Conditioning,
Training, & Techniques for the New Millenium,
by USA TKD Coach, Master Han Lee,
Official Coach for the 2000 Olympic Games.
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Ask
the Coach your Tae Kwon Do questions!
Coach Lee will answer these questions monthly. You will
receive a personal response to your own questions and
selected questions (and their answers) will be posted
below.
For
additional Q&A's please visit our archives.
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Q&A
Q:
Dear
Mr. Lee, My name is Chris. I have this tournament coming
up and I want to do good in it, but I tend to psyche
myself out before the match. What can I do to make this
not happen?
A:
Dear
Chris, Many players tend to do just that - psych themselves
out of the tournament before the tournament begins.
Try visualization techniques, try to see yourself doing
well in the tournament and tell yourself, your opponents
are just as nervous as you are. You are in same boat
as they are. This is called self talk, tell yourself
you are going to do the best of your ability and if
they beat you they beat you. What is the worst thing
could happen to you? You will lose the match and may
get some bruises, no big deal. Try learning from your
experience and go from there. Best way to deal with
your nerves is keep competing. 2 things could happen
from that: you may learn from your mistakes and improve
or you will learn that you don't have the talent to
compete at the level you wish to compete and stop competing.
It is not the end of world if you don't compete. There
are other aspects in tkd training. Good luck with your
competitions. Coach Lee
Q:
Where
did the name of nanoband kick come from? If not training
6 days a week what is the best curriculum for two hours
a week for the kids? [Sun Kim - Salisbury, MD]
A:
Dear
Sun Kim: I am not sure where the term narabong came
from but sometimes we call it turn kick as well. The
best program for training 2 hours a week is if you can
supplement your tkd training with conditioning. Run
or bike or jump rope 3 times per week about 45 minutes
to 1 hour per day and it will definitely improve your
tkd. My video of conditioning can help you program your
own conditioning program. Best of luck with your tkd.
Q:
I'm
short for my weight category (54-58). I used to spin
alot to capitalize on my speed but I got hit alot. Now
I'm fighting more direct but opponents seems able to
predict me. So how actually is the suitable way to fight.
I'm 5 and half feet tall. Thanks! [Wajdi Mohamad - Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia]
A:
Wajdi
Mohamid, Disadvantage for the spinning techniques is
you can not see the opponent until the very last moment
of the kick and therefore like you said you get kicked
a lot. You said you change to direct fighting style
but your opponent can predict your kicks. My best advice
for you is to mix the spinning techniques with direct
techniques and also try to improve your steps and fake
motions to throw your opponent off. Best of luck with
your sparring.
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Q:
I'm
a 29year old overweight ex-player,who still loves to compete.
What type of conditioning should I start out with ,on
this long road back to fighting condition. "Struggling
Player"
A:
It
is always harder to come back from the long lay off
but once you have come back to your former condition
it is all worth it. One thing to keep in mind is to
take time coming back, too often many players including
myself try to come back too fast, thinking back on how
it was and get ourselves in trouble. I would recommend
you to start running or biking slow, may be run 1 mile
first day and work your self up to 3-4 miles at the
end of 2 week running program. After you have established
descent shape then you implement more rigorous workouts
such as steps and sprints. Don't think about what you
were able to do when you were in shape, that will lead
you to an injury and make it much more difficult for
you to come back to competition shape. Best of luck
with your comeback trail.
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Q:
What's
your opinion on taping your feet for every workout? Also,
how much time do you feel should be spent with a routine
on a heavy bag, and in the case of ankle injuries and
knee injuries, is a heavy bag even needed in an athletes
routine? [Chad Wolf - Eau Claire,WI]
A:
Taping
feet is for a precaution for an injury. One thing you
should consider however is that, when you tape your feet,
your feet could get weak and also think about the cost
effects as well before considering taping feet for every
practice. If you are sparring it might be a good idea
but if you are kicking paddle then maybe you don't need
to tape your feet. Kicking a heavy bag is good for power
but you need to combine with other training methods as
well. Only kicking a heavy bag is not going to help you
win at the championships.
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Q:
Coach
Lee, I was wondering what some good counters are to
lead leg kicks, for example the sliding roundhouse?
[Thomas Wheeler - Antonio, TX]
A:
Dear
Thomas Wheeler, What is a sliding roundhouse kick? Is
it a skip roundhouse kick with front leg? If it is there
are many counters, one is cover punch and counter, one
is back kick, one is front leg draw, one is front leg
counter on his motion. Good luck with your counter attack
training.
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Q:
Mr.
Lee I was wondering if there was a specific diet the elite
athletes follow when training at the OTC. If so, what?
