Best Taekwondo Instructor

I've been pondering my martial-arts career lately (yeah, I'm missing it), and was just thinking back to all of the instructors I've had over the 21 years that I've trained.

I've had some pretty good ones, lots of them that I consider life long friends. Most of them were my heroes at some point, but only a few of them remained heroes. These men, and a few women, held a special place in my heart. They not only helped me to become a better martial-artist, but they made me feel like I was a better person.

But there is one instructor that stands out the most to me. I admire him so much in and out of the dojang. He has a heart of gold and he is such a good person. Master Scott Wisneski is probably one of the best people I know. Not only as a martial-artist, but as a person.

As a martial-artist he is pretty bad-ass. For a short white guy, he can do amazing jump kicks and he has no problem joining his students in class to show off. I've watched him do some amazing breaks, kicks, and poomse/forms. Most of all, he can kick my butt in a sparing match.

As an instructor, he is like a dad or big brother to all of his students. He makes each student feel important, even if they have zero talent in Taekwondo. Most of all, he knows his stuff. I've never seen an instructor that knows forms backwards and forwards like Master Scott does. For me, though, I appreciate that he is both fun and traditional. I never went to a class without both laughing and learning.
FMAC

As a person he is incredible. He is giving, open, and super nice. His marriage to Elizabeth Wisneski is inspirational. They are the best of friends and experience life together. He is so much fun to just hang out with. Even my kids adore him. Not to mention, he has the best dogs ever.

Silly, making fun of my car

With my daughter, Faith

A New Vision

Sooooo...there have been a couple things I've realized I need to change about me, or at least change my perception on.

1. I've done 20 years of Taekwondo mixed with some kickboxing, Hapkido, Karate and extreme martial-arts. I'm thinking that I need to tick that off the ol' bucket list. This is probably the hardest and most painful choice I have made. I have realized that I'm going to have to stop seeing myself as an injured martial-artist. It is making me depressed thinking about being a martial-artist who can no longer perform. Instead, I've decided that I'm just not going to think of myself as a martial-artist any longer. Time to hang up the belt and say that I've been there and done that. I will still throw some punches and kicks when I can, but my training days are over. Time to focus on something I CAN do.

Bowing out

2. Since April I have been trying to slim down. I've been using the number on the scale to determine my success. The problem that I have is that I LOVE to eat, but I HATE cardiovascular workouts. Being that I am very goal oriented, I have been stressing and upset that I can not reach my goal weight. Even while I was good about eating right and exercising, I never dropped those last 10 pounds. I stopped lifting weights as much as I used to thinking that it would help with my back, and that muscle weighs more than fat. The result was just a soft, squishy version of myself. I am NOT a skinny chick. It's time to hit the weights again. I'm putting on muscle now, and I feel much better. Now I have to find some clothes that fit.

Need muscles like his ;-)

3. I remember having the biggest crush on my uncle when I was about 5 years old. Don't worry, he's an uncle by marriage. Anyway, Uncle Danny is a farmer. My favorite vacations were spent on his farm. Not just because my Aunt and Uncle were some cool people, but the animals and being outside were always so much fun. I also remember that whenever people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered that I wanted to be a farmer. Time passed, and when you grow up in the city, the idea of being a farmer isn't something that occurs to you.

Now that I've been propagating plants and growing stuff, I really enjoy creating gardens and more plants. I suck at growing vegetables, but other plants and trees I love. I don't think that I could have a whole farm, per se, but having my own tiny farm in my backyard is something I should focus on...for fun. It will be a nice release and escape for me to grow things. I also love animals. I want to find a way to either breed puppies, dog sit, or work for a vet.

My family on my Aunt and Uncles farm...I'm the little girl

So those are the 3 things I am changing my views on. It's time to do things that I can do and that make me happy.

The Problem With Taekwondo

For those of you that do not study Taekwondo, Taekwondo means the way of the hand and the foot. Very traditional Taekwondo focuses on punching, striking, and kicking. It does NOT involve grabbing, throwing, or wrestling.

The problem with modern Taekwondo schools is they try to incorporate the grappling and throwing of other martial arts. We saw how Bruce Lee took bits and pieces of different martial-arts to create something new. That is okay, I guess. I think Bruce Lee is pretty cool, but I do not like the idea of combining the martial-arts. The main reason: Tradition gets lost!

