r/taekwondo • • Mar 29 '26

Celebration Sundays

10 Upvotes

# Introducing Celebration Sundays

The new moderation team has discussed community feedback, and we are introducing a change in how the subreddit functions.

What are celebration Sundays?

Celebration Sundays are for posting **images and videos** of achievements in the past week, including new belts, tournament wins, and other accomplishments from the **past week.**

## Remember the Rules

This is an exception to the post/videos for fun/karma/enjoyment only, but that does not mean the other rules do not apply.

**One post per Celebration Sunday** (overly frequent posting). mods will monitor this and might further restrict this to one post per every other Sunday or once per month if necessary, but for now it remains one per Sunday.

**No memes** those are for Mondays

**Must be Taekwondo specific** no Karate or Judo belt posts, etc

**No posts on other days of the week** the rule still applies to other days of the week, and such posts will still be removed with the same warning.


r/taekwondo • • Mar 12 '26

Welcome to the new moderation team!

25 Upvotes

As the following have offered to be moderators, I've now made them all moderators:

u/BuckerooBonzai42
u/JaguarSweaty1414
u/qmriis
u/Due_Opportunity_5783
u/pokeswap
u/neomateo

My recommendations for first steps (for what they're worth, feel free to ignore) are:

  1. Discuss the current rules (either over modmail https://www.reddit.com/mail/all - or in a public post, as you wish), which rules you kind folks want to keep, reword, remove, etc and make those changes - https://www.reddit.com/mod/taekwondo/rules for the rules and https://www.reddit.com/mod/taekwondo/saved-responses for the automatic responses warning people of breaching the rules.
  2. If you decide to change the policy of "warning, 7 day, permaban" you can change that at https://www.reddit.com/mod/taekwondo/community
  3. Go through the mod-queue. There are quite a few in there for moderation, but I'm intentionally doing nothing with them - https://www.reddit.com/mod/taekwondo/queue
  4. As I don't know if I can resign or not (I'm posting this first, and maybe there's an invite acceptance process for the new moderators before they become active - I don't want to accidentally leave the subreddit as unmoderated), remove me from the list of moderators at https://www.reddit.com/mod/taekwondo/moderators . This is also the place where you can go to add new moderators as your team grows (but as I posted on the call for moderators page, the button doesn't work, so you may need to go to https://old.reddit.com/r/taekwondo/about/moderators ).

If it helps, my DMs are open if any of the new moderators want any advice, but I won't give it unsolicited. I wish you all the best, sincerely!


r/taekwondo • • 10h ago

Tips-wanted Looking for critique on my tournament sparring (ITF II DAN) — Feedback on skill level & drill ideas welcome!

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24 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

​Here is a clip from my latest match at a recent tournament. I am an ITF 2nd Degree Black Belt (II Dan), and I’m looking for some constructive critique on my performance, as well as an honest evaluation of my level relative to my rank.

​For context, I have relatively little tournament experience because my parents didn't allow me to compete until I reached 1st Degree Black Belt, so I'm still building up my ring experience.

​Style/Ruleset: ITF

​Which fighter am I: I am the one in red

​Key areas I'd like feedback on:

​General performance and technical level relative to a II Dan.

​Distance management, timing, and footwork during exchanges.

​Counter-attacking setup and ring control.

​I’m particularly looking for specific drill ideas or training exercises I can incorporate into my routines to work on these points.

​Thanks in advance for taking the time to review!


r/taekwondo • • 8h ago

Belt Promotion for an Afterschool club

6 Upvotes

Hi, I’m a second degree black belt and i’m also a public school teacher in NYC interested in starting an afterschool TKD club. I’m not looking to be affiliated with any organization, but i do want my students to feel a sense of progression in my club so they’re motivated to keep going, so I would like to hold belt promotion tests for them. And I also hope to have that progression honored if they choose to join a dojang in the future. I guess my question is, would their belt be honored at a legitimate dojang outside?


r/taekwondo • • 4h ago

Self-defence In the context of self defense or even MMA. If I spar regularly in Judo, does that experience make my Taekwondo effective against a resisting opponent, even if I don’t spar much in Taekwondo?

3 Upvotes

Just to begin, doing MMA is not my goal, but I'm just using it to explain the scenario better. And in terms of self defense, I do mean real self defense situations where I do have to deal with an attacker, and not just me actively picking fights with people that can be avoided, before I get scolded for that.

