent destination, allow the execution of confrontations or combat under sport rules, reducing the arsenal of art to 6 or 7 techniques that are generally used by the most prominent competitors in sports free combat.

However, both in one case and the other, the biomechanical development of art is unavoidable if what you want to incorporate is Taekwon-Do and not a hybrid system of sports fighting with little relation to self defense. To obtain the aforementioned development, a methodology is necessary that, as in all things that is intended to be successful, must be raised from least to greatest. The degrees of training reasonably begin with the White belt, to which ignorance is attributed. Therefore, the methodology to be used must respect what is stated. However, in most teaching places, the opposite is usually seen. Probably in a rush or driven by sports performance needs, most beginners are encouraged to use techniques that require more advanced body management. Faced with this reality, it is worth remembering the phrase mentioned at the beginning: it is a Martial Art created and systematized by General Choi Hong HI. It means that the methodology to be used is already pre-established to achieve the correct biomechanical incorporation that allows a gradual and effective evolution, while respecting the psychophysical health of the student. However, and due to the pressing sports requirement, what has already been developed is usually ignored and a new and «supposedly effective» method is invented every day, generally related to other fighting systems. Of course, here it is imperative to understand the difference between fighting and self defense.

To be aware read the previous notes

The crazy race to the top

At the beginning of the development of the Art in the West, there were very few students in all the member countries. Taekwon-Do was struggling to survive in a martial arts world that resisted its inclusion. In those days (late 1960s), it was generally called Korean Karate. The influence of movies and television series pushed people to practice martial arts, turning the few students into a large group, and the name Taekwon-Do was definitively accepted. The evolution of students in their knowledge and ranks was not as fast as it is today. The commitment to discipline, philosophy, and efficiency was also different and essential because the sports aspect was not dominant. Everyone was dedicated to acquiring knowledge and skills to justify the rank obtained. The advanced color belts acted as assistants to aid the few existing Instructors. A black belt was a respected curiosity and their ranks were 1st. or 2nd Dan at the highest.

In those days, a Western Instructor with 4th Dan or higher was an illusion. All these advanced ranks were just a dream, as well as his supposed technical capabilities. The categories of Masters were practically impossible to reach. In those days the only Grand Master was General Choi Hong Hi, founder of the Art, and the rest of the international high ranks were 5th or 6th Dan. Time passes and the evolution of the discipline was exponential, technically and demographically. Black belts were no longer a curiosity and became a common level to achieve.

The same happened with the higher categories; International Instructor and Master became familiar voices for naming people who teach Taekwon-Do. However, the 8th and 9th grade were still considered the elite throughout the world and their holders were normally close to the Founder. These levels had the extraordinary condition of being pioneers in their own countries and with a particular knowledge that the other categories did not have. The demographic evolution brought a new understanding of promotions and their requirements. There are many more International Instructors, Masters, and Grand Masters than in those days, but the general consideration of these high ranks is not the same as it was years ago. In comparative terms over time, the following questions are pertinent: is today the understanding of the ranks obtained the same as in the early days? Are promoted people concerned with justifying the category acquired as in those times, or is it just a mad race to the top?

When the Institution that grants the ranks is only one, the Entity itself regulates the places to be occupied according to people’s capacities and not only by the category the person has. Today all these top categories (with or without personal capabilities) seek to lead their own Entities and occupy a place whose public recognition is getting smaller every day.

Demographically, Taekwon-Do has grown, but institutionally, it has been weakened by fragmentation. The army has many generals, but each only commands one company of that army. To control the entire Army, the approval of all the Generals will be necessary to support one of them. Today we are in the complete opposite of that truth. In this crazy race to the top, we are losing respect for many things: the time required between categories and the minimum age to be promoted, training, philosophy, theoretical knowledge, and the real capacity of these high ranks. Meeting the requirements set by a recognized Entity plus daily training allows for achievement of a proper rank. Daily work on the items listed above is the only feasible path. The time between categories is inevitable; however, time alone does not produce the quality necessary to occupy a place. Having up-to-date information and proper physical fitness is the right way to go. It is necessary to understand the meaning of the words. It is imperative to look in the dictionary for the explanation of the word active to recognize the passive attitude of some people. Many people want to live in their past following the old saying of achieve fame and go to sleep. The past without present is a sign of people in retirement.

