Training Tips...

PRACTICE WITH INTENT

Practice makes perfect. But it is not only mechanics of technique that we need to be concerned with. If you punch the Smartie Pads for an hour, you will develop stamina and reasonable power in your punches. But if you punch the Smartie Pads for an hour five days a week week for 52 weeks, you will not improve 260 times more (5 x 52 = 260).

You need to consistently challenge yourself with specific details. I like to think of this as practicing with intent. Do you want to be able to pull off the Reverse Turning kick smoothly within a punch combination?
Then, how do you change from hands to the Reverse Turning Kick?
How do you adjust for distance?
Is there more than one hand technique that will provide you with a smooth transition?

Know the specifics of what you are trying to achieve and practice with this in mind.

Also, longer is not necessarily better. How "compact your training is what determines their effectiveness.

The same is true in our classes. Although the Sabum is in charge of the specific exercises you can still have an objective within those exercises. For example, decide to do everything a half beat faster than the others. Or when you spar include at least one kick in every combination...

GET OUT AND COMPETE

Experience makes a person grow. A Taekwon-Do practitioner with 2 years training and 10 competitions behind them is likely to have more insight than a martial artist with 10 years and no competitions. It's not necessary to be perfect before you step onto the square to compete. It's the process of competition itself that will catapult you forward. The intense experience of competition will give you insight and enable you to hold conversations about Taekwon-Do that others will envy.

You can also compete in the Do-Jang (Training Hall) either through open competition against other students or through silent competition in which you compete without the other's knowledge. You can do this by constantly comparing yourself to your peers and strive to become better than the best in your class. I have found silent competition to be a great motivator, but there must be other students who are better than you so that you have somthing to strive for.