Applications – They need to be Practical

When looking for applications in your patterns, it is important to always be critical. When you’re doing this from a Practical Taekwondo perspective, it’s vital that you also be practical.

Take the picture below. Normally you see this sort of thing performed by people wearing doboks. I took it with us wearing street clothing to show just how impractical – and mostly downright dangerous – this application is. It looks bloody stupid when people are wearing doboks, but when they’re wearing street clothing it becomes absolutely ridiculous.

My balance is off due to my stance. If that kick was coming in with intent, Mr. Miles would be smashing me through the wall. Both of my hands are employed in blocking attacks, rather than using body shifting and maybe one hand to ward, and you can see that Mr. Arrell has another hand ready and waiting to smash me in the face approximately half a second after his first attempt is ‘blocked’. Mr. Miles will also be moving forward into me as he lands. This means that not only have I failed to stop the attackers, I’ve left myself well and truly open to follow-ups.

Is it an application? Yes, of course it is. But, if you apply the precepts of the Burgar Rating System by Bill Burgar, this application is something that is totally impractical from a Practical and Self-defence point of view. To be honest, in my opinion, it’s totally impractical from any point of view. There is absolutely no use in keeping this application.

There is a valid reason for teaching it, and that’s to show just what not to do when looking for applications.

This is an absolutely awful application that is, amazingly, still taught.