Chuseok Shim Shin Forms

For further tribute to Grand Master Chung, here is a video of me performing his Shim-Shin series of forms. I am performing these forms on Jinju's Wol Ah San.

Wol Ah San is not a famous mountain in Korea, but it is one of Jinju's most distinctive land marks. The two peaks can be seen from many different locations in the city. The two peaks form a kind of U shape. When you stand across the river from the mountains, the peak on the left is called Gook Sa Bong. It is the taller of the two mountains, and the more difficult to climb. The course to the top takes the hiker over two smaller hills in order to reach the main escarpment. The trail then goes on for about 500 hundred meters to a clearing where a final hill has to be climbed in order to reach the top with the best view. Views to be seen on this mountain include stunning vistas of greenhouses, rice fields, and the Nam river. There is also a rock quarry. Along the way you can stop for a drink at a natural spring that is near the top of the mountain.

The right peak is called Jang Goon Dae bong, or "General's Peak." This mountain has two temples on it. There is the thousand year old "Cheong Gok Sa," and there is also "Doo Bang Sa." Cheong Gok Sa, has an enormous Buddah painting, which is a national treasure. The national treasure at Doo Bang Sa, is a very old black stone pagoda. On this venture I didn't travel to Doo Bang Sa, but rather, I took a different path and went to "Sung Eun Ahm." An "ahm," isn't quite a temple, but more of a cloister. It is a place to go and pray by one's self. The trail to Sung Eun Ahm was very narrow, but it had a lot of cool things, like these places were people had built stone towers for making wishes. These things are called, 돌무덕 (Dol Moo Duck) or stone graves. A long time ago people without much money built these stone graves for deceased relatives, instead of giving proper burials. These days people just tend to pile up rocks on the sides of mountains. You make a wish as you put a rock on the top of the pile. If you can put the rock on top of the pile without it falling off, your wish comes true. There are many of these rock piles on Jang Goon Dae bong.

On Saturday September, 19th 2010. I climbed Gook-sa peak and did Shim Shin 1-2. I originally planned to climb both peaks in the same day, but the path to the other peak wasn't clear. Then on Thursday September, 24th 2010. I climbed Jang Goon Dae peak, and did Shim Shin 3-5. This project gave me some good exercise for the week. On Wednesday of this week, Koreans celebrated "Chuseok." Chuseok, is Korea's second largest holiday after, "Seollal" Korean/Chinese new year. Chuseok is often compared to America's Thanksgiving, in that the day involves gorging one's self with food. Chuseok also involves a ceremony where a family's ancestors are remembered. Anyway, I thought that the bike ride to the mountain, the mountain climb, and the performance of the Shim Shin forms, would be a good way to burn the holiday calories, and also a good way to further pay tribute to Grand Master Chung, who celebrated his 40th anniversary in America this year.

At our Tae Kwon Do school in Kalamazoo, we have a rank called "Deputy Black Belt." Deputy black belt is kind of a bizarre rank. It is a six month waiting and training period between 1st gup and 1st degree black belt. Black belts at our school are expected to know the Tae Kwon Do, Teaguk 1-8 poomse series, also the Tang Soo Do/Okinawan Karate Pyung-Ahn 1-5 series, and a form called "Bassai dae." Legend has it that Bassai is a few hundred year old form that came out of the Shaolin temple. Deputy black belts are expected to keep current with all of those forms, as well as their form called 42 basic motions. Also they have to learn the five Shim Shin forms.

Both 42 basic motions, and Shim Shin 1-5 are considered to be "Moo Sool Do," forms. Moo Sool Do, means martial arts united. Moo Sool Do is the combination of Tang Soo Do, Tae Kwon Do, and Hapkido, the three martial arts taught at our school in Kalamazoo. So in order to further develop the philosophies of "Moo Sool Do," Grand Master Chung made his own "Moo Sool Do," forms. These include the Shim Shin forms.

One time during a black belt test, one of Grand Master Chung's highest ranking students saw how everyone was tired after going through the Taeguk, and Pyung Ahn forms. He made the announcement that it was time to start the Shim Shin forms. He then told us that Shim Shin means - "heart and mind," and that due to the massive amounts of kicks thrown in the forms, that they were the most strenuous. He was correct.

I haven't done much in the way of Tae Kwon Do training since I left Kalamazoo to come to Korea and work as an English teacher. Back in the days when I was in good shape, I thought these forms were fun. One thing I realized while doing them on the mountains is that they are incredibly difficult. It is difficult to maintain good balance while kicking. It is really difficult to maintain balance, while kicking with a bunch or rocks under your feet that trip you up. A lot of the forms had to be performed 3-4 times in order to get film without many mistakes. I have to admit to forgetting some motions in some of them. I'm not sure what the kick patterns in Shim Shin 1 and 2 are, and there are plenty of instances where good balance wasn't maintained throughout the forms. So if I did a front kick, where I was supposed to do a roundhouse kick, I'm sorry for that. Also Shim Shin 2 was done on the top of Gook Sa Bong. There were a lot of rocks underneath. On the first Jump front kick, I actually jumped off of a small rock on the ground that you can't see, I also stepped on another rock while making a back stance. Once again you can't see the rock, so the form looks really silly. Well, with the music, and the fact that I climbed two mountains by myself to film myself doing forms, the whole thing is pretty silly. In fact, my wife calls it the "wancta video." "Wancta,' in Korean is a word to describe a person with no friends. So yes I will admit to their being a pretty strong "Napolean Dynamite," influence on this movie.

There is also a scene in the video that might not make much sense. At the beginning I ride my bike past Jinju stadium. The stadium was built to host the Korean national sporting festival, which is being held in Jinju next month. It is a new stadium, so I just thought I'd put some pictures of that in the video. The film was taken from my bicycle, along the way to the mountain. Anyway, you can have a good look at Jinju stadium.