To be aware read the previous notes

Do you remember who taught you what you know?

Memory has several virtues. It let us store information, remember events, avoid repeating errors and if it’s properly handled we can check our evolution.  Human beings’ point of view inevitably varies over time. Our sight of the world is not the same at puberty as in adulthood and we are amazed at the difference when we become «older» adults.

Generally speaking, we can say that there is no item that escapes the previous description. Taekwon-Do being part of many people’s lives, it is necessary to understand that growth within the Art requires the use of memory. All knowledge is evolutionary. This truth is checked over time. That is why we must not rush the grades.

Each grade requests maturation as a catapult to access the next level. Of course, there are some whose greed leads them to ignore such a process, considering it unnecessary. Without memory, you will never be aware of your evolution because you will have forgotten the details that made your growth possible. Without memory, you are prone to repeat errors.

As they say, no one was born knowing. Since this is an unquestionable truth, it is necessary to remember those who have taught us, because they made our evolution possible. Nowadays, training bypasses the place of those who teach, who instruct. As the sports side has prevailed, the Instructor has become a coach. Taekwon-Do’s capacity comes from an Instructor, who transfers to his student the knowledge he needs to get a better management of his self-defense. A coach establishes the necessary steps for that student, to acquire the rhythm demanded by the sport. These two facets are sometimes combined in the same person. Instruction requires knowing the Art and the student (his/her fortitudes and weaknesses) in order to give him what he needs. Coaching requires that the student already know. You can’t train someone who doesn’t know.

Therefore the Instructor teaches what the student doesn’t know and the coach puts sports rhythm to the knowledge already incorporated and taught by the Instructor. The student owes those who have taught him what he knows. When this doesn’t happen, the word ingratitude tarnishes the action.

Confusing the Instructor with the trainer or coach is common currency. As I said, sometimes both tasks are combined in the same person, however, and when this is not the case the student should not be unaware of who has taught him what he knows. In Taekwon-Do, no one is self-taught. Whoever thinks this way will be recompensed accordingly.

Regardless of how many years a student was with an Instructor, it’s very common for some students to say «I was training with fulano or zutano» without giving to the Instructor the recognition he deserves. In other words, they didn’t learn from them, they only were in the class, without understanding that no one took them there at gunpoint, they went there to learn and by their own decisions. Every Instructor gives his best when he teaches. Please acknowledge them and recognize that you have knowledge because of them.

It should be clarified here that I am referring to the student’s regular Instructor (direct Instructor) and not to those who give a seminar or course. The latter are only those that set the general parameters to follow. The student owes his knowledge and the implementation of it to his regular Instructor and not to those who give an occasional course. Memory is not only necessary to evolve but also to recognize.

 

If you want to read the virtual Reflections book written by SGM Ricardo Desimone, just go to the link below

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n8_5_z3Q1VZyPABp2Mu7t-KtFrWO3GUK?usp=shari

 

Impostures

No doubt great advantages derive from martial arts. They differ in their origin, their philosophy and their biomechanics. From an anatomical, organic and psychic point of view, it is possible to find and incorporate many benefits with its practice. I will only refer to Taekwon-Do as a martial art with an undeniable demographic increase in the last thirty years. This evolution includes a diversity of unthinkable situations long ago. Its Founder emphasized to the satiety in every seminar, interview or report I had to translate that Taekwon-Do is a martial art and not a sport.

The Discipline has a sport facet that allows the general public to obtain information on the Art by the performance of competences in determined aspects of its composition. Its development is more complete and important as a whole than what is usually seen in the competition field.

In the sports ground everything is relative and ephemeral. The champion is only such in that tournament or championship; to be so again he must go through the same eliminatory process, just  as the other competitors and in most cases the result is not the same.

