Kukkiwon registration possible!

As luck would have it, I have found a school affiliated with ITF who I may be able to work with to obtain my Kukkiwon recognized Black Belt. The good part about this schoold being ITF instead of WTF is that they use the Chon-Ji set instead of the Tae-guk set. Personally I don't have preference of one over the other except that I know the Chon-Ji set and do NOT know the Tae-guk =)


I will hopefully be able to speak with the head instructor more tonight and find out what she can do for me. Maybe I can do some volunteer instruction in exchange for evaluation and promotion.

Either way, flexibility training continues until I can find a cheap or free heavy bag for the garage! Read more!

I got a bit of time between meetings today, and as I waited for the next rush of people I found time to do some research on what I will need to do if I intend to try some Olympic trials.

The first glaring obstacle is that I have to get a black belt recognized by the Kukkiwon.

(Kukkiwon (국기원; 國技院), also known as World Taekwondo Headquarters, and home of the World Taekwondo Academy, is the official taekwondo governing organisation established by the South Korean government. It is supervised by the International Sports Division of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism)

I am not a martial artist who was raised in the WTF... I began learning Tae Kwon Do in Mississippi at the age of 8 through Unified Taekwondo International. I progressed slowly through the ranks to red belt and that's where I stopped. That was around the year 2000 and it wasn't until later that I began studying with a small group of guys and was awarded my black belt through participation with them.

As it is, I suppose that I am an unrecognized black belt, and have been wearing the black and teaching off and on for 6-8 years. Before I will be allowed to set foot into anything resembling an Olympic Qualifier, I am going to have to find a way to get certified.

The downside is that the schools here in Austin Texas all seem to use the Taegeuk forms and I was brought up with the Chun-Ji set of forms used by the ITF. Achieving my Kukkiwon recognized black belt MAY be more hassle than I am prepared to go through as "traditional" martial arts do not interest me as much as they used to.

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Starting Slow

Step one in this process is getting active again. In my younger days, with the energy and lack of other responsibilities, I could have jumped right into a full-on workout regiment. As it is now, I'm happy to be finding the time and ability to go on long walks for some cardio and to stretch out really well each night.

Next major step: Clear out some room in the garage and get a heavy bag. I plan to do most of my cardio training working kicks on the heavy bag - at least at first. Eventually I'll get some good advice on the best way to go about all of this.

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Kicking People and blogging about it

So what will this be...

• Some guy who thinks he's the awesome butt-kicker god of all things karate?
• Mr. "OMG my k4r4t3 is teh 1337saws?"
• Another failed blogging attempt?

...maybe

But none of those are my intent in beginning this. I am a lifelong martial artist, and one who, in my travels, has realized something that a lot of other people have. No one style is really that much better than the other. There are better instructors, better situations for a style's techniques, power/speed/accuracy/damage advantage to some style's kicks/punches/throws over the other... but it really comes down to each individual fighter's application of what he's learned.

Here is the beginning of my post.

I've seen 3rd dan black belts who've been doing martial arts for 10+ years step into a kickboxing ring with a guy who's just got into the sport... you know who won? No, you don't. And neither did I until I watched the fight and neither did any of them until one stood over the other. But it's dang sure not a clean sweep of black belts with their arms raised when the bell rings.

Here, I intend to blog my personal attempt at getting back into fighting shape and stepping into a few rings. I've got experience fighting, everything from light-contact point-sparring to full contact MMA, so there's a decent amount of knowledge here... I'm also a married father in my late 20's working in the software development industry. For the past few years I've done a lot of sitting on my rear. Sure, my muscles remember what to do and I still think like a fighter... but ol' dad's not in any shape to climb in a ring any time soon ;)

Thus, it's a great time to begin cataloging my efforts. With any luck, I'll have a text/picture/video journey for anyone interested to take a look at that starts at "please don't make me run around the block" to "hey, I'm a competitive fighter again."

What's the goal? TBD. There are a few options here in the Austin Texas area - my pipe dream is to test my mettle at a few Olympic TKD trials. Maybe I'll do a little full-contact along the way as well. All that can come after I'm in good enough shape to call myself a martial artist again.

Anyway - Welcome to Kicking People.

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