[Mark
Russell - Bennington, VT]
A:
Dear
Mark Russell, We do keep a close eye on our athletes but
we don't have strict diet. If one
of our athletes is overweight then we will have a consultation
with the nutritionist at the Olympic Training Center complex
and have a special diet created if we have to. Other than
that we really do not have a strict diet plan that we
follow. Good luck with your tkd training.
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Q:
I
was wondering is it good to kick your sparing partner
hard in practice if they have the same skill and the same
size as you, because my trainer tells me to pratice like
I want to fight but when I am done sparing my parents
tell me that I kick my sparing partners too hard. What
should I do? [Mike - WA]
A:
Dear
Mike, The way you should practice is the way you plan
to fight at the competition. I tell my players all the
time - practice the way you are going to fight at the
competition. No hard feelings to your partner and your
partner should do the same to you. Keep it professional.
You can not turn on and off like a lightswitch. When players
tell me they are a game player then they are a fraud,
a floater. They have a false notion that they can turn
on and off and they are setting themselves up for failure.
Good work ethics can overcome talent. Players will realize
they are a floater when a lesser talented player scores
on you round after round. Good luck with your tkd training.
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Q:
Mr.
Lee, I was wondering what advice you could give me about
competing in the USTU. I am a two time World Champion
in the American Taekwondo Associaton(ATA). I've competed
in the USTU for about 4 years off and on. I always make
the NC state team along with others like Ken Hance and
Josh Coleman. I recently competed in a tournament with
Shermin Spinks. I lost by only two points with out even
a coach. I have trained with the state team in the past.
Because I have competed in TKD point-fighting for 10 years,
I use my lead leg about 70 percent of the time. I can
score on many state team members with it. But whenever
I hit someone with either a lead leg round kick or hook
kick, I always hear that it won't work agaist top figthers.
I am working on a 50/50 mix of front and back leg. What
do you think, is there a place for lead leg techs in olympic
tkd? [Russ
- Morehead
City, NC]
A:
Dear
Russ,
In my opinion if you have a very good lead leg it can
be a plus, but if you have only a lead leg and don't have
very good rear leg then you are a sitting duck for the
top player in Olympic tkd. If you have 50/50 then you
are going to be a very difficult player to face. Try developing
back leg batachagi and back leg back or spin hook kick.
Along with these techniques with your front legs then
you can be a good player. I say that because if you are
only a lead leg fighter, generaly speaking, front leg
fighters are not as comfortable at offense as at defense.
Once a player figures you out then that player will figure
a way to get around your front leg. It is really a simple
thing to do. A player can go around your lead leg by under
kicking your front leg kicks, or kick back side of your
front leg, or a player can trap you with back kick or
spin hook kick. If I may give you advice, you have to
develop a rear leg as well and become an all around player
rather than a one dimentional fighter. Best of luck with
your tkd training and developing your rear leg.
Coach Lee
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Q:
Coach Lee, I've been going to Gold Team seminars since
March 98 and I really enjoy your teaching. One thing I
have continuous problems with is that I tend to "freeze-up"
mentally when I spar and I forget many of the tactics
and other things I've been taught. Any advice on how to
fix this? [Brandon Zimmerman - Percellville, VA]
A:
Dear
Brandon Zimmerman,
It is not a easy thing to fix, best advice I can give
you is mental training. Train your mind to not freeze
up in the ring. Visualize your self competing and relaxing
and don't stress on the winning or losing. Lots of people
focus too much on the winning or losing and that can lead
to being uptight or too nervous in the ring, concentrate
on the thing you have control over, don't concentrate
on the thing you have absolutely no control over. Think
and visualize what you can do in the ring and do them.
Then whatever happens happens. It is like anything else,
if you want to be good at it, first you must practice
your tkd skills than practice your mental part of the
competition. More you practice more confidence you have,
more confidence you have, less nervous you are going to
be in the ring, less nervous you are in the ring, more
chance you have of winning. My last tape of my instructional
video series covers mental games and strategy of the Olympic
tkd competition. Best of luck with your tkd training.
Coach Lee
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Q:
What
is your opinion of "dynamic stretching" as advocated
by Tom Kurz in his books? Could it be superior to traditional
resistance stretching? [James Anderson - Milan, MI]
A: Dear
James Madison, I don't know much about the Tom Kurtz's
Dynamic stretching enough to comment on it one way or
the other. I do believe the flexibility will help in taekwondo
competition but not to the point where you should spend
all your time worrying about it or spend all your time
on stretching and not on other techniques. Of course this
is when a athlete has a decent flexibility. Athletes don't
have to have a super flexibility to compete and do well
at the competitions. Good luck with your tkd training.
Coach Lee
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©1998 Han Lee.
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