Thoughts on Taekwondo Training

Tae Kyon 4 poom (gup) test

2011-12-15T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is a totally awesome video of my level test. As you can see I don't look overweight but powerful. The speed of my techniques is also unsurpassed. This video hopefully will solidify my status as one of the greats.

Tae Kyon 1st Dan Test

2011-12-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit of a collector. I'm a collector of black belts. What brought me to Korea was my desire to train Korean martial arts at the source. That was a good six years ago. What brought me back to Korea was a desire to earn a somewhat comfortable living. The first time I came to Korea I stayed for six weeks while doing some extreme Tae Kwon Do training at a high school outside of Seoul. I came back to get a Tesol certificate and to do a little English teaching. At that time I was a third degree black belt in Taekwondo. I had hoped to learn some more martial arts at that time. I had hoped to hook up with the University Taekwondo team to work out with them, but that didn't happen. Instead I did a little light training with a local master as a part of the tesol program. I took some classes with some other English teachers.

Since I had a good ten years experience on everyone else I didn't really find the classes that fulfilling. They were pretty fun, but I wanted some serious shit. That's when I hooked up with a Kumdo school. Kumdo gave me all kinds of new challenges. At first it was pretty easy, but after a month of swinging a stick around, the instructor called me into his office and invited me to the next level of training....training with the kendo armor. Little did I know that the stuff would cost about six hundred bucks. I ended up staying in Korea a little while longer just to pay for a plane ticket back since I had blown a good chunk of change away on some athletic equipment. This was in March of 2005.

I stuck with the Kumdo stuff until December of 2005 when I headed back home for a brief respite. I took all of my gear with me. I went back home and I stayed away from my old Taekwondo school for a few months. I'm not sure why I did that. For the year of 2004 I ran a Taekwondo dojang for my instructor. That was one of the hardest jobs I had ever had. It was hard because I didn't get paid well, and I felt like I was stuck there. I got paid eight bucks an hour and worked twenty hours a week. I felt marginalized after having been to Korea. I had big dreams of improving the school's curriculum, but I thought that I needed more scientific physical education. I was also second fiddle to a master that had been hired from Korea. This guy had a college degree in Tae Kwon Do, but I was kind of disappointed in his skill level. Anyway, my marginalization had a little to do with that and a little to do with the fact that I was teaching classes to what I considered the best of my ability, but the most important part of the job was to get people to sign up. That's why I left to get a Tesol certificate in the first place, and it was also why I was a bit reluctant to go back in 2006 and start up again for a few months.

Also in 2006 I got into contact with a local Kendo club that I joined. I was worried that my instructor would disapprove of my training Kendo at a different school in his area. (Yes I know that it is hard to believe that somebody would get upset about something like that, but old Korean men. That's right I'm not even going to explain this rational other than by saying old Korean men.) After about two months of looking for a job in South West Michigan, I picked up some shitty work in a flower greenhouse putting plug trays on carts for shipping to garden centers. At that time I figured I could go back to the Taekwondo school and start up again. I didn't want to be coerced into being a dojang master again so I had the leverage of having another job. Almost instantly I was offered the opportunity to give my instructor 900 bucks and test for my fourth degree black belt...which I took even though I didn't feel any better at Taekwondo.

I sailed through that test. I wasn't the slightest bit worried, and I didn't really take it that seriously. I joked around with some of the other black belts. Another black belt, a man from Mexico who had taught me many things about the art when I was a kid, happened upon a broken board when it was time to do our board breaking. I thought it would be funny if I stood on the other side of the room and made a punching motion as he pulled the already broken board apart. The truly funny thing about that was that some people didn't get the joke and actually thought that I had some how broken the board with my mind. I sailed through the test and had some fun with it.

That would be my last black belt test for a few years. That test was in June of 2006. I returned to Korea in August to work in a middle school . That middle school represented a huge missed opportunity for me. It turned out that a guy who works in the office there was on the Korean national Kumdo team that competed in Taiwan in the 2006 world championships. That year Korea took first in the team competition while a Japanese guy took first in the individual. I never really ended up practicing with that guy, but by December of that year word had gotten around that I was back in town, and my old instructor sent me a text. I was really appreciative towards him for wanting me to come back. By December of that year I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. I kind of hated my job, but it paid well. Starting back up with Kumdo was a real comfort.

Then in October of 2010 I did my Kumdo 1st dan test. The test was pretty easy. A real departure from the black belt test events that happen at Chung's Black Belt academy in Kalamazoo. Here is a short list of what is involved:

1. A three day fast.
2. A research paper about teaching Taekwondo or being a referee.
3. A speech about something.
4. A recitation of all of forms or poomse that are taught there....Those are:
a. the Taekwondo Taeguk forms.
b. The 5 Tang Soo Do pyung ang forms (Also practiced in Okinawan Karate)
c. Bassai.
d. Five forms invented by Grand Master Sun Hwan Chung called the Shim Shin forms.
e. A form called 21 basic motions, where a motion is done while calling it's name in Korean.
f. A very athletic form called 42 basic motions...Also invented by Grand Master Chung.
g. If you are high in rank you are supposed to make a creative form....although these are rarely done.
h. If you are over a first degree black belt you have to do the Taekwondo Dan forms Koryo, Geumgang, Taebek etc.
i. If you are over a first degree blackbelt you should to the Tangsoodo Dan forms: Nianchi, Shipsoo etc.
5. demonstrate your self defense ability.
6. demonstrate your one step sparring ability. (One step sparring is a self defense exercise that isn't widely practiced at modern Taekwondo schools. An attacker steps back into a low block and punches at the other person's face. The other person takes defensive and counter attacking postures.) Before I was a third degree black belt one step sparring was done in a free style manor. These days every belt up to and beyond black belt has three to five techniques that must be learned.
7. demonstrate your sparring ability.
8. demonstrate your sparring ability against more than one attacker.
9. break a board with a foot speed technique. What makes something a "speed" technique is the fact that the board holder only uses one hand to hold the board rather than two.
10. break a board with hand speed technique. Again, hold a board in one hand and break it with the other. This is really hard if you have never done it before.
11. Take a picture.
12. Eat something.

So when I took my 1st Dan in Kumdo test, I was expecting something a little more involved. Instead I just had to to an ancient Korean sword form called Bon Guk Gum bub. I messed that up pretty bad. By then a lot had happened since my fourth degree black belt test in Tae Kwon Do. I got married, and at that time my wife was pregnant. During the time of the test we were waiting for some D.N.A. results for our son. We wanted to see if he would have downs syndrome or not. Needless to say my mind was somewhere else. I also thought the hardest part of the test wouldn't be any of the physical stuff which I knew by heart, but the written test. The written test was in Korean. A few days before the test my instructor gave me the test questions and answers in Korean. This is a pretty common practice for everybody, but it was still pretty difficult for me to memorize all of that Korean. Anyway, I passed despite my flub.