Traditional Taekwondo provides us with all the tools we need. If we can master Taekwondo, we do not need to learn how to grapple or throw people across the room. I personally think it's more fun to kick them across the room anyway. I've heard so many times that Taekwondo is not practical, but this could not be any farther from the truth. I think all the martial-arts have strengths and weaknesses based on the practitioner. If you are not good with your legs but you are great with your arms, then an art that uses more arms would be more efficient than Taekwondo in that situation. I personally prefer Taekwondo, and I know through forms that Taekwondo can teach me all I need to know. (I don't know it all...I still got a long way to go).

The forms (poomse) in Taekwondo teach us all we need to defend ourselves. The strikes, punches, and kicks alone reinforce how we can hurt an attacker. If practiced correctly and often, the basics in forms will make sure we can respond effectively in any situation. Plus, blocks can be blocks, blocks can be strikes, strikes can be release moves, kicks are kicks, and those weird moves that instructors pass over actually are great release moves. By release moves, I mean if somebody grabs you, you use that move to get away. For example, the big move in Koryo before turning to the last bar (I affectionately call this "pretty burst") is a way to get out of a hold. Forms alone teach us all we need, we do not need to add Hapkido, Judo, or Jujitsu to Taekwondo.

Still, Taekwondo schools all over the US are not teaching students how to effectively use Taekwondo. They rush through the basics and the forms to get to the "fun stuff." The commercialization of martial-arts forces instructors to keep things "fun" so students don't leave and train at the other school 1 block away. The popularization of UFC/MMA has forced many Taekwondo school owners to incorporate grappling just to keep students in the building. It's all about money and profit, which is why I HATED owning a Taekwondo school. It made me sick to go against everything I believed in just so we could pay the electric bill.

I wish there was a way for Taekwondo to get back to basics. I miss it!

Karate Tournament Bull___

I have done so many different martial-arts tournaments that I can't even count them. I have trophy's that have over taken my garage, I've given some away, and I've thrown many of them away. I had fun doing tournaments because I liked meeting people and pushing myself, but I am officially retired from tournaments.

Like I said, I liked doing tournaments because I liked pushing myself and they were a learning experience. But what I have come to realize at this point in my training is that I can no longer use tournaments to measure how I am progressing. I can't rely on tournaments to tell me if my forms are getting better, or if my sparing is improving. The judging is simply not fair! The system is broken.

The biggest problem at tournaments is the lack of fair and consistent judging on forms/kata. I have been to tournaments in 5 different organizations, and it is always the same. Judges are either unqualified, unfair, or lazy.

Unqualified judges have no idea what to look for, so all of the scores are inconsistent. They pick one aspect of technique and if the competitor did it, they give them a high score even if the competitor is missing all of the other elements. Other unqualified judges might score the first competitor too high, and then there is no room to go up on the scoring so the true winner cannot score higher. One of my favorite unqualified judge is the one who looks to see what the other judges score and then copy that. The list for these judges is a mile long. I cannot rely on these judges to test whether or not I am doing what I am supposed to because they have no idea what is going on.

The unfair judges are the most common. They are the ones that just want their friends, students, or instructors to win. They will score their favorite high just because they want them to win, or even score a competitor unfairly low because they don't like that person. I've gone to these judges in the past and asked why I did not do so well and they couldn't give me a real answer because they didn't judge fairly.

Lazy judges just don't care. They like the "power" of judging the competitors, but they don't take judging to heart.  I watched 6th degree black belts center judge rings and they are not even looking in the direction of the competitor. I've seen other judges give the same score to every single competitor, and it was obvious the competitors did not deserve the same scores. Of course these judges can't be relied on to tell me if I am improving or not because they were not even paying attention.

When I judged Power Tumbling (a part of gymnastics), the judges got a score card. The judges had to make sure the competitors had the required elements, and all of the technical issues were listed on the card. Granted, this didn't help with unfair judging completely, but at least there was consistancy. Plus, the competitors knew exactly what was expected of them. Martial-arts needs to start using something like this for forms competitions.

Sparing has some of the same issues. I commend the Olympics for trying to make it more fair with the electronic scoring devices. Hopefully these can be past down to other martial-arts tournaments as well.

