Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 20 - Usadojo

The Korean for half
facing, banmom,
perfectly conveys the
purpose of this posture. It
means literally ‘half body’.
Only half your body is
available to the opponent
as a target.
The literature has this to
say:
• “The body must
always be half
facing the
opponent when
s t e p p i n g
backward and
foreward (sic).”
Vol 4 p202
• “Maintain a
correct facing.
The stance may
be full facing,
half facing or
side facing the
opponent.” Vol 2 p 135
• Stances can be full, half or side
facing both in attack and in
defence. Vol 2 pp 135-159.
Half facing is mainly for defence. Another
reason is to help prepare for the next
movement in a pattern – the stepping for
the flying side piercing kick in Choong-Moo
tul ensures we use a corkscrew motion in
the kick. Of course there are many
attacking techniques possible when half
facing as well, but the main reason is
defensive.
The diagram shows why. If we imagine the
defender’s body to be ten squares wide
Half-Facing
Half Facing
By Brendan Doogan
when full facing, we can
say the target available to
the opponent is also ten
squares wide. If we turn
the body just a bit, so that
the right shoulder is just a
little further back than the
left, we can see that the
available target is
somewhere near nine
squares wide – 90% of
the target is still there. If
we turn the body to 45°
the target is seven
squares wide – 70% of
full facing. This is still
quite a lot, but the right
side of the defender’s
shoulder is quite far back,
much further out of the
opponent’s reach. If the
defender were to turn
even further they’d end
up side facing, which
leaves very little exposed
to the attacker, but also
makes the opponent’s back leg and arm
much harder to use.
Therefore the best way to perform half
facing techniques is exactly how they
sound – half facing to 45°.
Tips:
Rear-foot, L and fixed stances are always
half facing. Be careful with the fixed stance
punches in Won-Hyo and Hwa-Rang tuls,
and the L stance punches in Toi-Gye tul.
Step through you patterns saying the
facings out loud. E.g. Chon-Ji tul: “half, full,
half, full, half…”
Almost all hand techniques with the word
Totally Tae Kwon Do - 47