October passed and it was onto November. On Thanksgiving I was walking around Jinju's Geumsan Myun during my lunch time when I happened upon a truck that had a phone number for a Tae Kyon school near my house. I had wanted to learn Tae Kyon for a long time. By then I had given up on on Taekowndo in Jinju. I tried it at two schools. One school was filled with bratty high school kids, and I was better than the instructor. The other school was just filled with kids. I made the discovery that adults in Korea don't practice Tae Kwon Do, unless they own a Tae Kwon Do school, or are college kids in training to be future Gym teachers or Do Jang owners.

I copied the number of the Taekyon school down in my phone and went home to celebrate Thanksgiving with my wife. (We also found out that day that our son didn't have Down's Syndrome. I don't think we would have loved him any less, but it was a pretty big relief...I don't mean to offend anybody by saying so, so I'm sorry if I do.) Anyway, that day I zapped some chicken in my dong yang magic with some mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. My wife called up the Taekyon school and we went over to meet the master.

I joined the next week, and a year later I tested for my first dan. I have to say that the test was a little lack luster. I just had to do one form, and demonstrate a few techniques. Taekyon techniques are a lot like Taekwondo techniques, so in my opinion I looked like a goddamned master compared to a lot of the other people there. Think about it, if they had only been training 1 year too, they couldn't have developed the skills that I had after fifteen or sixteen. Also the kids testing suffered a bit from Korean kid syndrome, and that is a disease where you spend all of your time studying Math and English so when you go to your martial arts school you don't put fourth any effort. Their instructors could have also suffered from Korean master syndrome. Korean master syndrome is where you understand that the kids who come to your school spend all of their time studying, therefore to keep the kids interested, you don't really teach them how to kick or punch or concentrate on anything, you just spend the whole time having the kids run around in circles, play soccer, dodge ball, or do super annoying gym class leap frog activities. I can't vouch that any of the Tae Kyon masters did any of those things, but I did see that at Tae Kwon Do schools. That is one reason why when I would train Tae Kwon Do in Jinju, I would often leave in a fit of rage.

The test also made me a little sad about the state of Tae Kyon. Tae Kyon is said to be a root martial art of Tae Kwon Do. (Actually Karate is) Tae Kyon actually existed a few thousand years ago. It was probably a lot different than what it is today since it was outlawed by the Confucians and it was also banned by the Japanese. Modern Tae Kyon stems from one guy who learned it when he was a kid and he demonstrated it to one of the dictators. That guy taught a bunch of other people, and it has gone on to become recognized by the Unesco cultural heritage people. Because of all of that you would think that the Gyeongsangnamdo provincial competition and dan test would be able to muster a little more than the 40 or 50 people who showed up to my test. This was 40-50 people and about 7 masters. It is somewhat obvious that one cannot make a living as a Taekyon master in Korea. That is pretty sad I'd say. Comparing Tae Kyon and Tae Kwon Do, it is kind of sad that the thousand year old martial art isn't as popular as the sixty year old sport. That being said though, sometimes Tae Kyon can look a little silly. It sounds a little silly with the strange guttural ki-aps taht are said with each motion, but it isn't bad. It is a lot more gentle on the joints than TKD. I think that it is more suitable for older people who just want to have an exercise. It also provides some good crossover context for Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. Tae Kyon doesn't have punching techniques, but the sparring combines kicking and take downs. The kicking and take downs aren't meant to hurt anybody, but you can learn how to knock someone down, and a Tae Kyon push kick has a lot of power behind it. Also if you a Tae Kwon Do person who isn't used to blocking hand attacks at your head or foot attacks at your legs, the sparring gives you a lot of new things to think about.

Anyhoo, I'll end this here. I have spent way too much time on this post.

See you all later.

Awsome Board Breaking

2011-07-09T00:53:00.001-07:00

Samurai Sword Gym Class

2011-05-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

I had a similar idea for this type of thing. My long term dream now is to make enough money to go back to college to study dietetics. Later I would like to open a martial arts school that can put people on a diet and excise regimen to loose weight and get healthy. I've been training in the traditional Korean art of Tae Kyon since November, and I've practiced Korean Kendo on and off for about five years.

I think that Tae Kyon and Kendo are good work outs because they are both rather gentle. Kendo motions are simple and they provide a good arm, back, and ab workout. The footwork also gives some good cardio.

Taekyon is also quite gentle except it has potential to be hard on the knees.

Hmm, I Wonder if these Techniques Could be Used in Martial Arts Training

2011-02-22T05:00:00.001-08:00

Martial artists often incorporate meditation into their training. I haven't encountered anything as frustrating as meditation. In my two days that I spent Go gool temple in Kyungju I spent a lot of time meditating. Nobody really gave me much of an explanation as to how to meditate. They often just say that you should focus on your breathing.

However, a recent article in the New York Times does a nice job of describing the process of memory training. The article is titled "Secrets of a Mind Gamer," and it describes how memory athletes build "memory palaces," in their brains so that they can memorize things better. It also talks about an ancient Greek book that details how to build these memory palaces.

There is also a section in the article about the differences in the way that professionals and amateurs practice. The article has a lot of interesting points for martial artists.

TaeKyon Test

2011-01-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, after a month of training I received my 8th gup in Taekyon. Since this is my fourth martial art, I could really care less about the achievement. It was after only a month of training, but I think that it was well deserved because the test was the gateway to learning more techniques, and the techniques that I had already learned were fairly simple.

Up to this point I have found that Taekyon is a delightful martial art. After the test I went out for a few drinks with the master. He told me that his school is the only Taekyon school in Jinju. The school has only been there for about two months, and I am the only student. I'm a bit on edge about the place because if he doesn't get anymore students I'm afraid the place will close. It also made for a somewhat bizarre test.

The class on the night of the test was fairly straight forward.

Classes have followed a similar pattern since I started. First we do something called "cow walking." That is is we walk on our hands and feet up and down the room twice. Then we move on to basic stretches. The stretches are followed by Taekyon warm ups, which involves a lot of knee bending, leg kicking, knee raises, and foot raises hacky sack style.

After that comes the step patterns . To do these step patterns one has to bend the knees and do some outward hip thrusts. The step patterns are done in v and diamond formations. Then there are step patterns with hand motions, and step patterns with low leg attacks.

So for the test I had to do everything that I had learned up to that point.

The instructor opened the test with a formal introduction. He made a point of saluting the flags and bowing at the old masters of Taekyon, then he said something like this. "This is the first test of the Jinju do dong taekyon school....blah blah blah." What was weird about that was the over indulgence on formality to test one person. Then there was a formal finish too, where there was a closing ceremony with just me kind of standing there. Luckily things stopped being weird when we went out for drinks and octopus later.

And so that is my story about testing for an 8th gup in Taekyon. I'll be happy to learn new techniques next week.

The Power of Eels

2010-11-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

I really like my mother in law. She is an incredibly sweet and generous lady. She has four children, four children in law, and by some time in April she will have six grand children. She is a real McGuiver with Korean food. She can make many many things. Her best dish is eel soup.

