58: Juche ending

Performance by Ariella Figuero at TKDTube

 

In the past I've written that all the ready positions in ITF patterns have applications, with the possible exception of Juche. This is because Juche's ready position may be an homage to Kim Il Sung, the then-dictator of North Korea. [1]

Kim Il-Sung on the right standing in the "Juche" stance

 

Which makes performing Juche a little uncomfortable, to be honest.

The stance from Toi-Gye /
Heian Sandan

In my organization we taught the original Ko-Dang at 2nd Dan, so I never officially learned Juche, and I've never studied the form in detail. I did get curious about some of the movements though, such as the split kick which I've written about previously.

But still, even if this movement is an homage, it's also a movement present in other TKD patterns: Toi-Gye and Ul-Ji. It comes from the karate kata Heian Sandan.

As a result, people have found applications for holding your arms in this manner. And in the case of Juche, here is what is maybe going on.

We'll start at the jumping punch. As you can imagine, I don't interpret this as jumping to punch a taller opponent.

Rather, I interpret it as grabbing the opponent's hair. You then pull the opponent's head down with the upset punch. This explains the next movement, the downward knifehand strike, which we use to strike the back of the head.

The final step in the form is the reverse punch, which we may use to crank the opponent's head or otherwise flip them around.

Finally the "true" ending of the pattern: the return to the ready position. After turning the opponent around with the head crank, get a reverse-headlock while controlling their arm. We can use this as a restraining hold or to drag the opponent backwards and to the floor.

Right image source: Kata for Self Defense Shotoryu Goshinjutsu

 

Click on the video link to see in action.

Again, I'm not denying that the ready position is a tribute to Kim Il-Sung, just pointing out that you can also find a use for it.

[1] Pattern Juche was created as a gift to Kim Il-Sung for providing funding to General Choi after South Korea withdrew funding. It is named after the North Korean state ideology which roughly means "self-reliance". It replaced pattern Ko-Dang, because Ko-Dang was the pseudonym of Cho Man-sik, a Korean independence activist and later in his life an opponent of the Kim family. Cho is believed to have been executed while in prison in North Korea. The connection with North Korea makes pattern Juche controversial and many ITF-style schools (such as GTF) don't teach it, or teach it but rename it Ko-Dang.