ARTICLES

Master M. Winegar, 7th Dan, USTF Director of Technique, and I were talking recently when the conversation turned to auxiliary training methods. Master Winegar was not only a two time International Taekwon-Do Champion, but also a successful amateur bodybuilder. He and his wife Vicki have competed and won several local and national titles. It was obvious to me (and to anyone else who came in contact with Master Winegar) that this man was in great physical condition! Not only is he fast as lighting and split to the floor, but he also seems to have boundless energy. At 49 years of age, no one can dispute his ability as a martial artist.

So I began to question Master Winegar as to his personal workout routine. I was very please to find out that my personal routine is very similar to his! What validation! Anyway, Master Winegar express a few point that I have held for some time, and that is that Taekwon-Do class time should be used for technical training not for endurance workout. The goal for the student in class is to receive instruction on how to make their technique better, not to see how much punishment the student can take before they drop from exhaustion. Now this is not to say that Taekwon-Do class should be easy and that the student should not sweat. Quite the contraire, class time should be demanding, the muscles should be sore after a workout but far to many times instructors feel they should “bury” there students or they haven’t done their job. What ends up happening in these types of classes is that the students start executing their techniques with little or no power, over a long period of time the basic training of the student has become so flawed that it is nearly impossible to fix it. I have seen this over and over again all around the US and Canada. Invariably the Instructor does not participate in such workouts. Usually they stand to one side and watch the students sweat. In my opinion it is far better to perform 10 or 20 perfectly executed, full power, side-piercing kicks then it is to execute 100 weak, poor kicks.

The question then arises, how does one get into top physical condition if the pace of Taekwon-Do class is of moderate intensity? And the answer is auxiliary training.

The composition of Taekwon-Do physical training can be broken into several parts: 1) Technical Workouts 2) Flexibility training 3) Strength training and 4) Aerobic conditioning. Strength, aerobic, and flexibility training can all come under the banner of Dallyon Training or “equipment maintenance” . There are other parts to Dallyon training such as body hardening that are outside of the scope of this article, here I will focus on aerobics and weight training. I will save technical and flexibility training for the next issue.

Lets start with aerobic conditioning. It should be fairly obvious to the Taekwon-Do student the benefits of good cardiovascular training and I will not bore the reader with a list of benefits’s here. But Taekwon-Do Students have special CV needs that regular people may not have. The very nature of ITF sparring (two, two minute rounds with a one minute break in between rounds) requires special CV training. I would recommend using whatever method of training you like (I use a stationary bike), and instead of going at one pace for 45 min. Up the intensity greatly for two minutes and then lower the level for one minute. I do this for 25 to 30 minutes every morning before breakfast. It really wakes me up due to the increased oxygen flow to the brain. It also keeps me much more flexible throughout the day. Scientific studies have shown that this type of interval training, done first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, can burn up to 3 times as much fat as would a long bout of aerobics later in the day.

Below is a chart I have created listing my personal workout. I must emphasis that this is what works best for me. Your body may need more or less training. The possible variations are endless. The creation of a personal routine is limited only by ones imagination! Good Luck! Taekwon!

My name is John Creeden and I am a red belt at Morning Calm TAEKWON-DO in Hudson, NH. I have been studying ITF TAEKWON-DO for about 5 ½ years beginning when I was 50 years of age. I was asked to provide a view of Master Winegar’s seminar. So the perspective will be from the viewpoint of a “mature student of the Martial Art”

Let me begin by saying that I was very impressed by Master Winegar. Master Winegar has achieved the noble age of 48, so he is closer to my age than most of the rest of the TKD community. His athletic abilities are remarkable for a person of any age not withstanding his continuing comments concerning how he has slowed down in recent years. Master Winegar performed a kicking demonstration with 5 and 6 kicks in the air against targets were attempted and successfully completed. The only thing that can be said about the demonstrations is WOW!

The seminar was divided into three basic sections. First, was the understanding of the basic techniques and the application to the different tuls of ITF TKD. Second, was the discussion of instructional techniques and associated demonstrations. and maybe most important was the emphasis on the relationships between instructors and students at all levels. All of these areas of TKD were discussed in detail for the attendees. All of this material was in preparation for the Class C Instructor's Examination of the USTF.

Master Winegar had an easy teaching style and his profession of a teacher really came through. The seminar was one long ITF TAEKWON-DO lesson taught by a true master of his craft. Master Winegar put everyone at ease at the beginning of the session. Master Winegar is very well versed in all the techniques of ITF TDK and was able to demonstrate both the proper technique and also was able to show the incorrect technique and show what students at the different levels might be able to perform. This is important in that the seminar was an Instructor Seminar and the goal was to provide training to members that would be teaching the ITF of TAEKWON-DO. In this way instructors were able to see what the student might be expected to be doing at various gup levels.

Master Winegar also provided an important lesson during one of the pattern demonstrations. In the demonstration of a flying kick with a student, he broke the technique down to the component parts and showed how to teach a student to first perform a portion of the technique. Then he helped the student to perform a second portion and then a third etc until all the elements of the technique could be performed individually. When each element of the technique was performed individually by the student, then he built up the single technique from the individual elements. Within a short time the student was able to perform the entire movement at a much higher level. The important lesson here was not the teaching of the specific technique but the concept of breaking down the exercise to its basic elements and teach each of the elements first. Then continue by building up the technique so the student would be able to perform the entire exercise.

Another important point that was presented for instructors was that it is important to know the correct way that a specific technique is to be performed even if you cannot do it properly due to age, physical condition or injury. For myself I know that I will never be able to perform certain aspects of TAEKWON-DO in a perfect manner. At my age some things are just not possible. This means that I need to perfect the techniques that I can perform until they are a good as they can be. I also need to know the proper way to perform the techniques that I have difficulty with so that I can work on them and also to be able to teach them. During the seminar, there were many techniques demonstrated and emphasis on the correct loading, execution and recoveries.

If there was one thing that I learned from Master Winegar's teaching that will make my TAEKWON-DO easier and improve my technique would be the concept of "recovery to balance". This notion in which the first move of a technique is to move from the initial stance to an intermediate position prior to the beginning of the "down-up-down" of the sine wave. My understanding of this is as follows. This intermediate position is formed by moving from a two-legged stance (walking stance, L-stance, sitting stance etc) to a momentary "one legged stance" just prior to the execution of the technique. This is often referred to as the "backward motion" prior to the technique. I know that my instructor has been teaching this for a long time but once I realized that the "backward motion" was related to balance, I could see that this would improve my technique and my execution of sine wave in TAEKWON-DO.

Master Winegar was able to set a serious tone in terms of the philosophical approach to TAEKWON-DO. Specifically considerable attention was provided to the relationship between the student, which we all are, and the instructor, which many of us are also. The principal issue was the need for a formal relationship of respect. This formal relationship may extend both inside and out side of the dojang. Master Winegar indicated that the relationship outside of the dojang should be the same as in the dojang unless the instructor indicates that it should be different. The reason is that the relationship between the student and the instructor is permanent and exists because of the desire of the student to learn and the desire of the instructor to impart the wisdom about TAEKWON-DO they have painfully learned through study and training.

From every aspect I thought that the seminar was excellent. The demonstrations, discussions and training were well received by everyone in attendance. Although most of the students at the seminar had achieved Dan ranks, there was much that could have been learned by gup ranked students. All of the material was clearly presented and could have been understood by older students at any level. There were many opportunities to ask questions and obtain clarification of specific exercises and techniques. I am personally looking forward to the next USTF Instructor Course or any seminar by Master Winegar that will be presented in the New England area.