Koreans believe that different foods can give you power. They infamously believe that roast dog, or dog soup has the power to turn anybody into a Casanova. A lot of old people suck down the pungent ginseng candies, which smell a bit like strong celery, to give them stamina.

Another one of these energy foods is eel.

Last Sunday, my wife and the families of two brothers in law went to Haeinsa temple. My wife stayed back with a sister in law and played with the kids as the rest of us climbed up Mt. Gaya.
Mt. Gaya isn't the most challenging of mountains. There is a bout three kilometers of gradual escalation, then some steep hills, then about four hundred meters of steep rocks. It took about two hours to go up.

One of my wife's brothers used to be a gymnast. He went to a sports high school and to this day is in pretty good shape. As we climbed Mt. Gaya, I tried to keep pace with him, but had an asthma attack half way up the mountain. I was hoping that I would vomit, but I just stood still and coughed like a person with emphysema for about five minutes. When I get like that, the rest of my body gets tired as well, but I sucked it up and made it up the mountain a little bit further, and then my brother in law suggested that we take a rest and wait for the other brother in law and his wife. Anyway, I had a spell where I felt my energy drain on that day, but after I caught my breath we made it to the top.

When we got back home, we found that my mother in law made her specialty for everybody. It was all packed in large Tupperwear containers ready for us to take home. I have to say that mother in law's eel soup tastes great. It doesn't taste fishy at all. It just has a deep soupy flavor and has a body of bean paste blanched cabbage and some spices. I really can't explain the flavor because it has Jaepee in it. Jaepee is a spice that is used in Gyeongsangdo and Jeollado. I really don't know what it is in English, I can just describe it as being kind of minty and peppery at the same time.

On Monday I cooked up a four grain rice medly with white rice, brown rice, barley, and Korean black beans in the rice cooker. And when the wife got home we threw some eel soup on the stove and burned some up, tasted great. Later I went to Kumdo and felt powerful.

Today I did the same thing, except after Kumdo I went to the river side for some push ups, sit ups, and Taekwondo forms. After doing fifty sit ups and twenty push ups I did some white belt forms. I usually do these all wuss style when I'm by the river side because I want to warm up, but today I could have kicked and punched through the Berlin wall. Next, another fifty sit ups and twenty push ups, then the yellow belt forms. Same. Next another fifty sit ups and twenty push ups, the Pinyin forms and Bassai dae.

I'm starting to believe in the power of eel. Eel in many countries has traditionally been recognized as an energy food. British people thinks so, Japanese people think so, and check out what legendary boxer, Jack Johnson had to say about eel (According to wikipedia):

Johnson was pompous about his affection for white women, and imperious about his physical prowess, both in and out of the ring. Asked the secret of his staying power by a reporter who had watched a succession of women parade into, and out of, the champion's hotel room, Johnson supposedly said "Eat jellied eels and think distant thoughts".^[9]

So come to Jinju. Try the Namgang grilled eel, then do something like climb a mountain. Feel za power.

Dan Tests

2010-11-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I tested for my 1st dan in Dae Han Kumdo. Dae Han Kumdo is basically the same thing as Japanese Kendo except the motions are said in Korean and Korean Kumdoists learn a Korean sword form.

I now hold a black belt in three martial arts. I am a 4th degree black belt in Taekwondo, a 1st degree black belt in Hapkido, and a 1st degree black belt in Kumdo. In this post I will go over the details of my various black belt tests so as to give some examples of variances between martial arts and how tests are administered in different countries. I'm going to describe first my Kumdo test, since it is the freshest in my memory, and then I will go into my Taekwondo tests.

1. Korea, Kumdo.

This test was held in a high school in a city called Masan. Masan is a coastal industrial armpit that is famous for its steamed monk fish. Hearing that one has to go to Masan for something is like hearing that you are having meatloaf for dinner or finding out that you need dental surgery. I've considered refraining from telling enemies to go to Hell in favor for telling them to go to Masan. Nonetheless the testing gymnasium seemed new. The floor had a white tint to it that brightened up the room. So this trip to Masan wasn't all bad.

My Journey in Kumdo began 5 years ago when I first came to Jinju. It was February or March of 2006 and I had an itching to begin another martial art. At that time I took a small break from Taekwondo. I really just wanted to learn something new, after a long time of doing the same martial art, you realize that there aren't that many new techniques to learn after getting your second or third degree black belts, all you can do is improve the ones you already have, or try to learn how to do some kind of incredible acrobatic kick that will only earn oohs and ahs, but will never really come in handy in a fight, or impress a girl enough to want to go out for coffee.

This was after I worked at an English sweatshop for a month and after a trip to Japan and I thought I was flush with cash. I mentioned to a Canadian guy who had a Korean wife that I was interested in taking Kumdo lessons. He knew a local instructor and they took me to him. I signed up that day without much hesitation. After about a month of lessons the instructor pulled me into his office and showed me a picture of some armor. He then wrote down a price on a piece of paper. It said 550,000 won (At that time it was about $600) . Not knowing what to do, I ended up buying the equipment and having to stay another semester at Gyeongsang university, instead of buying a plane ticket home.

I ended up coming home again in December of 2006 after a few months of Kumdo training. While I was home, I sought out a local Kendo club in Battle Creek, called the Battle Creek Kendo Kai. I did some training there, and was satisfied with the instruction. The fee was only 30 bucks a month. I also attended my first Kendo tournament with those guys at Eastern Michigan University. In the end, I missed the woman who would become my wife too much, and the best work I could get in Michigan was in a box factory, so I found another job in Jinju.

I didn't start training again right away. My new job had some shitty aspects to it.
1. I was bad at it.
2. Some of the students acted like gangsters.
3. I had to do these awful night classes twice a week. I got mega hooked up on kimchi allowances from doing them, but I fled Michigan for having to work 13 hour days in a green house, and I ended up in Korea having to go to school at 8 in the morning and come home at 9 at night two nights a week. The worst part was that on those days that I taught night classes I only had about 3 or four classes during the day. My apartment is also a half hours bus ride from the school. I couldn't go home and there was nothing to do except hang around at the school and wait for the night classes to start. Then half way through the semester, they decided to delay the night classes an extra half hour, so instead of getting home at 8:30, I could get home at 9:00. The only exercise I was getting was through these volley ball games that seemed important on Thursdays. I hate volley ball.

As luck would have it though, one of the guys who worked in the office at my school was on the Korean national Kumdo team. I mentioned to a few people that I liked Kumdo. That guy must have run into my old instructor some where and said something about me being back. Around December of 2006 I got a text message from him and I rejoined the school. Since then I've trained sporadically. Sometimes I miss a few weeks, but I come back. I've competed in a few competitions, where I have scored points and won matches, I've also lost points and lost many matches, but that goes with the territory, and that brought me to last Saturday.

The test was rather simple. There were 4 parts.