All in all, I am peeved and I am done with competing.

The US Open

Okay, today totally sucked...or  maybe I sucked...or maybe both. However you want to look at it, I did not have a good first experience at the US Open.

Traditional Forms competition:
The competitors with points in the NASKA/ISKA circuits automatically scored higher than those of us without any points. I guess it's fair since they are working on being ranked, but I would have liked a fair shot to see how I really compared to those ladies. Though, I would not have scored well against them because the judges preferred Japanese style forms over the Korean style. In my age group, they did not separate the styles except for chinese. So, I started with 2 strikes against me. But it is partially my fault that I did not place. I had one of my worse form days ever. Yes, the judges complemented me on my kicks and precision, but when I watched the video of my form, I would have scored myself low. I am really disappointed in myself.

Point-Sparing:
I got SCREWED!!!!!! I was putting my gear on about 2 feet away from the ring next to my coaches/team. I got up to go check in when I was told that I missed check-in and my division was closed. There was one other girl in my weight class, and apparently they made sure she heard the calls to go check-in, but nobody on my side of the ring did. Her coach made it clear that I was not there and so she was automatically First and would move on to Grands. I told them I did not hear the calls, and nobody near me heard the calls. Center Ref said he called 5 times. Whatever....Thankfully one of my coaches helped to contest and the only solution that made the other coach happy was to have me spar out of my weight class.

I am already 20 pounds lighter than the top of my own weight class, which I think is a ridiculously large weight class to begin with. But now I had to spar girls who outweighed me my at least 30 pounds and were at least 6 inches taller than me with a total reach advantage. All I wanted to do was spar for the experience, so this was my only option because OTHER people don't want to work for 1st place.  I may have lost to that girl in my weight class, but at least it would have been fair.

My first fight did not start off so good. The side-kick I was counting on to keep my opponent away was not effective because the girl outweighed my side-kick and her arms were longer than my legs. One bloody nose and really sore face later I yelled at my husband to come coach me. Once I finally got somebody to coach me, I came back from being down by 3 points to winning by 6 points.

The second girl I fought was even bigger and meaner. There were times the center ref called stop, and she would continue pounding on my head. I was hurting. My eye was throbbing and my face was feeling even worse. My husband finally came back to coach me (he was coaching my son), but by then my face hurt and I was too scared to be more aggressive. Still, I only lost by one point.

I was disappointed that the fighting was mostly hands. I guess I expected it to be at the most 50 percent hands and 50 percent feet. But punching to the face (especially my face) seemed to be about 80-90 percent of the fights. As a Taekwondo-ist, this was not fun to do or watch.

I learned some stuff, like I should not do traditional forms and should do creative forms instead, and that I need to invest in hearing aids and a face mask. At this point I'm not sure if I will continue to compete. I'm glad I did the tournament. I can cross it off my bucket list.

At least I can say I got 3rd at the US Open. Not too shabby!

Starting Week 2

For week 2 I have decided to work on my first meal of the day and start training for the US Open (open Karate) in addition to continuing my training for figure competitions. I am feeling good after week 1 and I am ready to get started on this week.

I started today with my first breakfast of my "diet". It is not a diet to lose weight, but a diet to fuel my body, help build muscle, and keep me lean. My first breakfast was scrambled eggs (the only way I know how to cook an egg), oatmeal, and an orange. I like all those things, but it took a long time to prepare and I will quickly get tired of eating that. So I need to do some serious research on breakfast for figure competitions.

This week I am going to get serious about my Taekwondo training. I have been going to class off and on since I moved to Tampa almost a year ago, but because of my back injury I have not been consistent. I am blessed that I have to different schools I get to train at. One of them is about an hour from me, but the owners are some of my favorite people in the world. I trust them with not only my training, but also teaching my children. It is a family atmosphere, and I get some AMAZING traditional Taekwondo training. Check out one of my favorite places to be: Family Martial Arts Center

The other school I get to train at is only 30 minutes away, but it is hard to get there with my crazy kids in tow. So I only get to go when their dad is available to watch them. This school is amazing and the instructor is a genuinely great guy. I love the training I get there because it reminds me of my old Olympic Style days. We do lots of paddle drills, which is my favorite thing in the world. In addition, the owner is an incredible martial artist and I have a great deal of respect for him. I am grateful to get to train here: Fast Kicks Academy

So, here is to a great Week 2!

