An Interview with My Black Belt Sister

If you’ve been following my articles for a while, you know that this is a very special week. This marks the one year anniversary of my blog! On August 17th, 2024, I posted my very first article: Seven Things You’re Writing Wrong About Martial Arts. Since then, I’ve been adding one every two weeks, posting over 26 articles and writing even more!

In celebration, I have another martial arts-related post! If the title didn’t give it away, today I’ve interviewed my sister. She has been my fight-scene advisor for years and now shares her thoughts with the rest of you! Without further ado, let’s get to it!

To start us off, what exactly are your credentials in taekwondo and how long have you been training?

Well, I’m a third degree black belt who’ll be testing for Master in the fall of 2026. I’m a fourth generation student of General Choi, widely credited as the founder of taekwondo. I’ve been training for eight and a half years. I also am the third highest rank in my studio, and hold the title of Seonjang, otherwise known as Captain. 

What are the easiest moves to incorporate into writing that a character can realistically perform?

Push kicks, front kicks, round kicks, and side kicks. Essentially a lot of basic kicks that don’t require much complex movement. Also basic blocks, just nothing super fancy. Punches and elbow strikes are easy to learn and powerful. Simple things, overall. Depending on the person, they could put a good amount of power into the moves if they have the technique down. It’s also easy to learn where pressure points and weak spots are, like eyes and the jaw. So nothing too complicated. But fights don’t have to be complicated to be effective. 

Going off of that, what’s the most common thing you see written wrong in fight scenes?

Adrenaline, honestly. People get slammed against the wall or fall multiple stories and get back up. That’s not possible. It hurts, quite badly. It’s happened to me a few times and I could get back up and continue for a few seconds, but not much longer than that. The adrenaline only worked for a little while. Adrenaline will cover little scratches or minor wounds, but not getting shot in the shoulder. If it can end your life (Which al ot of injuries can) it’s not going to be covered by adrenaline. 

What are your thoughts on the one month training montage?

Oh absolutely not. You can’t get that good. You can get good, but not good enough to beat someone who’s been training for eight years. A great example is Karate Kid. There’s no way realistically that Daniel could’ve beat Johnny. He’s a skinny kid with two months of martial arts experience, versus a big guy with years behind him. 

Another example is you (Charissa) have been training for a year and half and you’re taller and bigger than me, but I could still beat you. A one month training montage doesn’t really stand a chance. And generally those montages actually only last a week, and then your training and technique are perfect and you’re really strong, but that’s not how physiology works. It takes intense repetition to create proper technique and strength isn’t found overnight. 

How about three months?

You could learn some pretty good stuff, such as basic self defense and medium-level kicks, but you don’t have the muscle memory to actually execute what you’ve learned. For example, three months would be a yellow belt. Generally they’re facing an enemy who’s trained for years and they can’t beat those odds, especially if they’re smaller than the enemy. I could train another teenage girl every day for three months, but she still couldn’t beat me. It’s more a problem of the opponent than the person going through the montage. If it’s a street thug versus six months of training and fairly similar size, then six months will most likely win. 

Clearly size difference is important in fights. In fantasy especially, there are a lot of small female heroines beating big men. Could they actually win that fight, and if so, how?

There are actually a few ways they could win that fight. If they have a weapon against an unarmed opponent, that’s a big one. If they can get to what we call switches, timers, or knockout buttons. And if they’ve had more training and they’re better than their opponent, yes, they can win. But if their opponent is 75 pounds heavier than them and has been training since he could walk, there’s no way they can win. If they’re smaller but have more training, like me versus my dad, then it’s possible. But it doesn’t work where the smaller person is less skilled. 

You mentioned switches, timers, and knockout buttons, what exactly are those? 

Knock out buttons are the most basic –it’s a place where you can hit someone to knock out, kill, or incapacitate them. The jaw will generally knock someone unconscious if you hit it correctly. The base of the skull is a good one too. Knocking the wind out of someone will give you a few seconds where they can’t fight back. 

Switches and timers are for bladed weapons. Switches are like knockout buttons. Someone hits a switch, you’re dead within a minute. These are what you’d expect. Anything in the head area, throat or lungs, and any deep wounds to internal organs. One people don’t usually know about is the inside of the thigh. There’s a massive artery in there that’s pretty important. 

Timers mean you’ll bleed out in the next thirty minutes to an hour. Shallow wounds to all the places I said earlier, wrists, upper arm, etc. 

I want to circle back to training montages because that’s such a frequent part of fantasy. What could someone do after a year?

Well it depends on the person and the mental capacity, but generally teenage girls will be able to do certain jump kicks and lots of power kicks, but they won’t be able generate the same level of power as those with more training. Still not insanely complicated stuff, but a fair amount of fighting skill. A year is a much more realistic training period to actually gain some skill than a month.

Finally, what’s the last thing you want to say to authors trying to write accurate but exciting fight scenes?

Scrap the fast montage, keep it simple, and do your research. There’s no shortcut to being a good fighter. But you can write good fight scenes that aren’t super complex.

And there you have it! Tips from a third degree black belt on writing accurate training, fight scenes, and levels of skill. I hope you found this helpful, and thank you for reading! It’s been a heck of a year owning this blog, and I’m so grateful for each and every one of you, whether you’re a frequent commenter or a silent reader –I couldn’t do this without you 🙂