Part 1 Bonguk Gum bub.
Gonguk Gum Bub, is supposedly a 1000 year old Korean sword form that has been revitalized by modern Koreans. It is in the old Korean marital arts book called "Muye Dobo Tongji." Unfortunately for me I made some pretty big mistakes in this form. I was the only white guy there and I turned the wrong way at one point, that screwed up the next few motions, but I faked it and ended well. I was pretty embarrassed about that. I know it pretty well, I just made a mistake, perhaps I'll climb a mountain a post a video of me doing it.

Part 2 Pon
These are the Japanese partner forms called, "pome," in Japanese. There are 10 of these forms, but people testing for black belt only do 1-5. My partner in doing these was a woman who also made a few mistakes in Bonguk Gum Bub. She seemed as nervous as I was in this, but we sailed through it without a hitch.

Part 3 Armor on.
After the pon, we put on our gear and did yun gyuk, or Kai Kaishi in Japanes. This is an exercise where one person attacks the others head and does five left and right head attacks stepping forward, and four left and right head attacks while stepping back, the other person blocks the strikes with their Jukdo (Shinai). This is done twice and then concludes with an attack to the head and the attacker moves past the blocker.

After that we just did some free fighting. I was paired with the same woman as before. She was about a foot shorter than me, so I just went easy.

Part 4 Written test.
This was the hardest part. The test was in Korean. I asked the instructor if I could get the questions beforehand so I could study them. He gave them to me with the answers in Korean. I had no choice but to memorize the page of Korean, and then copy verbatim on the test paper. When it came to test time, a few people were looking over my shoulder. One lady came up and told me that I could write the answers in English. Hell no I wasn't going to do that, I spent the whole day memorizing a bunch of Korean. Then there was this guy from my school who was taking the test with me. He was looking over my shoulder too, and trying to give me the answers in Korean. I had to sh him twice because I had to concentrate.

All in all it turned out to be an okay test, and I found out that I passed today. I was pretty disappointed about making those mistakes in the form, but live and learn I guess. The best part was the testing fee: 20,000 won or about sixteen bucks. I was surprised to learn today that I had to pay another 40,000 won because I passed, but still, the price really isn't too bad...as you will see.

America, Taekwondo 1st dan
I was 16. Grand Master Chung requires everyone testing for a black belt to fast for three days before testing. I drank milk and orange juice for three days. I didn't know that that was cheating.

We ended up working it all out, but three days before the test my foot met the shin of a well conditioned former Korean kick boxer. My foot swelled up pretty big, and I had trouble walking for a few months. I limped through my test, managing to do all of the forms and break all of the boards. Back then there was a guy at our school who was a complete asswipe. He was a third degree black belt, who was in his late thirties or early forties. Just a real son of a bitch, wasn't really that good at Taekwondo, and he was mean to the students that he taught, except for the women that he hit on. Just a real scumbag, a perfect guy to teach women's self defense, since women really need to defend themselves against people like him. There was a period of time when I had to take lessons from him. I really don't remember anything he taught me except for the fact that he was an asshole. Anyway, at that test we had to show some jump kicks or something. I was hopping around on my left foot trying to jump and kick with it since my right foot was useless that day, and this dude was trying to say stuff in Korean, and acting all frustrated when I didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

He disappeared soon after that. I heard that he got in trouble for spanking a kid during a kids class, or he had a heart attack or something.

Anyway the Taekwondo tests are pretty intense. We have to do all of the forms we learned, break some boards, fill out a written test, fight with a few different people, show the self defense techniques we learned, and demonstrate something called one step sparring. The tests usually take about 3 hours. The Kumdo test I did was only about 2 hours, but more people tested, and there were a few testing boards. The test was very efficient.

Teakwondo 2nd Dan
This test was much better. I did the full fast, and did everything Grand Master Chung asked me to do. This was a make up testing event so there were only about 5 of us there, more scrutiny. I loved it. I wanted to show off.

Taekwondo 3rd Dan.
I started my fast on a Wednesday and my car broke down outside of a KFC. They were reluctant about letting me use their phone. I had to point at my car that wasn't moving that was blocking their driveway for them to get a clue. The car's axles were about to fall out, so I ended up getting a brand new Corolla. That was pretty sweet. The test went alright too, I can't remember it much though.

Taekwondo 4th Dan.
By this time testing was so run of the mill that I really didn't care that much anymore.

Hapkido 1st Dan.
There was no test. I paid Grand Master Chung for lessons up to my black belt in Hapkido a few years back. He stopped teaching it, after a year of my training. I had a brown belt or 4th gup in Hapkido. Later he just went ahead and filed the papers for me to get a black belt. Again, it kind of pissed me off because I didn't pay him for belts, I wanted the training. But I guess I can use that to take advanced lessons here in Korea. I might join a school for that here, but I probably won't. I don't want to take a martial arts class with bunch of kids.

Kumdo Test

2010-10-21T00:00:00.001-07:00

Well I filled out my application to text for my 1 dan in Kumdo. I don't know when the test is, but it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Interesting Article in the NY Times About Tai Chi

2010-09-28T22:52:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to try Tai Chi for a while now.

Chuseok Shim Shin Forms

2010-09-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Chuseok Mountain Form Festival Update

2010-09-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I climbed to the top of Mt. Wol-ah's Gook Sa peak. I was going to climb to the top of Mt. Wol-ah's Jang Goon Dae peak as well, but the trail was over grown and it was getting dark. Anyway, I did two of five Shim Shin forms. I didn't to a great job of it because the rocky ground made for bad balance... and I forgot a few of the motions. So I'll post the video after I climb the other peak.

추석 무술도 심신, 42두소공방 품새 영화 식!!!!!! 정선환 관장님 만세!!!!!!

2010-09-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Next week is Chuseok. Chuseok is the Korean harvest festival, therefore, I will have a lot of time off.

As a further tribute Grand Master Chung, I will make videos of myself doing the forms that he invented in different picturesque places around Jinju.

The Rational and Impulsive Minds in Sparring

2010-09-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by a guest I saw on "The Colbert Report," about a year or two ago. I forgot the guest's name, and the name of his book, but his topic was interesting. It was about how there are two minds, the rational and the impulsive. The rational mind is deliberative and cautious. It weighs the pros and cons of a situation before making a decision. The impulsive mind goes with "the gut feeling," and decides without much deliberation.

The interview was only a few minutes long, but it got me thinking about how this applies to sparring, and how sparring opponents of all different skill levels can affect learning.

In the Beginning

When a student begins training, they don't know anything. The don't know what to expect. They may know few kicks and punches that had been taught to them, but they don't necissarily know how to apply them. So at this point, when a student attempts to spar, they used their rational minds to figure out just what the heck is going on. More advanced students can react more quickly and naturally because they have been practicing longer and have built the neural pathways in their brain that allow them to act instinctively.

