Master Hughes teaching Kum Do

I promised a movie, and I have one here.

Let me tell you a bit about it first.

It's a movie I took last night of Master Hughes sparring with a student in Tiger Kum Do class. Sparring, or practice fighting, is part of Kum Do as it is with TKD. In this class, the children use foam swords during sparring, and they wear helmets with face guards, mitts, and chest protectors (hogu, I think).

Master Hughes sometimes spars with the boys. In this movie, he's sparring with Larson, a boy who seems to have had some Kum Do classes already.

You'll notice a few things about this movie. One is that Master Hughes is not wearing a hogu. Seems like it might be painful, as some of the sword strikes are to the body! But, as Eli pointed out once, "When you kick Master Hughes in the tummy, it's like kicking a board!"

Also, you'll notice that Larson scores a few points on his teacher. Master Hughes talked about this after class. Another teacher he knows says he never lets students score on him because they'll get too cocky.

Master Hughes doesn't have this approach. "How is he going to learn if I don't let him score?" he said. I like this more humble approach, and I think it helps build the boys' self-confidence while retaining their respect for their teacher.

To play this movie, you need a QuickTime player and a good connection (probably won't work well with dial-up). If you don't have QuickTime, when you click on the link below, you'll be prompted to install it. It doesn't take long.

Justin said he'd rather have movies in a form that Windows Media Player can play. If anyone knows how to convert a quicktime movie to media player, please let me know! I'm going to investigate it.

So--enjoy! And don't forget to look at the regular photos in the post below.

Kum Do movie