Understanding Blocks in Soo Bahk Do

Series Summary

Soo Bahk Do is a combination of Korean martial arts and philosophy. Its founder Hwang Kee took principles from Chinese martial arts like Kung Fu and philosophies from Taoism and Confucianism and made a fighting style that combined steps, forms, postures, and conditioning. The basic ideal of the art is that strong spirit and body creates a strong individual, which, in turn, creates a strong and peaceful community, and in turn, a strong and peaceful world.

In this free video series, our expert Geoff Sterling will teach you how to do blocks in soo bahk do. He will teach you how to do closing and opening blocks, low & high blocks, inside to outside and outside to inside blocks, a reinforced block, a low x block, a high x block, and a side block. He will also teach you how to do a knife hand block, a low knife hand block, a cross legged low block, and a side step counter. He'll even teach you how to do open stance blocking and an inside to outside grab block.

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Geoff Sterling and thank you for watching. This is an Expert Village "how to" video and this is how to practice Soo Bahk Do so in this episode right here what I am going to be showing you is all about the blocks. We are really known for our blocks. Some people know us as Tong Soo Do and there have been articles about the blocks that break bones because these blocks can be really hard but they can also be soft and minimizing just like deflecting an attack coming at you. So it is just strange about how I found me in martial arts, I didn't actually train, most people who practice karate trained when they were a lot younger and I did not. I used to love to play Ninjas when I was a little kid, I just used to like go around in the woods and dress up in all black and I lived in Newfinlin, Canada when I was young and there was a lot of woods up there and a lot of open land and beautiful fresh air. But I have always been fascinated by it. I loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I loved Bruce Lee Movies, Chuck Norris which by the way Chuck Norris has its roots in this style of martial arts and I watched all Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, Steven Seagal, and was always fascinated with it but just never took any formal training on my own until after I graduated from high school in San Diego. I found a school by a fellow by the name of David Kenyon who is a great practitioner and he has been training since he was old enough to walk. He is a seventh degree black belt in this style and I trained under him and he has two schools, one in Solana Beach. I trained under him but right now I train under Sa Bom Nim Najar who is a fourth degree black belt and he went to school right here at Hollywood Soo Bahk Do. We are on the corner of Sunset and Gardener and we are right by the Rock and Roll Guitar Center on Sunset a historical landmark. We are at 7424 Sunset Boulevard and we can be reached at (323) 272-KICK, that's (323) 272-KICK and I am looking forward to demonstrating to you now all of our wonderful blocks. Thank you for watching - Soo Bahk."