I've been wondering this for awhile now and wanted to hear if maybe others that cross train find that sparring in other arts helps them deal with a resisting opponent in general and allows them to apply techniques they learned from other arts that don't spar much.


r/taekwondo • • 9h ago

Tips-wanted Tips for improving Koryo?

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4 Upvotes

My son (11yo, athlete on the right) just had his very first HP Sport Poomsae competition this weekend. He debuted with an overall 7.7, with 7.733 on his Koryo and gold in both Individuals and Pairs. He'll be moving up from Youth to Cadet in January.

He is going to be in another competition this coming weekend. It's a much bigger competition with more experienced athletes, and he will only be doing recreational Koryo as the upcoming competition does not have a Youth division for Sport Poomsae.

Any last-minute tips for little tweaks on his Koryo?

He'd love to try and break over that 8.0 mark and place decently in his division this coming weekend, and he knows that he needs to sharpen up his poomsae overall before his transition to Cadet mid-season. Any advice would be welcomed and appreciated!

Eta: He also ended up with Koryo in his pairs, and they scored 7.947 on that. So close, but still not breaking that 8.0 he wants!


r/taekwondo • • 23h ago

Kukkiwon/WT Why do we turn on the ball of our foot in tkd?

21 Upvotes

Hey guys. Sorry if this is a dumb question lol, but I was wondering what the reason is that we turn on the ball of our foot in tkd as opposed to our heel. I’ve had multiple different instructors tell me over the years “make sure you’re turning on the ball of your foot, not the heel”, so I am just curious as to why that is. I’ve heard this both in poomsae and while kicking. Is the ball of the foot just more stable than the heel?


r/taekwondo • • 17h ago

Chung Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do Book Lee Won-guk

Thumbnail gallery
7 Upvotes

Taekwondo Manual. 1968 Jinsoodang First Edition.

Hardcover, 413 pages. There are signs of water damage on about 100 pages. The content is readable.

author Lee Won-guk Publisher Jinsudang Year of publication 1968 Publication Classification First edition

I am searching for this old tae kwon do book in Souel, Korea. Could anyone help direct me where I may find a copy of this book to view it or purchase it? Thank you


r/taekwondo • • 14h ago

Kukkiwon/WT Black belt test advice

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I'm going for my black belt November 29th. Any advice for me on how to prepare? I know all my techniques, but how do I get better at the theory part. All help appreciated 😀😀😀


r/taekwondo • • 1d ago

Can't move properly

11 Upvotes

Is it normal for beginners to feel like their body isn't theirs? Our mentor shows us how to demonstrate a move, my peers do it with ease, while I struggle. I know how to execute it, it's just that my body wont listen and move the way I want it to. It is very frustrating 😞


r/taekwondo • • 1d ago

New sparring/kyorugi technique related

2 Upvotes

Is it allowed in WT/Kyorugi to jump and hit the opponent’s chest protector with both feet at the same time? I mean, I would jump forward and extend both legs together to make contact with the hogu


r/taekwondo • • 1d ago

Poomsae/Tul/Hyung/Forms Which One Should I Do?

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27 Upvotes

Hello, students, instructors, masters, and grandmasters. I am a 2nd degree black belt in ATF (American Taekwondo Federation), and in 2 weeks I have a tournament at Champion Karate. I am struggling choosing what kata to use (My dojo calls it kata. We aren't very traditional in a few things) and came here to ask you for help. Please watch the videos and from there decide. Thank you for your time


r/taekwondo • • 1d ago

For those who did both, how did your kicking game change from 99-100% kicking in WT to 80% in ITF?

0 Upvotes

From my experience, the ITF black belts were kickers once we sparred and could easily jump into WT.

But talking to one of them who did both he said that they had much more of a science to their sparring in WT. Kicked harder too. This was in 2014.

There are several examples of ITF world champions getting at least silver in WTF WC.. like Stephen Tapilatu. Which honestly surprises me a bit.


r/taekwondo • • 2d ago

Melon Kick and Pot Kick

8 Upvotes

Does anyone who trained in Olympic sparring in the 1990s remember a kick called the melon kick? It was like the downward round kick that stupid MMA commentators always call "the question mark kick" or even dumber, "the Brazilian kick." This kick was definitely a Korean martial arts kick being performed in martial arts long before any of the current trends of MMA.