Mid level training

By mid level, I'm talking about people who may be first or second degree black belts. At this point the student has learned the basic techniques and can probably deliver them quickly. They know the rules of the game, and may be eager to fight with people of higher skill so that they can improve their game more. When I was a first and second degree black belt. I was focused on this. I was focused on improving my reflexes, becoming more flexible, and just trying to get faster over all. There was a problem though. I couldn't read situations well and react accordingly. I had fast and accurate defense kicks, and I was beginning to learn how to use fakes in order to attack more effectively, but there was always something missing. I didn't have any "sense," as to when to attack, and I wasn't sensitive to when the other person was off balance.

High Level Sparring

At this point the competitor can use "mind games," against the other person. They can sense the distances for the other person's reach and they can move into the other person's distance and attack the other person in a decisive manor. The attacker at this point doesn't even need to be excessively fast, they just need to be able to accurately figure out what the other is capable of and use distance and timing to position themselves in a way that can maximize their own success.

Geniuses

A genius is a person who has a natural talent and a natural sense for how to attack and defend. These people may have physical or mental attributes that make them able to learn without being taught, or to learn quickly. Unfortunately these people exist everywhere. It is said that the legendary Boston Red Sock Ted Williams could see the strings on the ball when he was taking pitches. These people tend to make poor coaches because they can't really explain how they know these things. Advice from these people may be a bit vague. However, it is possible to try to break down these people's games as they are in action. You can look for their natural tendencies and try to turn their strengths into weaknesses.

The Hard Worker
This type of person earned their skills through hard work. This post is focused on helping this person avoid tunnel vision when they are training.

Sometimes when you train every day, the improvement is gradual. You can't see any improvement from day to day so motivation can sag. You may be an instructor at a school and you may lament the fact that everybody learns from you so you can't improve your skills at all. This type of thinking is wrong. In a martial arts school, everybody has something to teach other people.

When I was the leader of a Do Jang, I learned something pretty cool about the Tae Kwon Do forms from a six year old kid. I might post about that later since this post is about fighting. Anyway this is where the thinking about the impulsive and rational minds come into play.

When you spar with a person of greater speed and skill, you might use a combination of the rational mind and the impulsive mind. Your mind may race to try to figure out ways to beat the person of greater skill, and you may react impulsively to try to block or dodge the barrage of attacks that are being thrown at you. Sooner or later, the other person might figure out what you do impulsively and then exploit those weaknesses. For example, when the other person fakes, they might notice that you instinctively block your head. After your hand goes up to your head they might attack your body. The other person is in a relaxed rational state. They aren't worried about what you are going to do to them because you are in a state of panic.

Now you can train two ways to combat this in the future. 1. You can try to fight people of even greater skill, or 2. you can try to fight people of lesser skill.

Both have their advantages. People of greater skill will give you courage in the future. When you spar against someone who you fear, you get a little bit braver every time you manage to "sneak one in on them."

But people of lesser skill have a lot to teach as well. Suppose the instructor taught a fake out technique that you haven't quite mastered yet. Using this technique on the lesser student can help to encode the rational act of trying to fake out another person into an intuitive action that is less obvious to detect by the other person. Sometimes fake outs are so obviously fake outs that the other person doesn't fall for them. However, if you practice on a person of lesser skill, who is more susceptible to that kind of trick, you can adjust and modify until you can use it on a person of greater skill. So in this sense, you can use lower ranking students as learning tools.

Often times people who are natural geniuses get bored fighting with the same lower ranking students who can't put up much of a fight. This might be because the person of greater skill uses the same skill sets that already work for them. In this situation, I would recommend redefining the goal of the fight. For example, rather than trying to score more points than the other person, it might be interesting to try to used footwork to disturb the other person's balance. Or rather then using a roundhouse kick as the same defense kick, try to use a push kick or heel down kick, so that you can build other skills.

So in sum, here is a break down of the intuitive and the rational minds. The rational mind is the mind that thinks and tries to learn. After something has been learned then it becomes encoded into the intuitive mind. In Tae Kwon Do, we wish to put as much as possible into the intuitive mind. Put everything into the learned behaviors. Put as much as possible into the mind that makes you forget that you drove home. But also be sure to exercise the mind that learns things. This will help you to learn things more quickly in the future.

Tribute to Grand Master Sun Hwan Chung

2010-09-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today is September, 11th. In Three Rivers, Michigan, a banquet is being held in honor of my instructor Grand Master James Sun Hwan Chung. Earlier this year in May he celebrated his 40th year of teaching Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do in the United States.

His story is an inspiration for many reasons. He was born in Hiroshima. During World War two, hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to either join the Japanese Army or work in Japanese factories in Japan. Also many women were forced into becoming comfort women for Japanese soldiers.

Part of the reasoning behind the choice of Hiroshima as a city for the atomic bomb was the fact that it was an industrial center with many foreign workers. Kyoto, the imperial capital was also on the list for bombing, but was decided against because a high ranking American general thought to place too beautiful to destroy. It's estimated that of the 80,000 people who evaporated in the initial blast of the atomic bomb, 30,000 of them were Korean, Taiwanese, or Chinese.

The Hiroshima memorial caries a placard that says, "We're sorry, it will never happen again" This apology is to the foreign nationals who were forced against their will to work for the Japanese during the war.

Like millions of other Koreans who emigrated back to Korea after World War 2. Grand Master Chung's family faced the hardships of poverty.

He told me a story one time about how when he was ten, during the Korean war, his family's house was in the middle of a battle between North Korean and American forces. His brother, a baby at the time, was still in the house, and Grand Master Chung fled the house with his brother on his back and bullets flying all around. Afterward the house was destroyed by mortar fire.

He also told me about how he attended one of the roughest high schools in Seoul. His family didn't have the money to send him to a good school so he went to a place where twenty to thirty year old war veterans went to school along side high school aged kids. The school was filled with gang members who would attack teachers, and beat up weak kids in the bathroom.

One story he told me about his time in high school was when a teacher was angry with the class. In Korea it is quite common -even to this day- for Korean teachers to beat students for reasons, ranging from smoking in the bathroom to having the wrong haircut. On this particular day his English teacher decided to line the students up and just slap them in the face and kick the kids in the legs because the students were being unruly. When it was Grand Master Chung's turn, the teacher found that he couldn't hit him because Grand Master Chung dodged every attack. The teacher told him to stand still and take his beating, but Grand Master Chung said, "Why are you trying to hit me, I didn't do anything to you."

Later in the day the other students in class plotted to jump the teacher as he was coming out of the school. Grand Master Chung found out about this plot. When the teacher came out of the school the other students laid in wait. Before they could attack the teacher Grand Master Chung came between the teacher and the other students and protected the teacher.

As you can see, life in Korea wasn't easy, but Grand Master Chung took the only thing he knew how to do and made it work for him.

In 1970 he came to Detroit, Michigan. He participated in demonstration fights. His sponsor told him that if he lost a match he would send him back to Korea. After staying a while in Detroit, he moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan where he has made his home and established his martial arts academy called the I.A.M.A. (International academy of martial arts A.K.A. Chung's Black Belt Academy.)

