Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 17 - Usadojo

the art of counter-attack so a foolish
opening attack is sure to lose you a point.
Instead the player has to make feints, and
intimidate his opponent, disturb his Ki, to
create an opening. Only then dares he
attack.
Both Kendo fencing and WTF Taekwon-Do
sparring are ideally set up for developing
sensitivity to Ki. First, both Kendo and WTF
Taekwon-Do uses protective armour. The
armour takes away some of the fear the
practitioner may have of being hit and in so
doing helps the
practitioners to be
more relaxed. Being
relaxed is crucial to
sensing Ki. Seeing as
the practitioner is not
constantly in a
“closed” defensive
posture, he or she
may be more “open”
to experience Ki.
Second, both Kendo
and WTF Taekwon-
Do have a very
limited target area.
Since practitioners
need not worry about
too many targets on
their person being
attacked and since
the limited target
areas also narrow
down the scope of
possible attacks from
one’s opponent,
practitioners can
spend more psychological energy
elsewhere. This freed up psychological
energy can be used to anticipate the
opponent’s intention instead. Third, the
initial space between the practitioners is
also big enough for them to feel the energy
between them better. Tokitsu suggests that
in a martial art like Judo where there is no
initial separation of physical contact, there
is hardly any opportunity to “grasp the
intention of your adversary across the
space that separates you” (40). 1 Similarly,
Like the little movements of the shinai tips in the
Kendo match, so the advanced level WTF palyers
move only a little . . . Then suddenly a flurry of
powerful kicks and counter-kicks are exchanged
with deafening gihaps
in full contact Karate or ITF Taekwon-Do
sparring matches “the combatants
anticipate violent physical contact from the
start, and this tends to galvanize ki inside
the body and prevent its diffusion outward.
Therefore the possibility of opening to the
sensation of ki is limited” (41). It is not that
ITF Taekwon-Do cannot develop sensitivity
to Ki in sparring; in fact, one often sees the
same kind of sensitivity in ITF Taekwon-Do
among the elite competitors who also
seem to “wait” more during sparring bouts.
However, in WTF Taekwon-Do such
“waiting” and
anticipation of one’s
o p p o n e n t ’ s
movements are
practically expected,
while in ITF Taekwon-
Do’s sport sparring
“waiting” is often
reprimanded by
centre referees giving
warnings to “inactive”
fighters. In order to
make ITF Taekwon-
Do more spectator
friendly authorities are
forcing competitors to
be more active in their
sparring. One of the
reasons WTF
Taekwon-Do has
come under review by
the Olympic Games
Committee is because
it is not spectator
friendly enough—
there’s not enough
visible action. Those periods of inactivity
are too boring for spectators that do not
comprehend the mental battle happening
before the physical battle occurs.
As an ITF practitioner I am quite interested
in how such Ki sensitivity can be achieved
in ITF Taekwon-Do. Following I will discuss
four possibilities: breathing and stretching
exercises, patterns, step-sparring, and
focussed free sparring.
Totally Tae Kwon Do - 41