Why Cross-Train?

Whenever I start an activity, I always want to push myself to be the best I can be. For me, this usually means daily practice so I can get better fast. However, I am learning that any constant use of a joint or repetitive impact on an area of the body is going to cause pain and injury. It's why runners have runners knee and tennis players have tennis elbow. By taking away the constant and repetitive impact and motion, I am hoping to prevent further injury to my body. My solution to this is cross-training.

The main reason I believe cross-training is the answer is cross training helps to balance out muscle groups. For instance, having really strong quads from running but weak hamstrings can cause knee and back problems. Same is true for any part of the body. I want to prevent injury by keeping all my push and pull muscles balanced. In addition, I think it looks better if I have a balanced body. It just looks odd when a person has big ole legs but an iddy biddy upperbody. Or lets not forget tennis players that have huge forearms but skinny upper arms. They look like popeye!  I understand that not many of us are going go have perfectly proportionate bodies, but cross-training helps to balance it all out. 

In addition to balancing out my muscle groups, I also find cross-training useful because my body adapts quickly to any workout. I don't know if it's because I am awesome at finding ways to make a workouts easy or if it's because I've been a competitive athlete for 23 years. Either way, no matter the workout, my body quickly adapts. I've done some amazing classes and types of exercises that I thought I was going to die the first couple times I did it. But after a week or two it is no longer a challenge. Cross-training at least keeps my body somewhat surprised while doing different activities, but at the same time it allows me to at least get better at the handful of different activities I use for cross-training. It's hard for me because I am not patient, and want to be the best right away. I am still struggling with this one.

Finally, cross-training helps me because I am easily bored. It is difficult because my attention span does not match my endurance level. My brain tends to quit before my body. Cross-training allows me to mix up my workouts so I don't get bored. If I were to run everyday during the week, by the third day I am dreading the workout. But if I only have to run twice during the week, then maybe it will feel fresh to me every time I do it.

These are my reasons for cross-training, now here's to hoping that I can actually make it work! I'll keep you updated.

Swimming for Martial-Arts

As I was swimming laps yesterday I was trying to think of all the ways that swimming is beneficial for martial-artists. I have heard of people doing "Aquando" and practicing kickboxing in the pool. I have even done forms a time or two in the pool. But I'm talking about real swimming...laps.

First, the whole breathing thing while trying to swim freestyle/front crawl is a challenge. Unless you have really poor form, timing is a huge issue for breathing. Yesterday I was trying to swim fast enough to get my heartrate up, this meant that I was breathing hard. Unlike running or other cardiovascular activities where you can just breathe every time you need more O2, swimming requires you to breathe in and out at steady pace. Breath control is great for any sport. You learn to control your breathing so that you can fully utilize your oxygen intake. If an athlete breathes to shallow and quickly pushes that air back out, then they will not be getting enough oxygen into their lungs. An athlete should learn to control breathing so that they can take full breaths in and slowly let it back out. In swimming you have to do just that. You breathe in, put your face back in the water and slowly let the air out until the next time you turn your face for air (every 3 strokes is normal).

Second, martial-arts is a high impact activity. We jump, fall, kick and strike people/bags with force, or we get kicked or struck with force. It's fun, but sometimes our body needs a break from all that impact. Running, plyometrics, and jump rope are all typical tools for a martial artist to condition with, but they also add more impact into our routine. All of the impact causes us to be in pain so that we can not train or we just don't want to train. The older I get, the easier it is for my joints to yell and scream at me after a workout. In addition, the more time you spend doing high impact activities, the more chances you have of developing over use injuries and even arthritis and tendonitis. I have been doing martial-arts for 19 years...that is a lot of flying side kicks on heavy bags! Swimming is a non-impact way for a martial-artist to add cardiovascular conditioning. Plus, the water acts as therapy as you push your body through it.

Third, swimming is both a cardiovascular activity and a strength building activity. Building muscle is a great way to protect your body from injury during the high impact activities of martial-arts. Plus, building muscle helps to build power and posture for amazing kicks, strikes, and stances. Swimming utilizes back, shoulder, chest, arm, glute, and leg muscles. Plus, it helps build the core muscles martial-artists need for balance and power. Thats almost the entire body! In addition, I use mostly legs in Taekwondo, so adding more upper body strength is always a smart thing to do to balance out my body.

