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About U.S. Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Moo Duk Kwan Federation

The United States Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation® was formed in 1976 by Moo Duk Kwan® Founder Hwang Kee and a group of dedicated practitioners in the U.S. In 1994 the Federation also adopted the tradename of The United States Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federtation®. Connect with the Federation via websites and social networks.

Bullying Awareness Guidebook

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

bully_1Angela Hanners, Communication Director of Accredited Online Schools recently found our list of bullying resources on the wiki: http://soobahkdo.editme.com/Bullies

Her company has recently completed an expert-driven guide to bullying awareness and she asked if we would consider adding it to our bullying resources page.  You can check out the guide that Accredited Schools Online developed here:

Angela reports that:

“Cyber and physical bullying are growing and undeniable problems, and like so many misunderstood issues, education and awareness are the best prevention tools we have. This guidebook's purpose is to do just that: educate students of all ages and their families about what bullying is, why it happens, and what they can do to prevent it.

Key elements of the guide include:

  • – An in-depth look at specific types of bullying, including cyberbullying, sexual bullying, physical bullying and more
  • – An extensive Q&A with two leading experts in psychology and psychiatry
  • – Bullying prevention techniques for students, parents, teachers and administrators

Two experts in the field were essential in our crafting of this guide. Dr. Ben Michaelis is a clinical psychologist and regular guest/contributor on Huffington Post, Fox News, and the Today Show. Dr. Steven C. Schlozman is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and also serves as the Associate Director of the Clay Center for Young Health Minds. Their combined expertise was an invaluable asset, allowing us to get a uniquely in-depth look at the truth of bullying.“

In addition to all that Moo Duk Kwan® Certified Studios, Instructors and members already do to empower individuals to protect themselves and others from bullying, she asked if we would also consider helping spread bullying awareness and prevention by adding a link to her company's guide on our website.  If you find it informative and educational, please consider sharing.

 

Karate Changes Your Brain

Benefits of Soo Bahk Do,
Reading Time: 2 minutes

by Emma Woollacott
Used With Permission
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Karate changes the brain – and not just through ill-judged kicks to the head.

Brain scans carried out by researchers from Imperial College London and University College London have revealed distinctive features in the brain structure of karate experts, which may be linked to their ability to punch powerfully at close range.

Oddly, previous studies have found that the force generated in a karate punch isn't, as you'd expect, determined by muscular strength, suggesting that it may be governed by the control of muscle movement by the brain.

The study looked for differences in brain structure among 12 karate practitioners with a black belt rank and an average of 13.8 years' karate experience, along with 12 control subjects of similar age who exercised regularly but had no martial arts experience.

The researchers tested how powerfully the subjects could punch, but stuck to short distances – just five centimeters – to make sure the comparison with novices was fair. The subjects wore infrared markers on their arms and torso to capture the speed of their movements.

Unsurprisingly, the karate group punched harder. And the power of their punches seemed to be down to timing: the force they generated correlated with how well the movement of their wrists and shoulders was synchronized.

And brain scans showed that the microscopic structure of certain regions of the brain differed between the two groups.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) showed structural differences in the white matter – the bundles of fibres that carry signals from one region to another – of the cerebellum and the primary motorcortex, known to be involved in controlling movement.

The differences in the cerebellum correlated with how well the subjects' wrist and shoulder movements were synchronized when punching, with the age at which their karate experts began training and with their total experience of the discipline.

“The karate black belts were able to repeatedly coordinate their punching action with a level of coordination that novices can't produce,” says Dr Ed Roberts of Imperial College.

“We think that ability might be related to fine tuning of neural connections in the cerebellum, allowing them to synchronize their arm and trunk movements very accurately.”

[These changes in the brain may suggest one reason why martial arts training is so beneficial for autistic students. Learn more using the links below.] 1

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