Whatever martial arts you do, a rigorous work on suppleness is essential to acquire ease in your movements and prevent injuries. In taekwondo, being supple in the hips and in the legs is a decisive asset, even more so since the points gained by hitting the head have been increased.

Oh I can already hear the adult practitioners saying: “this is much harder after teenage development”. Correct. Joints flexibility is superior till teenage-hood. Yet, everything is possible if you train with the correct physical positions, without overdoing it, and with much, much discipline! Keep in mind that it will definitely be harder for those who did sports which training included a lot of leg muscle-development exercises.

If you work hard at home to enhance your flexibility, here is a must-see video presenting essential stretching exercises:

2012 has been a fantastic year for taekwondo, marked by a successful competition in the London Olympic Games. In 2013, Taekwondo fans will also be able to witness great fights. Here is the list of the events that you must put in your calendar, right now:

• June 8: 4th WTF World Para-Taekwondo Championships – Lausanne, Switzerland
• June 21: Taekwondo Competition at the 17th Mediterranean Games – Mersin, Turkey
• July 15: 2013 WTF World Taekwondo Championships – Puebla, Mexico
• August 8: 2013 World Masters Games Taekwondo – Torino, Italy
• October 6: Taekwondo Competition at the 6th East Asian Games – Tianjin, China
• December: 2013 WTF World Grand-Prix Taekwondo

The big news is the appearance of the World Grand Prix. Decided in late 2012, the goal of this new event is to allow more frequent encounters between the best taekwondo athletes around the globe. After the successful taekwondo competition at the London Games, the board of the WTF banks on an event that should boost the fighters’ levels and give more media exposure to the sport. Each year, several Continental Grand Prix will be organized before the world finals in December.

We can’t be anything but enthusiastic about the idea of watching more frequently at fights including Jade Jones, Milica Mandić, Joel González, Mohammad Bagheri, etc.

However, this event is planned to be as important as the World Championships or the Olympic Games. Won’t it diminish the interest of the numerous International Opens? Time will tell!

See the complete list of 2013 WTF events.

World number 1 in the -68kg class (WTF ranking), Servet Tazegül has been reigning supreme in his weight category for the last two years. See for yourself: 2011 World Champion in Gyeongju, then 2012 European Champion in Manchester, he landed the Olympic gold medal in London last summer. Here are some pictures of this great champion. 

I stumbled upon a very interesting question on Quora, which is: In a sentence, how do you define martial arts? Answers range from very cliché, to pretty well-argued. The most popular definition so far is the following:

“A martial art is a system of personal combat with a distinct syllabus of techniques, fighting strategies, and physical training methods, designed to enable a practitioner to physically overcome larger, stronger, heavier opponents and meant to be practiced over the course of a lifetime.”

What do you think of it? Leave your comments bellow or follow this question here.

As I concluded in my previous post, free fighting games on the Android platform are scarce and their quality ranges from decent to awful. One alternative solution is to use emulators in order to have access to the numerous fighting games available on the other platforms.

There are Android emulators for virtually any game console ever released on earth, yet not all of them are stable and easy to use. I chose to present the Neo Geo case, an arcade console of the last century, host of many legendary fighting games.

An emula…what?

Simply put, an emulator is an application that simulates a game console on your device. In other words, if you have a functioning rom (the digital file that contains a game’s data), you can use your device to run it as if it were on the original machine…

After a few tests of Neo Geo emulators for Android, I chose Neo.emu for its stability and its long list of supported games. The installation process is easy-peasy. To start a game, you just need to find the rom file in your cellphone memory.

I will spare you a fastidious search: here are the five fighting games that you must try out.

King of Fighters ‘99

This one is a Neo Geo classic. With around thirty characters, an electric gameplay and devastating furies, KOF99 packs it all. The commands are tricky for a total rookie, but once you get the hang of it, trust me, it’s pure joy.
Download King of Fighter 99 for Neo.emu*

Samurai Shodown 4

Another venerable institution, the Samurai Shodown series offers sword fights – actually any bladed weapon or sticks since the characters use katanas, rapiers, spears, maces, etc. The graphics are well polished and the blood that gushes out is so real that it seems to spurt out of the screen. If you feel like a swordsman, Samurai Shodown 4 is your pick.
Download Samurai Shodown 4 for Neo.emu*

Art of Fighting 3

This is the most “neutral” fighting game of my selection. There is more focus on the technical combo rather than powerful special attacks. A common trait of an Art of Fighting game, the characters look bigger than in most any other 2D fighting game. It’s a love or hate thing. You will see it for yourself, but I’ll bet you won’t be disappointed.
Download Art of Fighting 3 for Neo.emu*

Garou: Mark of the Wolfes

This is by far the most beautiful game of the lot. Animations are super fluid and highly detailed (see Terry Bogard’s jacket when he does his Power Geyser). Plus, its gameplay is very accessible since even the powerful attacks are easily done by beginners. If I must find one flaw with this game, it’s that there are only twelve playable characters (and two hidden bosses). In fact, it is way enough to spend countless hours performing max damage combos! It is an experience that you won’t want to miss.
Download Garou: Mark of the Wolfes for Neo.emu*

Have you tried them all yet? What is your take? Leave a comment below!

*The use of rom files is only tolerated if you possess the original game

In case you were wondering, no, KO Podium hasn’t been abandoned! The beginning of 2013 was quite eventful for me, so I just couldn’t write much. This year, the focus on this blog will be the same: general articles about martial arts, some movie reviews, some interviews, one or two infographics, and most importantly, a fine analysis of the results of the main taekwondo events!