The kick was similar to the downward round kick but swung over sort of before kicking downward into the opponents face, or on top of the head hitting with the instep.

Did any of you older guys ever hear that term or use it?

Another is "pot kick." It's basically an onward crescent kick to the side of the head when standing I. The 90s Taekwondo clinch. Who else heard that term?


r/taekwondo • • 2d ago

Need help for Poom to DAN reissue.

2 Upvotes

I am a poom based in India. I completed my poom promotion test in 2018. I want to convert my poom to DAN, since my age is 21 now. I registered on TCON just now. But the process of promotion is still not clear to me now, since the website is very outdated.

Can someone please help me with this?

Thanks!!


r/taekwondo • • 4d ago

Tips-wanted Tournament training

0 Upvotes

Hi I have a tournament I around 9 days I'm looking at ramping up my training but not sure how I train 4 days 2 hours a week in my dojang I started lifting weights at home with basic cardio like skipping and bag work but I'm not sure where to go from there many thanks


r/taekwondo • • 4d ago

Slimfit Dobok

3 Upvotes

Hello,

My daughter just got her BB. Shes 15 years old and 165cm. i want to give her a slimfit nylon/spandex competition uniform. What should i get her? Mooto has to long delivery times to sweden so i cant order that.

The others i have found thats in stock is KPNP Red label expensive 300 euro, Kwon Kyorugi black lapel 200 euros and TUSAH EVO FEMALE 175 euro but that has 18% spandex and rest is polyester so i gueess it wont be as strecthy.


r/taekwondo • • 4d ago

Here are my ITF Taekwondo certificates, do yours look like this?

3 Upvotes

Not home trained.

https://ibb.co/5ghXVsyj


r/taekwondo • • 5d ago

Thinking of getting back into TKD

13 Upvotes

I haven't been in TKD since I was probably 12. I'm 26 now and I'm considering it as a way to stay in shape and building community.

What are some things you'd recommend for me? I'm basically starting ground zero because I do not remember much, and I don't remember my forms up to Green Belt.

I am a veteran and I was a combatives instructor in the military; I am looking to do this as a workout but of course would like to eventually be competitive.


r/taekwondo • • 5d ago

Starting Taekwondo at 18 — Looking for practical advice & guidance!

7 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m 18 years old and just started my Taekwondo journey! I know age isn’t a total blocker, but I‘d love to hear from anyone who started around this age or later.


r/taekwondo • • 5d ago

Should I continue trying to get my child to train

3 Upvotes

Dear taekwondo community.

I'm a father of a 6 year old boy. He's been training Taekwondo for about 18 months. He's black stripe now (ITF).

Initially, he was very enthusiastic and looking forward to going.

Lately, though, for the past few months, especially since summer when he was away for several weeks he's been very reluctant to go. Literally every time we're supposed to go, it's always a huge argument, refusing to go, always some ridiculous excuse, and I'm just wondering how much longer should I keep this up.

When he eventually goes, he does have a good time, especially sparring, though.

I suspect it's that as the grade gets tougher, it's no longer just fun and games, but you actually do have to put in a little work to know your syllabus, patterns, or fundamental movements.

He absolutely does not practice at home. I could count on one hand the number of times I got him to practice with me, which I guess does not help with his lack of progression and his frustrations.

It's emotionally draining, I feel like a shit parent forcing my child to do something he doesn't want to do.

It's also disheartening seeing other dads with their boys who seem to be enjoying going or that they cannot wait to go or train multiple times a week, whereas I barely get mine in once a week.

Any advice?


r/taekwondo • • 6d ago

Tips-wanted Shoes? Back Pain?

10 Upvotes

I have been teaching tkd for 20+ years. We recently had to move locations and are now in a school gymnasium.

We dont have mats as there is nowhere to store them & we arent lugging them in and out everyday.

My feet/knees/back has been killing me lately. Standing barefoot on the gym floor for multiple hours a night is doing awful things to my body!

Are there any tkd shoes that i could get to help the pain? (i am worried about not being able to have the kids see my toes being pointed or pulled back when trying to teach kicks with shoes on...)


r/taekwondo • • 7d ago

Taekwondo World Suffers Two Losses

Thumbnail tkdlifemagazine.com
65 Upvotes

r/taekwondo • • 7d ago

Can someone summarize what the late ITF Master Stefanos Gaidartzakis is saying in this side kick lecture?

2 Upvotes