Yellow Belt

1- Techniques
Legs
Front Kick
Roundhouse Kick
Side Kick
Hook Kick
Axe Kick

Hands
Jab
Cross
Hook (Classic Boxing Style)
Knife Hand
Ridge Hand

Blocks
Low Block (Forms- Not in Sparring)
Middle Block
High Block
Shield Block
Parry (Straight punches, Hooks)
Palm Heel Block (Roundhouse Kicks)

Stances
Attention (Cherriyut)
Ready (Joon Bi)
Front Stance
Back Stance
Horse Stance
Fighting Stance (Base Stance)

Concepts
Circling
Pushing (Not shoving; There is an Art to it)

Combinations
Jab, Jab, Cross
Jab, Cross, Roundhouse Kick
Front Kick, Roundhouse Kick, and Side Kick (This is all done from the same leg without it touching the ground)
Jab, Cross, Lead Hook, Lead Knife hand

2- Self-defense
Wrist Grabs
Stability Drills
Vital Points
Front, Back, and Side break falls.

3- Breaking
Legs- Front Kick

4- Forms (Hyung)
Chon Ji
Chon Ji means heaven and earth. In the orient, it is interpreted as the creation of the world or the beginning of human history. Because it represents the start of all things, it is the first Hyung practiced by the beginner. It is also the name of a crater lake called Heaven Lake on the border between China and North Korea.

This pattern consists of two similar parts, one represents the heaven, and the other represents the earth. Chon Ji has 19 movements and its diagram is a plus “+” sign.

5- Knowledge
Taekwondo

-Taekwondo means the way of hand and foot.

-It is characterized by it emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques.

-Taekwondo comes from the country of Korea, located between Japan and China.    

-Taekwondo is a combination of traditional Korean martial arts and Japanese Karate.                 

-Taekwondo is heavily influenced by Karate because Japan ruled Korea for around 30 years. While Japan ruled Korea they tried to erase their history and culture and replace it with their own, including their martial arts. When Japan was defeated in World War 2, Korea became independent again and started to teach their own history.

-Taekwondo was founded in 1959 while Koreans were recovering their history and rebuilding their culture and identity.

-5 Tenants of Taekwondo- Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control, Indomitable Spirit

Courtesy– the showing of politeness in one’s attitude and behavior toward others.

Integrity– the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

Perseverance– steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Self-Control– the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions and desires or the expression of them in one’s behavior, especially in difficult situations.

Indomitable Spirit- a personality that is impossible to subdue or defeat.

Korean History

-Ancient Korea was divided into 3 kingdoms. and these kingdoms eventually became unified.

-The names of these kingdoms are:

1. Goguryeo, (Go-Gah-rye-i-o) was the most advanced, and likely the first established of the three kingdoms. It        eventually became the largest of the three kingdoms and the most militaristic. At its largest it spead over parts of China.                                                                                                                                                                                      2. Baekje, (Bek-je) was founded by two sons of the founder of Goguryeo who left to establish Baekje. It was a great Naval power, dominating the seas around the Korean peninsula.                                                                        3. Silla, (Shil-la) was likely the last of the three kingdoms to establish a centralized government. Silla however was the earliest-founded and remained the smallest and weakest of the 3 kingdoms for some time. It eventually used cunning diplomatic means to make pacts and alliances with the other more powerful Korean kingdoms, and eventually Tang China. Eventually with the Help of Tang China they took control of the other two kingdoms and unified the Korean Peninsula.

Martial Arts

Karate

-Karate means “The way of the empty hand”.

-Karate’s focus is on kicking, striking, and defensive blocking with arms and legs.

 -Karate comes from the island of Okinawa, and then spread to Japan where it was popularized.

-There are many different styles of Karate.

Commando Krav Maga

- Krav=fighting, Maga=contact. Krav Maga=contact fighting.

- Commando Krav Maga founded by Moni Aizik who fought in an elite unit of the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur war in 1973. It is not a traditional or sports based martial art. There are no competitions, rules, or regulations. Instead, it is a reality-based system designed for the primary goal of survival.

-This battlefield combat system was taught by Imi Lichtenfeld. He is one of the original Krav Maga instructors and is considered to be the founder of Krav Maga.

-After the war Moni Aizik began experimenting with the traditional Krav Maga techniques. This led to the development of what we now practice. While developing this system, he kept in mind that moves requiring more than two gross motor skills would rarely work under stress. He recognized that you cannot rely on strength because there is always someone stronger than you. He also stresses that it is much more realistic to train with dynamic, non-cooperative attackers than static, cooperative attackers. We fight how we train; therefore we practice pressure testing, or surprise attacks.

-Combat in the streets is completely unpredictable. There are no rules. There are no referees and no honor code, so anything can happen. The attacker may have a gun or knife, or friends who can also attack you. Tactics and techniques are based solely on survival. The goal is to escape the situation if it is possible. If you cannot escape you must exploit his/her weaknesses to create maximum damage as quickly as possible. Then rapidly disengage before a weapon is introduced or his/her friends decide to jump in. This is the concept of maximum damage, minimum time.

-In Krav Maga, we train to adapt quickly to a changing environment. Adaptation is crucial so we consider the what ifs:

What if the attacker is bigger, stronger, or faster?

What if he moves from one attack to another?

What if his friends jump in?

What if he is carrying a weapon?

-By internalizing the “what if” mentality, you will develop the proper mindset to always prepare for the worst.

If the fight goes to the ground, it can be fatal. Ground survival is the goal we are practicing, not ground fighting.  Commando Krav Maga practices getting up and getting away as quickly as possible. The goal is to disengage safely rather than trying to punish the attacker and possibly putting yourself in a worse situation physically or legally.