However, the widespread belief is that once he was declared champion, he is a champion forever, eternizing an ephemeral sporting achievement and often oversized by the occasional chosen one.

To understand the true but also the limited importance of this accomplishment, it is necessary to remember that martial arts are free of weight, sex and age because the defense of physical integrity only recognizes as a winner the one who saved the skin.

The Art in itself is a whole that includes in its composition a protocol, a philosophy, a physical management and a psychic condition that characterizes and distinguishes it. Its protocol imposes without distinction of sex or social condition a line of behavior and respect for the other, the necessary condition to impel the other to return such consideration to us. In the other is involved every human being with whom we have to relate. Respect to be respected is the order to follow. We include in that respect TO FOLLOW THE RULES imposed by the art and society in which we are integrated. Both tell us that every transgression degrades and soils the protocol that we accepted to respect and which honors us.

When we appeal to get promoted by the easy way or before the time set out in the protocol, we are transgressing it and we are self-deceiving. Philosophy has also been mocked. Physical performance cannot respond because we have not respected the times required for the maturation of knowledge and finally our psychic condition has been weakened by the guilty action we have had. An imposture… which only is a fraud disguised as a truth.

Time, experience and degree go hand in hand, so art equals upwards. The imposture equals downwards.

Is this what happens when someone usurps a degree that doesn’t belong to him/her yet?

Yes it does, but they don’t say anything because they don’t care, their goal has never been the Art but the economic bonanza that it can bring. Degrees are in that crazy economics career a necessary step to fatten pocket and ego, not knowledge. Absent is the protocol that the imposter does not follow but demands, the philosophy he enunciates but does not respect and the psychophysical domain that he does not have but brags about.

The Founder of the discipline established rules to follow and the right times of the categories that represent them. His physical absence has allowed the imposture to make his own. The highest degree of the art is no longer granted as he established, by a committee composed of nine members of the highest hierarchies of the Entity concerned, but is granted by a single person who works as a God and distributes cartons fitting only to his personal judgment and convenience.

It may be that the highest degree of the art no longer is the 9th. Dan but that there can also be awarded the 10th. Only that God who promotes from his infinite blessing and personal economic expediency knows how many other Dan above 10th will be recognized. But beware, this happens with the necessary complicity of those who receive it and adhere with their complacency to such mockery.

The highest graduation in Taekwon-Do has been, is and will be the 9th Dan. The reasons for this unavoidable rule to follow are well explained in the pages 91 and 92 of Volume 1 of the 15-volume Encyclopedia written by Gral. Choi Hong Hi.

When you mention his name and use his photo, you are required to use his rules, biomechanics and protocol. The imposter does the opposite; nothing and no one prevents it. If you wish to continue that kind of behavior, please do not use the name Taekwon-Do to do so but have the courage to invent your own, which enclose in it uses that kind of proceedings. There will be adepts; they are the same ones who have been willing to recognize as valid that god who deliver pasteboards.

Senior Grand Master Ricardo Desimone

To be aware don’t miss the previous notes

DICHOTOMIES

 

 

 

 

Dichotomy is defined as a sharp division of things or ideas into two contradictory parts.

Taekwon-Do is as everybody knows a martial art. It development has a particular biomechanics that let the human being use the 100% of his potential in all and each techniques used.

The power breaking application with different materials (woods, roof tiles, bricks, etc.) corroborates such assertion.

But its handling is not so easy to obtain. It will require a firm determination and perseverance to acquire the necessary skill to be effective in self defense situations.

Different parts of the human body structure are used as weapons to block an opponent’s attack or to produce a considerable damage in the occasional adversary.

The biomechanics alone of the mentioned weapons doesn’t produce any damage in the enemy whose structure cannot be predictable. The opponent can be smaller or bigger than us, but never as weak as we would like to find if the circumstances arrive. It is necessary to apply a well trained tool to be effective against their weapons or to seriously injure the adversary’s structure.  These strong weapons cannot be bought in the market or granted by the superiors, they can only be acquired through hard work over the years, using the only unavoidable elements to obtain such a tool: perseverance, repetition and sweat.