I am going to try to swim at least 2 or 3 times a week. I am hoping to gain strength and endurance while I try to heal my body.

Christian martial-artist can meditate

Many of the practices of martial-artists seem contrary to Christian beliefs to outsiders or to those who have been taught by non-Christians. One of the most confusing practices for Christian martial-artists is meditation.


Martial-artist usually spend time on meditation and concentration. Some people confuse this meditation with the Buddhist philosophy of meditating in order to sharpen and awaken the mind to find the "True Self." As a Christian martial-artist I know that meditation should not have this root or purpose. 


Instead of emptying the mind, as in eastern religions, a Christian martial-artist should fill the mind. Luke 11:24-25 warns that if we empty our minds we are in danger of evil spirits entering. Instead, a Christian martial-artist can focus on martial-arts performance. I can use "meditation" to strategize and focus on a fight or form. In this sense, I "meditate" by picturing what I will be doing or how I will be doing it. Before a fight, for example, I try to picture some of the ways I will counter my opponent's attacks. Or sometimes it helps me to relax before a fight if I imagine myself winning or scoring points. Before doing forms I try to "meditate" on the moves and how the should be executed.


Another way to "meditate" is to focus on God, and by this I mean prayer or studying the Word. Philippians 4:8 tells us to meditate on things that are "true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. If I am at a school where we are given meditation time, I will use that time to thank God for allowing me to practice or ask Him to keep me safe. I may pray that He helps me to win or perform at my best. A lot of times I pray for healing. Outside of the DoJang, I will pray and study the Bible during my quiet times.


Eastern meditation is a dangerous ground for Christians because it means you are practicing another religion. In Deuteronomy 12:29-32, we are warned that we should not take up any practices of pagan religions. "...God hates it all with a passion..." Deuteronomy 12:31. Instead of meditating like Buddhists or Taoists, martial-artist should learn how to meditate like Christians.


Meditation is not a requirement in the type of the Taekwondo I practice. I know of schools that have meditation time. If a Christian is careful to fill his or her mind with Godly things instead of emptying the mind or meditating as part of an eastern religion, a Christian martial-artist is safe to meditate.

Christian Martial-artist

I am both a Christian and a martial-artist, but I keep getting told by uniformed Christians that this is not possible. Judgemental or Christians that do not know enough about martial-arts tell me that studying martial-arts is a sin because of the origins and practices of martial-arts. Let me start off by saying that there are martial-arts that are deeply rooted in eastern religions, but I personally have never ever bowed to a bhudda or practiced emptying my mind during meditation in the 19 years that I have done martial-arts.

I have heard some people say that the bowing in martial-arts is a sin. Exodus 20:5 says not to bow down to idols or other gods. Bowing in the Taekwondo that I practice has nothing to do with revering somebody as a god. I do not bow as a form of submission. Bowing is a salute and a respectful greeting. I even think that it is more hygenic than a hand-shake. By bowing, I am saying that I recognize that person as a fellow or senior martial-artist. I would never consider a soldier saluting to a superior a form of ungodly submission, it is the same thing.

Christian's also get confused by the term master. They hear martial-artists use the term master and they confuse it with the title we give to God. I hate being called a master, but it is just a title of a teacher. A master in martial-arts for me is not somebody that I submit to. I am not worshipping them. They are not master over me, they are master over the martial-art that they study and teach. They have mastered certain skill sets, and when I refer to them as a master I am saying that I recognize that mastery. The master is not lord over me, there is only one true Lord!

I will admit that there is a risk of idol worship in martial-arts as with any thing (money, athletes, movie stars, etc). Spending too much time and energy on anything besides God is dangerous. God is jealous, and He only wants us to worship Him. By defining myself as a martial-artist I risk doing martial-arts for my own self-worth, and that is a sin. But giving thanks to God for allowing me to do something fun is a way for me to enjoy gifts from God. Taekwondo is fun and relaxing for me just like others enjoy jogging or golf. And just like any sport, it requires practice and hard work to excel. But working hard at sports does not make all athletes sinners, does it?