In 1985 he published "Oriental Martial Arts II," the text book that is used by I.A.M.A. students. Now think about this. He came to the United States in 1970, didn't speak any English, but with in 15 years he opened his own business and published a book in English. People like this are what make America great. America truly takes the best people from other countries and allows them to flourish.

Sometime in the 1990s (1991 I think) he returned to Korea and tested for his 9th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. At that time there were only 31 9th degree black belts in the world. In 2003 he tested for his 9th degree black belt in Hap Ki Do. He has achieved the highest rank in two major world Martial Arts.

From 2007 to 2009, he published Oriental Martial Arts III, which is a four part series of text books that include the I.A.M.A.'s testing requirements for color belts and black belts for both children and adults. The books also provides illustrations of forms, one step sparring, and self defense techniques.

I've been lucky to know him and learn things from him. I earned my 4th degree black belt from him, but besides Tae Kwon Do, I think the most important lessons from that people can learn come from his life's example. For demonstrations he used to do things like squat on broken glass with a 200 pound dumb bell in his mouth. He also used to run needles through parts of his skin and hang buckets of water from the needles. One time, he had a car drive over his chest. All of those things pale in comparison to the fact that he was able to come out of poverty from war torn Korea to America, and establish himself as a businessman.

So today on the day of Grand Master Chung's 40th anniversary party, I salute him. I salute him for being the type of man who you don't bet against. I salute him for viciously living life and being a part of the history of Martial Arts in America.

Other facts about Grand Master Chung:

-He has the "Keys to the city Miami"

- He met Elvis and had a slow dance with Priscilla Presley. He revealed this one time during a class. He used to have a picture of himself with the king, but a student who really liked Elvis, broke into his office and stole it.

- He is a first class international referee.

- He was recognized for his life time achievement by the American Grandmaster's Society. There is a Korean language newspaper article about the event.

- He was on a testing panel once to promote Chuck Norris.

-He has branches of his school that reach from Kalamazoo, to Detroit, to Bermuda. (I'm writing this post from Korea - though I don't have a school, nor do I teach anyone taekwondo anymore)

This is an open invitation to his other students to leave more of his achievements in the comments section of this post.

Interesting Article about Taekwondo in the Korea Times

2010-09-09T16:55:00.001-07:00

It seems that the World Taekwondo Federation is trying to make Taekwondo fairer and more interesting to watch. I guess that can be a good idea. A lot of times Taekwondo matches at the Olympics can be quite dreadful to watch.

One thing that the article mentions that I fully support is the use of video playback. Taekwondo is notorious for bad judges decisions, or judges getting bribed, or people just straight up cheating. Hopefully an instant replay could help remedy these things.

The article also went on to talk about how other Martial Arts are trying to jockey positions in order to become Olympic sports, while Taekwondo leaders are trying to cock block them.

The W.T.F. should be more proactive in trying to find solutions to include other martial arts. Taekwondo and Karate are nearly the same. Taekwondo and Karate leaders should try to develop a rules system that is fair to competitors from both arts. Also they should lobby so that a forms competition be added to the Olympics. Like gymnastics there could be creative and traditional forms.

Kung Fu practitioners would definitely have an advantage over Taekwondo and Karate athletes in the "Traditional Forms," category since Kung Fu forms are pretty awesome, but an international commission could be set up to determine which forms are usable. For example, the form Bassai dae, is an international form since the form originated in the Shaolin temple, migrated to Okinawa, and has also been practiced by early Taekwondo people. A form could just be an international form that may not be that traditional, but one that many people already know, like Taekwondo's Koryo.

A creative forms competition could be set up where individuals or teams put together martial routines that showcase their skills. Athletes could also perform traditional forms from their own martial arts, that aren't any of the "select international forms," but would be judged according to a similar criteria that is used for gymnastics or figure skating.

Forms competitions at the Olympics for all martial arts would definitely boost viewership. This would be a change to Olympic martial arts like Taekwondo, Grecko Roman Wrestling, and Judo, where people just kind of stand there for a long time without doing anything.

Anyway, we live in a modern age where with youtube people can learn other martial arts forms. It's also possible to both preserve the traditional while pushing the boundaries. Just because something was made up a thousand years ago doesn't mean that it is any better than something from today. But a system that can accommodate for both traditional and modern is probably possible if people would just put away their own selfish interests in promoting their "own martial art," out of national pride.

A Few Classes at Home

2010-09-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

I went home for a couple weeks in August. Five years ago I came to Korea to practice Taekwondo. Boy did I ever practice Taekwondo back in those days. I stayed for about a month at a High school in Sungnam that had a Taekwondo team. They kicked our asses with the training. These days I have little endurance in my right knee. I kick stuff with that leg a few times and then the knee starts to hurt. I think that month of training might have something to do with that.

After all that training I went back home, only to return to Korea again to become an English teacher. After I became an English teacher I stopped training Taekwondo. I've tried to pick it up again on and off, but I rarely can keep at it for more than a few months here because it is kind of boring to do here.

Then I went home and trained at my old school for a few classes. I had a good time. It's kind of funny how I end up going home to America to do a Korean martial art.

Dieting

2010-06-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've been dieting for the past few weeks. I guess that the month of June makes me want to diet more. I've found a few simple ways to loose weight.

1. Don't drink alcohol for a while. I think this time around my weight was as high as 87 K.G.'s . Giving up alcohol for a while is a good way to go. Since I got married, I've been trying to drink only on the weekends. Three weeks ago I decided to do something like phase one of "The Instinct Diet," that curbs drinking for two weeks. Beer has a lot of calories so cutting it off is good. When I'm not dieting I like to have beer and snacks, or wine and snacks. Pairing alcohol with some kind of snack isn't a very good idea. If you really like beer and wine, cutting back can be difficult, but if you aren't spending money on drinks, you aren't spending money, and that can be good.

2. For lunch, eat a salad. Salads are really great to eat in the summertime. When it is super hot out, all you have to do is pack a salad and throw it in a fridge, then later you have a nice cold salad to eat. If salads don't fill you up, also pack stuff like yogurt, a few almonds, some walnuts, a piece of bread, or even a baked sweet potato. Baked sweet potatoes go really nice with coffee.

3. Eat whole grains like barley, and oatmeal. They are high in fiber. If you live in Korea like me, you have the problem of having white rice everywhere. If you like rice, you can get around this by blending rice with barley. Or you can blend brown rice with barley and beans. In the past I have made curry fried rice where the fried rice was a mixture of barley and brown rice. I've also made Thai style fried rice with brown rice and barely. In America you can get a lot of different whole grains.

4. Exercise. I exercise through practicing martial arts, riding my bike, and playing soccer matches on the weekend. If you are a person who is disciplined enough to do something wretched like going running, then do that. Personally, I enjoy combining exercise with an objective. If I practice martial arts, then I'm exercising while keeping my mind occupied. When I'm riding my bike, it is because I don't have a car, and I have to get somewhere. A few years ago when I was living in America and working at a Tae Kwon Do school and trying to graduate from college, I really enjoyed days when I could ride my bike to and from work, because on those days I didn't have to buy any gas money. Lastly, a few of us in Jinju enjoy a good football match on Sundays. I really suck at playing football (Soccer) but it gives me a chance to run around. As I mentioned before, running is hard to do everyday because it can be so boring and painful, but if you are chasing a ball it is a little better.