I also intend to add a new martial art in the trend monitoring tool in the next few months. By the way, thanks to all the readers who sent me their suggestions or identified some bugs. I will do the modifications as soon as possible.

To be posted soon, the follow-up on my quest to find a decent, free fighting game on Android.

Like many martial artists, I have always been a fighting game enthusiast. Game consoles, arcade machines, computers—combining all the platforms, I must have spent hundreds of hours on them.

Today, the device I use most is my Android smartphone, and I finally decided to look for a nice fighting game for when I wait in the subway or at the dentist. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of Android applications, so there should be one or two decent, free fighting games, right?

Oh how wrong I was…

I was quickly brought down to earth. With my first research on Google Play, I realized how few choices there were. It’s all the more true when you want a free app. Do not get me wrong: it is essential to fairly remunerate the developers; yet if you look at the numerous free options for other type of games (car race, adventure, etc.), it doesn’t seem like such madness to look for something similar in the fighting games section.

With a lot of effort, I could identify three possible candidates.

Kung Fu Do Fighting

I am sure that I would have loved it—in 1994! 16-bit graphics, laughable background stages, only one music theme, only one attack button. Well, Kung Fu Do Fighting feels more like a botched and unfinished student project. Given that, I was actually surprised that it didn’t crash my phone.

Fighting Tiger Liberal

There is no need to linger on this wrong pick. Both game description and screenshots let you think that it is a real fighting game, whereas it is in fact a beat’em up. In this category, I honestly think that Fighting Tiger Liberal is above average. But if you are looking for a real fighting game like I am, then just skip it.

Fist For Fighting

In spite of the rude competition (meh…), this boxing game wins this comparative review hands down. The character graphics are cool, the background stages are nicely done, and the sportscaster (though repetitive) puts his two cents in a credible, entertaining atmosphere. The player has four different attacks: left or right punch to the head or to the trunk as well as a prerecorded combo, executed in a maybe-not-so-useful slow-motion video effect… All in all, Fist for Fighting is a fun game and its 4.2/5 rating on Google Play (with more than 4500 voters) proves that I am not the only one to think so.

Fighting Games on Android: the other options

After this first unfruitful search, I will have a look at the alternatives to finally get a decent fighting game on my Android smartphone:

• Paying games – including games directly ported from other gaming platforms;
• Emulators – the threshold to an unlimited fighting games library!

Following-up: 4 fighting games that will keep you stuck on your phone

Former Karate World Champion and 9th dan, Dominique Valéra is an important figure of martial arts in France. Die hard Full Contact Karate evangelist, he gave to the blog Au tapis! an authentic and striking interview, especially for those who don’t know about him yet.

Extract: “Sports and martial arts in particular, allowed me to stay on the Sports page of newspapers, instead of ending up on the violence-related section.” Continue reading →

This is a guest post written by Fabien Miras, writer of the French blog Arts Martiaux et Développement Personnel.

Combining the two notions seems obvious. When we talk about martial arts, the image of a zen master, sitting cross-legged and meditating in front of the rising sun isn’t far off. The history of martial arts has its share of legendary heroes and fabulous myths, yet there is one fundamental truth: doing martial arts helps one to become a better person. Here is a review of some of the positive effects practicing a martial art has on our personal well-being.

The Effects ON The Body

The most obvious thing is that martial arts can be practiced anywhere and anytime without any equipment. You need a ball to play soccer; you just need your body to follow the martial way. The great thing is that the body is comprehensively exercised: bodybuilding, suppleness, stamina, balance, cardiovascular stimulation, tension and relaxation, etc. Our body is trained at its full potential with just one activity: the martial art.

The Effects IN The Body

This specificity, however, tends to be less and less explored in the martial art schools, except those specialized and grouped together under the banner “internal martial arts.” It is about discovering, controlling, developing and reinforcing the body’s internal energy, often called qi. This fitness to interact with our vital energy is one of the most powerful tools to live a longer and healthier life.

The Effects On The Mind

The primary vocation of martial arts is learning self-defense, protecting one’s physical integrity and one’s nearest and dearest. Teaching our bodies these techniques undoubtedly has an impact on our awareness. We learn how to deal with conflicts, either with other people or from within ourselves. Our self-confidence and self-esteem both grow, we are more aware of the world that surrounds us, more vigilant, more attentive, more “for the moment”. Put another way, we become much more alive.

A Ray Of Light

For all these reasons, and with the help of time and a regular and serious practice, the benefits acquired in the dojo shine through us. If our relationship circle is okay, it is going to help another circle to be okay, etc. There starts the “positive contamination”. In a way, taking care of ourselves can only have positive consequences on our friends and family. Helping oneself actually means helping humanity as a whole. That sounds a bit cheesy, but it is true. On the contrary, if you are hurt, violent, depressed, fearful…that will be reflected on your entourage.

The martial way is not an easy way; it is a way to self-accomplishment and enlightenment. Besides, isn’t the dojo the “place of the way”?

I hope you enjoyed this post, and if not, I am looking forward to reading your comments. Any remark is good for the taking! Fabien.

This has been fixed. The home page now shows:

• thumbnails linking to the last two competitions;
• a clearer and more concise list of all competitions available;
• a selection of the most watched nations, in addition to the drop-down complete list.

See the revamped Taekwondo Results Homepage for yourself.