Certain Christians argue that Psalm 44:6 states that we should not rely on fighting, but we should instead rely on God to protect us. First, Taekwondo is a defensive art. We are taught (or should be taught) that we do not go out and attack people. What we learn is for self-defense. That is why our forms start with blocks instead of strikes or kicks. Second, even though I have been taught to defend myself, I still will rely on God for ultimate protection. I rely on God for everything, but that does not mean that I am going to sit at the dinner table and wait for my food to miraculously appear on my plate. Instead, I am going to prepare by going to the grocery store and cooking. Learning self-defense in preparation. It is a smart way to  keep myself safe from all the crazy humans out there.

Some Christians attack martial-arts just because of its eastern origins. They argue that God does not want us doing things that have pagan origins and that we should not practice anything that comes from the east (Isaiah 2:6). This is true. You will not find a bhudda in my home, and I will not practice martial-arts in any school that has a bhudda or any form of eastern religion. But martial-arts is not an eastern religion. Sure, some bhuddists, hinduists, and other eastern religious people may practice martial-arts, but not all martial-artists practice these religions.

Some people think that the forms, patterns, poomse, or kata we practice are a method of worship. This may be true in some martial-arts, but none that I have practiced. The forms I do in Taekwondo are a way to practice movements and a method of exercise. They may have historical significance as a way to remember those who created the form or helped with the evolution of the martial-art, but practicing the form is not a way to worship those people. It is a way to remember them, just as history books and museums help us to remember ancestors or certain historically important people.

Because martial-arts comes from the east does not make it a pagan practice. Eating sushi with chopsticks is not a sin, and neither is fried rice. Though I would like to say  I can't learn math for religious reasons, I do not believe anybody forbids the study of math just because it has muslim origins. Just because pagans have practiced it, does not make it always a pagan thing. December 25 was a pagan holiday, but the Christians took it over as the celebration of the birth of our savior, and Christmas is not a pagan holiday now.

I am not saying that all martial-artists are Christian. I can guarantee there are many that are not. But I guarantee that there are plenty of martial-artists who are Christians. I am one of them. I will use my martial-arts to glorify God anyway I can!

Traditional Forms

by Paula

I think that MMA is pretty awesome. MMA and other fusion martial-arts can be cool, as long as the martial-artists remember their roots. Mixed Martial Arts started as a way to combine martial-arts, but now there are many Mixed Martial-artists (I said many, not all) who have never studied a single martial-arts. All martial-arts have their merits, and each martial-artist has different reasons and goals for studying. The problem is when the "athlete" never studies a martial-art and never understands the traditions or values behind the martial-arts.

Traditional forms are ONE of the many aspects of martial-arts that gets left out when people take the traditional aspects of martial-arts. I have met and heard of many MMA fighters and "self-defense martial-artists" that have never learned a form. Forms, patterns, poomse, and/or katas are one of the key aspects of martial-arts training. Yes, they can be boring and tedious, but they are important. I personally love forms, and I can make a class full of students work so hard doing forms that they are pouring and sweat and want to puke. I can make myself sore by practicing forms strong and hard like they are supposed to be done. Yet, some fighters think that forms get in the way of "practical" training or a good workout.

Forms can be annoying! If you ever had an instructor spend 45 plus minutes on one form to make sure that you have proper technique, then you know what I am talking about. But this is so important for teaching the martial-artist proper blocking, striking, kicking, and punching technique. It builds muscles and posture. Even quality time spent on the most beginner forms can be useful for learning and developing technique to make technique strong and keep the fighter safe.

A couple of years ago I was speaking to a MMA fighter who had broken three bones in her hand and had to put in metal rods. She had never practiced a traditional martial-arts, and she had never learned a form. Therefore, she had never learned a proper punch and how to strike with force without hurting herself. She did not develop the muscles in her hands, wrists, and arms from repetitive punching while doing forms. Instead, they taught her only the skills needed in the octagon. She got hurt punching somebody during a competitive sparing match. This is just one of many examples of people who get injured from not learning martial-arts the traditional way.

Not learning traditional forms is just one of the ways fighters skip out on the important aspects of truly studying a martial-art. People get hurt, people get cocky, people hurt other people, and people give true martial-artists a bad rep when they miss out on traditional lessons.