Soccer is good conditioning for martial arts like Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do is mostly anaerobic requiring short bursts of energy and speed. Soccer is very much the same way. Also in soccer games you have to try to read situations and try to position yourself as to where the ball is going to be. When you are sparring in Tae Kwon Do you need to try to develop strategies to overcome an opponents defenses, or develop strategies to cope with an opponents attacks. So the two compliment each other well.

Exercise also makes you feel good too. That is a pretty important aspect that should be mentioned as well.

5. If you eat snacks, eat a piece of fruit or something. Also drink something like water, tea, or coffee. It will help you feel fuller.

6. Cook for yourself: If you have to loose weight, try to find good tasting healthy foods, and then cook them. You know what you like so if you can make something healthy and delicious it might be likely that you don't view dieting as a chore.

7. Have fun. If you see progress, it makes you feel better.

My One Degree of Fame

2010-03-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

The owner of this site is proud to further the cause of Taekwondo as taught by Grandmaster Chung Sun-Hwan's Moo Sool Do system with the endorsement of Master Kevin Nilson's poomsae (Forms, Kata) D.V.D.s entitled "Tae Kwon Do-a visual guide to forms." and "Tang Soo Do - a visual guide to forms."

Nilson, an incredible technical expert demonstrates his exquisite flexibility in breaking down step by step the poomsaes of Taekwondo and Tangsoodo. Practitioners of Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do will find these guides to be invaluable in their pursuit of black belt or advanced degrees of blacks belt Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do.

3gyupsal

aka
James Kruska 4th degree black belt

How to Win Friends and Influence People

2010-02-23T05:42:00.000-08:00

I recomend this read to martial arts instructors or teachers of any type. It is a good starter book for developing ideas to get the best out of other people. I read the book last week and found myself nodding in agreement many times. I don't have much practice in employing the techniques described in the book, but I noticed that people who employ those methods are good at leading other people.

If an instructor is naturaly confident and charismatic, the book doesn't have much to offer. But it does give tips on how to get other people to want to listen to what the instructor might have to say.

Breaking Boards

2009-12-29T03:27:00.000-08:00

One of the finest and most fun rites of passage in martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Karate, is the practice of breaking stuff with some kind of kick or punch. If you have done it enough then it is generally an easy thing to do. (That is if you are breaking a simple test piece of pine.) There are a few basic principals for breaking a piece of wood.

1. Aim for the middle.

2. After aiming for the middle, actually hit the damn thing.

3. Hit it hard enough so that you break it.

These are guidelines for a simple side kick break, but they are generally applicable to other techniques as well.

Now I tried to make these principals easy because when breaking boards there is a lot of other stuff that gets all messed up in the heads of people breaking boards. It is usually pretty funny to watch over bearing parents stress out their kids when the kid is trying to break a board.

"Tyler now just focus."
"Hunter, just think that the board is your sister."
"Porter, you aren't screaming loud enough, just do what master Lee told you two weeks ago when he had that balloon."

It is also kind of interesting to watch people try to break boards with speed breaks. A speed break is when someone holds a board in one and tries to break it with the other, or they try to hold the board with two hands and try to break it with their foot. Basically, one side of the board isn't supported by something. Anyway, I remember watching a poor guy attempt one of these breaks one time.

He was a big strong guy with a military hair cut. (I don't think he was ever in the military though.) He grunted, hemmed, hawed, and screamed, but he never broke the board. The reason for this was a mental block.

Sometimes we make or own martial arts endeavors harder than they have to be. Attempting a speed break by grunting and making faces at the board, only gives the board too much respect. In reality, a speed break is really quite easy after you have done it once or twice, however if you attempt to do it five to ten times and then don't break the board, your hand will hurt for about a week later. Most importantly you have to decide that the board will break.

There is a difference between hoping that the board will break, and deciding that it will. This decision is made before you even pick the board up to break it. It doesn't require any psyching up or anything. Don't make any faces, grunt, or try to stare the board down, just break the damn thing. It goes back to the three principals from before, hit the board in the center, actually hit the thing, and hit it hard enough so that it breaks.

Sorry

2009-12-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

I took a few weeks of from training. It looks like the training by the river was just a Novermber thing so far. Next week I'm going to go to the home of the Hwarang spirit, the Korean city called Gyongju. Gyongju was the ancient capital of the Shilla kingdom and later Shilla dynasty. I have been there twice before. Once was just a simple visit, the next time was to train at Go Gool temple. This time I will train in the ancient art of ESL (English as a Second Language). Hopefully I can master the sacred techniques of total physical response, and the transmission of information in L2. (Sorry martial artists, you might have to briefly study applied linguistics to get an idea to know what the hell I am talking about.)

더 남강 도장 The "Nam River Dojang" Ideal November Training

2009-11-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

Since Monday I have been found a nice routine for exercise. Jinju is an extremely quaint city that has many nice things for its citizens. One of these things is an enormous riverside park that boarders the river and stretches from the man made lake "Jinyangho," almost all the way to the easternmost village of Daegok. The park is simply a bike path of red concrete. A small path of the park has a track on both sides of the river. The south side plays host to the Jinju Namgang Lantern festival each year, where most of the food, games, and goods vendors pitch tent for ten days.
Many places in Korea put up exercise equipment in public places like this. Weight benches, waist twisty things, chin up bars, parallel bars, push up bars, and sit up benches can often be seen in such places. The Jinju Namgang park is no different. All along the river there are places to play basketball, play soccer volleyball or do many of the above mentioned exercises. The residents of Jinju make heavy use of the riverside park in the spring summer and autumn, however, when the weather is too cold the park is rather sparsely populated. It is these cold conditions that have made the place ideal for me to practice poomse or forms (also known as kata). The exercise is quite nice. I start with a beginning jog from my house across the Jinyang bridge (진양교) to the park, and from there to the Namriver bridge (남강교) It feels like a mile and an half to two mile run. After that I do a poomse recital.

Hailing from the International Academy of Martial Arts, I am well versed in three schools of forms, the Taekwondo poomse, Modified Karate forms, as well as the forms made by Grandmaster Chung Sun Hwan. For me that makes about 34 poomse that I can practice well. (I left out three or four because I have forgotten them.)

This has proved to be a nice beginning and supporting workout for the night. Since it is November at the time of this writing the weather has been cold and it has been getting dark at around five thirty. These conditions scare other people away from the riverside. For me I have the benefit of not being distracted or feeling that other people are watching me. (Korean people sometimes have a staring problem. Sometimes they don't too, I remember climbing up a mountain one time to do a breathing exercise. I stood with my knees bent slightly and my hands in front of my face as I breathed slowly. I heard a person approach. They were swinging their hands behind their back and clapping them as they came forward. Neither of us stopped what we were doing to acknowledge the other.)