We use patterns (Tul) as the method to train different movements and postures; to prepare our legs for jump, kick, block or to build solid stances for an appropriate use of our hands.

This pandemic time and the virtual method used to communicate or train allow us to see that many are teaching how to use the body in different Taekwon-Do techniques without the right employment of the muscle contraction in their hands when blocking or striking. In other words the emphasis is placed in the biomechanics alone without taking into account that the muscle contraction is part of the mentioned working out.

That training is a dichotomy. People are trying to use 100 % of their potential but not adequately preparing the weapons to support the impact of such a power.

Many pretend to teach how to punch or how to use the hands, but theirs are not properly trained to be the true example of what is intended to teach. This is not only a dichotomy but also an imposture.

It is evident that those speeches lack effectiveness in their use for self defense and are only a description of choreography.

Taekwon-Do has many surprises in their development for the oblivious. The actual self defense solution admits no mistakes. At the beginning of Taekwon-Do, a category was acknowledged as it is today with a certificate that recognizes the capacity level. Certificates or diplomas arrived at that time with considerable delay, but no one was suspicious of the person’s competence because their ability corresponded to the category displayed even though they did not yet have the certificate.

The nowadays dichotomy about this matter can be caused by the factors already established to grant a promotion, which in several cases are not coincident the approved grade with the skill and knowledge of the applicant. The issue wrongly used to produce such dichotomy is using the time as sufficient parameter to promote.

Time between categories is necessary and unavoidable. Those promoted without such consideration do not only cheat the system and companions but also deceive themselves when they look for this place without the necessary ripeness in their former degree.

Another curious dichotomy is that linked to the knowledge.

It is said that the only Taekwon-Do’s knowledge that a person has is the one that he or she can apply with his/her body. Other knowledge is allegoric. This means that if the knowledge cannot be put into action with your body, such information is only an intellectual exercise or a personal compilation. Theory without practice is something empty; practice without theory is a shot in darkness. Both parts are necessary, they are faces of the same coin called proficiency.

The greatest Dichotomy occurs when a person knows that he or she is not learning, is not increasing his or her knowledge due to being in the wrong place, but keeps on there. Another analogue situation takes place when an Instructor insists with staying on an entity lead by the wrong people, with the logical consequence of an instructor leading the students in the perpetuation of a mistake.

To avoid the mentioned dichotomies and other too long to feature here, it is necessary to take into account the following details: the grade you pretend is not suitable if it does not match with your capacity, then don’t look it before the time required. If you want to be effective in self defense techniques, inevitably you have to strengthen your weapons; on the contrary you’re only training a fantasy. Finally, if you are an Instructor, dedicate yourself only to training the skill required for such a profession or you will be selling what you don’t have.

Senior Grand Master Ricardo Desimone

To be aware read again the previous notes

ARE SIMILAR CATEGORIES THE SAME THING?

One of the many false beliefs in martial arts is that all people with the same categories are the same thing, have the same value, and deserve the same recognition.

To understand this error it is necessary to know what a category is, what it means and why it is given.

Training demands a great personal investment in dedication, perseverance, and how to overcome personal deficiencies.

It is evident that such dedication will take a long time to achieve such a goal.

The mentioned process will take the person through several steps that will allow him to know the progress made.

It is said that the color belts are only the inevitable way to prepare the mind and body to learn the Art. So this stage in the learning process is a very sensitive stage where the student is building the foundations of his future deep knowledge.

We are talking about martial art, then, to think about the physical aspect only, would be to talk about a partial and incomplete evolution. At this stage students have to evolve physically and mentally to properly hold a category in the future. If the aforementioned process does not occur, the category is just a dangerous display of ego.

There are not a few black belts of different ranks who feel the philosophy of Taekwon-Do as a curiosity.

Only a few black belts of different ranks have the basic knowledge about the structure of the human body to understand the appropriate biomechanics of Art that is already established and does not admit any personal interpretation that channels or distorts the purpose of that biomechanics. It is evident that there is a difference between people who have the required general information about the human structure, the Taekwon-Do philosophy and a normal handling of the technical area and those others who only show ephemeral success by kicking and hitting with their fists.

