If you haven't already read my previous posts on the Yedo 24 Se you might want to check them out. I have written about the history of the Yedo system (click here to read more) and I have also provided the historical illustrations and translations of the different forms (click here to read the post). I have since writing that studied more, and I am now very happy to have a rudimentary knowledge of all 24 forms. That means that I can continue this series for a very long while. Again, if you as a reader feel that this blog is starting to contain too much swordstuffythingy please let me know. If ..read more

Hi there :-) I have been going full Muyedobotongji rabbit hole these last few months :-P I have posted a lot of stuff on facebook, and one of the things I wrote was that the Sang H. Kim's translation of the Muyedobotongji is a wonderful resource, but it does contain flaws and errors, and the biggest "flaw" for me was that he did not include any Hanja or Hangul for any of the Korean terms. This means that you get quite a few paragraphs containing interesting and vital information that comes out as pure guibberish. The section that annoyed me at that time of writing was in the Yedo chapter wh ..read more

You can click the link below if you want to go directly to YouTube :-)  https://youtu.be/Y9E5E4dRoOQ Product review on a training sword from Ryan Swords. Unsharpened Katana (Iaito), Ryan-1316. Short answer: I’m very pleased with it ? You want the long answer? Go check out the video and I’ll give you an 11 minute rant ..read more

https://youtu.be/RH-CFi5Db7g  Filmed myself so I could get feedback from my teacher :-) It was a lovely evening with very nice weather :-) In my last two posts I’ve written about Yedo 24 Se it’s history and a list on the different postures (we train each posture as a mini form).  It’s still a work in progress and there’s a ton of things that needs improving but I thought you guys and gals might want to see the forms in real life and not just old illustrations :-)  I do each one 4 times slow for technique and then 4 times with “intent”. It’s not all 24 here but rather 15 (o ..read more

Open Wing Posture In my last post on Yedo Ishipsa Se (Yedo 24 postures) I shared the historical background, the sources we know of, the introduction into Korean Military Manuals and an overview of the system itself. What I failed to include was a list over the postures. I want to make clear that in the system I practice we regard each "Se" which is often translated as posture as a mini form consisting of 3-8 moves. For instance in the first posture: Keo Jeong Se (Kettle lifting posture) we don't just asume a pose, we move into a starting pose, do a diagonal cut from that pose, into a ..read more

 I've written before about my study into weapons and how I relate that to "my" taekwondo. The last two years I have delved deeper down into that rabbit hole and I have gotten much more hands on instruction (as well as a lot of online training) and so I wanted to start sharing this aspect on this blog too. If you think that is inapropriate as this is a taekwondo blog please say so in the comments and if I get a lot of feedback like that I will open a seperate blog on that aspect of my training and study. If I don't hear anything I will just keep posting that stuff here as well as what peop ..read more

I have thought about this on and off for a very long time now. Actually I started thinking about this at the very beginning of when it dawned on me how Poomsae contained so much more than block kick punch methods of how to deal with combat. I quickly realized that the most logical way of training and teaching Poomsae was with application being taught first or at least along side the form move for move. This was later "confirmed" or at least some Karate researchers agreed with me (Patrick Mcarthy for instance) that Kata was taught after the applications had been mastered, as a way to remember t ..read more

https://youtu.be/zHlCRICdwOk Here in Norwegian language I pick up from last time starting with the founding of the different major Kwan (schools) in the 1940s and 50s and then go on to tak about the development of modern Taekwondo, the Korean Tang Soo Do, Taekwondo, Tae Soo Do and back to Taekwondo  Association, it’s counterpart The Korean Soo Bahk Do Association, the development of Korean forms Hyung, Tul, Poomsae, the development of modern competition sparring and kicking techniques and then I show examples of stuff we train today in our syllabus in traditional Taekwondo Union from o ..read more

  https://youtu.be/dEbFm-tVCpU I just got ordered to stay relaxed and not train for one week. I already has planned the regular training session I run every Friday so I simply changed it to a theory lesson on Taekwondo history. It’s all in Norwegian so if you know Norwegian Swedish or danish you’ll be OK :-) If not let me know if you want me to do it in English in the future.  This talk covers military and civilian classical martial arts, the development and rise of modern Mudo/Budo, the formation of karate styles and their founders as relevant for Taekwondo history, Koreans in ..read more

  https://youtu.be/pKV1aHodp40 I just did a “webinar” where I did a complete tutorial on Chulgi Chudan Hyung. In my opinion if you ever only learn one form outside of your curriculum you should really consider making that one form this one. It served for 100s of years as the foundation form for the root arts of Taekwondo all the way back to the time of “Tode” Sakugawa.  It is also known as Kima and Naebojin Hyung in Korea or Naihanchi/Naifanchin and Tekki in Karate styles.  In the webinar we go through opening and closing meditation, some sparring footwork and dynamic stretc ..read more