Another benefit is the fact that the area is beautiful. The river flows between me and a busy street muting the sound of traffic to a gentle murmur. Green lights illuminate a mountain cliff while the river moves with a rapid steady. This is also the place where, four hundred years ago, many fell to the Japanese army while others stood their ground and beat back their attackers. Then a year later the Japanese attacked again and the city fell. Practice of martial arts along the banks of this historic river is a fitting exercise in the cold November air.

On a New Model For Taekwondo Schools

2009-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

Taekwondo as a martial art, has been dying in the limelight recently. MMA has been grabbing a lot of attention, and to become good at MMA, one should probably practice Muy Thai and some kind of wrestling, Judo, or Juijutsu, or just tie them all together with Russian Sambo. Taekwondo is good training for people who want to have gymnastic like kicks, and most movie stuntmen or Martial Arts actors have some sort of Taekwondo training, but it would also be wise to learn some wu-shu for the fancy blocks an punches.

With all that said Taekwondo does have some benefits that might appeal to some niche consumers.

1. It isn't as dangerous as other martial arts. This is a major bonus for parents who want to enroll their kids in a martial art, but who might worry about injuries or the potential for turning their kid into the school thug, which leads to the next part.

2. Taekwondo has moral codes that go along with it. Most martial arts do. Granted many of the things that kids have to memorize for their belt tests are a bit cheesy, but they aren't too harmful. (Different schools might have different sets of lists that students might have to memorize for their belt testings. I have heard of some schools that use them as a means to preach a sort of cult of personality for the instructor. Stay away from those schools, an instructor should let their resume speak for its self, also you should challenge your instructor for the meanings or some sort of explanation of what you are expected to regurgitate. Some schools are run by fanatics who might alter some sort of Confucian text to give high praise to a god or a country and actually try to brainwash their students.

3. Lastly Taekwondo is a good workout.

It is with this point that I would like to build a framework for a training style that looks at both Korean and American cultures to see where there is some overlap or to cut out something that doesn't work and replace it with something else.

Many people join Taekwondo gyms because they might seem like a nice way to loose a few pounds or at least get into shape. For some people though, loosing weight isn't going to be achieved mainly through exercising. In fact, joining a Taekwondo gym just might make people loose confidence in their weight loss goals. So I think that such schools should have libraries. Now included in each library, there should be three basic books for Taekwondo schools 1. The Art of War 2. the Book of Five Rings and 3. Moo Yea Dobo Tongji. These are the big three Chinese, Korean, and Japanese martial arts strategy books, so having them is just the foundation.

On top of that though, it might be wise to stock diet books that can be loaned out to students who might want to increase the effectiveness of their workout goals with a diet. Last Spring I tried a diet of my own. I went on the "Instinct Diet," for 2 weeks and lost 10 pounds. I still have the book and I am willing to try it again. I have a few problems with the book its self though. First it is too pop-psychology like. It makes a lot of claims with out any scientific citation. It was written by a woman who claims to be a scientist though, and she refers to her own research at a weight loss clinic extensively. The downside though is that a lot of the reference to her research doesn't explain a lot of things, but rather it seems to be more for self promotion. (Look I already bought the book, you did your part.)

Another drawback has to do with the fact that the book has a lot of cooking in it. That is good for people like me who make delicious food. For people who are hopeless in the kitchen, too bad. On the plus side though I found the diet to be really healthy. Normally I suffer from heart burn, and while I was on the diet, that was never an issue. Another bonus is the fact that the recipes in the book are really good, and I did manage to loose some weight.

Now this diet isn't for everybody, so a few diet books might fit well into the collection, there are others like the South Beach Diet, or the Adkins Diet. Whatever. I recommend stocking some of those books, reading them and then maybe a creative instructor could make a special weight loss curriculum for such students. I envisioned a system where in the first week of training (A special weight loss student) a student could keep a diet journal to write down all of the food that they eat in a week, and how much the food costs. They could review it with the instructor who can tailor a diet to their needs and check up on them when they come to class. The first two weeks of training wouldn't even involve any practice of techniques. Just a bunch of conditioning exercises to get the students into shape (and feel good, maybe some rope jumping, easy jogging, and a lot of easy stretching).

Now their are dangers to this. Said students and teachers should consult with physicians before doing this kind of thing, and the instructor has a responsibility not to make these students feel self conscious, but rather the training and dieting should be goal oriented, and both should realize that progress won't come over night, and it may not even come ever.

It should be also pointed out that most Buddhist monks who train Martial Arts in temples are all vegans. Temple food contains no meat, but it has a lot of vegetables and is incredibly healthy. So dieting has long been a part of martial arts anyways, and any instructor who can actually help their students feel better about their appearance can go a long ways towards boosting that student's confidence and can turn that person into a loyal customer, and good reference.

Welcome

2009-11-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, this is 3gyupsal aka Jim Kruska from Funtimes in South East Korea. As many of you my know, I teach middle school English at a school in Gyeongsangnamdo Korea. I first came to Korea to practice martial arts, and I came back to teach English and further practice martial arts. In America I earned up to a 4th degree black belt in Taekwondo and have some extensive training in Hapkido. After I arrived in Korea I took up Kumdo/Kendo.

The purpose of this blog is to reflect upon Taekwondo/Kumdo training and strategy from an introspective point of view. Some posts will focus on training aspects, some on sparring strategy, and some will be ideas on how athletes can find valuable training ideas when they don't feel that they are being challenged enough. All of the posts on this blog are simply my opinions on matters and may or may not be of any help to anyone. Mostly it is an avenue to get my ideas out there and for me to explore some things that I have been thinking about on my bus rides to and from work. The inspiration for me to keep a blog like this comes from a youtube video that I watched one time about the Japanese Kendo 8th degree black belt test.

Kumdo/Kendo is an extremely mental martial art. There are really only about eight techniques in the whole martial art. (Sword skills that is, there are many different names for things that people can do with their feet and the direction that they are going, and the situation in which an attack or defense may occur, but there aren't really too many different things that you actually do with the sword) For this reason the Kumdo/Kendo practitioner focuses on improving each of the individual skills and uses the various duels that they participate in as ways of reading opponents and trying to determine an opponents intentions before they attack or defend. For this reason Kumdo/Kendo practitioners try to improve their thinking skills as well as their physical skills. In the National Geographic video that I mentioned before, I remember one of the test applicants talking about how he not only trains Kendo, but also keeps a journal about finding the right state of mind that one should have when practicing Kendo. That is that the practitioner should be emotionally detached from the outcome of the battle, but have enough invested so as to make the best decisions when in combat.

This blog aims to explore states of mind and training techniques to help not only myself but others grow as martial artists. Any comments are certainly welcome, and if this blog attracts any readers who can comment and share their own experiences or make any noodle baking comments that can alter epistomologies then that would be great.