The proper use of the protocol, respect for their elders and the general knowledge mentioned above, establish a difference between people who have these conditions and those who do not, but are in the same hierarchy. They were both recognized with the same rank, yet they are not the same thing.

Unfortunately, many people believe that sports successes are enough to take a place. The same thing happens to those who believe that time is sufficient merit in itself to be promoted. All these details are important in their particular concept, time and place; however none of them alone is such an important value to justify a promotion.

As high as the category to be awarded, so high should the candidate’s knowledge and personal conditions be.

Very often, the evaluation criteria of those who grant such recognition are not coincident. This remarkable difference, based on unwarranted complacency, leads to equalizing down and degrades merit.

As you know, today and due to the demographic evolution of Art, there are many people holding high hierarchical levels; however, being in the same category does not mean that they are all the same or that they have the same knowledge.

It is in our consideration to evaluate who is who.

Senior Grand Master Ricardo Desimone

to be aware read again the previous notes

About patterns (Tul)

Different reasons compelled the martial arts to create patterns to train fundamental movements. One of them was the punishment established by the ancient law in Orient, similar to the law of Hamurabi: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, and was rigorously enforced even if death was caused accidentally.

Choreography is used to implement the techniques linked to the self defense actions. Kicks, punches, strikes, blocks, defenses, jumps, spinning and releasing motions are included to train different parts of the human body utilized as tools for self defense.

In Taekwon-Do in particular there are almost 3.200 techniques defining the Art; many of these are included in its patterns (Tul).

The martial arts’ Founders established the parameters to follow to obtain the results looked for; always taking into consideration that dissimilar biomechanics produce a different result in the application of a technique that was created for a unique purpose.

Gral. Choi Hon Hi applied, between other details, the Newtonian laws to obtain the formidable might attributed to Taekwon-Do. To apply with this goal it is necessary to follow the specific biomechanics that will lead us to increase our power in each technique to produce the wanted effect.

It is necessary to include each detail in all movements in order to reach the mentioned goal. This means that every movement should include the reaction force, breath control, the appropriate use of the mass, equilibrium, concentration, the rotation of different parts of the body when so it’s required and speed, all in a synchronized and unique coordinated execution. Always remember that arms, feet, eyes and breath have to reach the target together in a single and coordinated action. Every time that one of the mentioned factors is not included, the movement is wrongly executed and the maximum power cannot be reached.

Of course, to obtain such result (the inclusion of all details) in the already established biomechanics, it is necessary a large repetition of each movement. If you’re accurate and serious enough, you’ll notice that the job to do will require from you a high degree of perseverance. If you don’t do that and your dedication is more or less, so will be the result of your actions.

The general procedure in a good number of practitioners of all hierarchies responds to a superficial investment in the aforementioned job.

Apparently the work to do to obtain those results was not understood as necessary. As a consequence, a pattern or Tul is performed only applying the choreography (….the following movement is so…. and the movement after is that and so on). Then, instead of the power looked for, the result is a loss of strength due to the great effort and stiffness employed with an unnecessary waste of energy, quite different in the result as it should be.

If you don’t understand the job to do and do not train the details in fundamental movements included in Gups’ patterns to incorporate the correct base, you will never perform the black belt patterns in the right way because the details always were absent in your training criteria.

It is necessary to know the diagram of each pattern and its execution; however, the real importance is to apply the right biomechanics in each movement involved in every pattern. Taekwon-Do was created as a martial art and its techniques were designed for self defense purposes. The actual self defense does not have a starting order, it has no limit of the areas where it can be developed, it has no umpires and no rules. To be efficient in that moment, any of the almost 3.200 techniques of Taekwon-Do can be useful. In an actual self defense situation, the only possible champion is the one who solves the problem and the unique trophy is to stay alive. Thank you for your attention

SGM Ricardo Desimone

To be aware read the previous notes