New Workout Area and Form!

Take a look at my new outdoor workout area!

I bought these puzzle mats (minus the multicolor ones) after becoming frustrated with practicing my forms outside. The concrete is too rough to go barefoot on unless you are very light on your feet -- something that I have not mastered quite yet. On the other hand, practicing in shoes is just not the same. Like I said, I'm not the lightest on my feet, so my shoes are constantly catching on the concrete and messing up my deep stances. It doesn't help that my driveway is at a slight incline either.

My solution to these problems? Puzzle mats! I found a pretty good deal on Amazon: $29.99 for a set of 12 that cover 48 square feet. The only downside? A whopping 18 bucks for shipping! I couldn't find a better deal for the same amount of coverage, so I went ahead and bought them.

It's been raining here for the past several days, so I haven't been able to take them outside until now. Today was warm for a change, with temperatures in the low 40's! Note: Temperatures in the teens and 20's are getting old fast. Summer needs to be here! Anyway, after school, I headed out to the driveway to set everything up.

My practice went very well. Other than the wind gusts that kept lifting half of the mats into an almost vertical position, the mats cushioned my workout area rather well. It was just enough padding to take the shock out from landing on hard concrete, but firm enough that my feet glided easily on the surface.

I ran through a quick warmup, then started with forms back to back. I've come to realize that doing forms back to back like this without stopping for a recovery, is also a good warmup. Add proper snap, power, and the fact that we have 3 basic forms and 5 advanced forms in our system, and forms can really get you out of breath and worn out.

Speaking of forms....for the past week or so, I've been learning and practicing a new form (5th advance) for red belt. I love what I've learned so far. It's so rhythmic compared to the other forms! I need a metronome or something with a beat to practice to.

Now, on to the frustrating and most challenging portion of the form. The jump. I don't like jumps. Why pick  both feet off the floor when you can be balanced in a nice stance? But for this form, that's not to be. Let me explain what the form calls for up to the point I know. I hope I have this down correctly.

1. Turn left foot out so that you're in a back stance. Inside out block followed by a reverse punch.

2. Bring right foot in to meet the left. Stack your hands.

3. Repeat, turning right foot instead of left this time.

4. Slide left foot forward and x-block down, immediately coming up with an open hand x-block at about face level.

5. Slide right foot forward, grab with left hand and punch with right hand.

6. Lift right arm straight up, pick right leg up, pivot, and change directions.

7. Low backfist, then snap it up to starting position.

8. Left arm goes straight out, palm open, at around face level. Back leg crescent kick to your hand.

9. Set foot down.

10. Left foot slides forward past the right foot (so that your feet are almost in a pretzel shape), double punch.

11. Slide left foot back. Double punch again.

12. Bend knees, jump into the air (switching the way you are facing in the process), land on the blades of your feet, right foot over left.

13. With your feet still like this, double punch down.

I was fine up until # 12. When I got to the jump, my right foot complied with my wishes and went up into the air, however, my left foot decided it did not like this idea mid-jump, so it did an awkward half jump and did not lift more than six inches off the ground.

So....the jump isn't going too well at the moment. I kept practicing it, but my mind and my body don't want to cooperate with each other. One is accepting of the jump, the other is questioning landing on the blades of my feet with my full weight.

I had to take a picture of what my feet are supposed to look like if the jump is done properly. It should look something like this:

On Thursday night I told Mr. Mc that this had to be the strangest and most awkward move in any of my forms. He agreed.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get a better idea of what I can do to make it less awkward -- and maybe convince myself that I'm not going to break my ankles in the process.

Teaching and Being a Teacher

This post has been on my mind for a few weeks, but when I’ve sat down to write it, I’ve never gotten but a couple of paragraphs on the subject.

Last Thursday, Mr. Mc talked to me about the subject of teaching and being a teacher. Before I get ahead of myself, let me set this up.

Tuesday night is our formal gi and belt night– our main class. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, our adult class is relatively small, but we have a good core group. We now have two distinct classes One for the kids, and one for the adults. Before, we were all combined into one group.

In the past when there were fewer instructors coming on a regular basis, we would have as many as 15-20 students (most being kids), and most being yellow and white belts. To be able to give more individualized attention to the students, the class was broken up into several groups. The ranking students would take one of these groups while the instructor(s) worked with other groups – then we would switch.

I know that all of the green belts and up have been given the task of taking some new/beginner students and showing them the ropes. Even a few of the yellow belts have had their turn passing on what knowledge that they have. They start out simply. “Show them how to bow in and out of class and the basic commands.” The more experienced we get, the more teaching responsiblity is asked of us.

During this time, I learned a lot about teaching and being a teacher. Teaching forces you to examine your own techniques more closely, but it also tests your knowledge. Not only do you have to be able to explain how to do technique “X,” but you have to be able to tell your students what the technique can be used for, why we do it like this, and a hundred or so other questions that might come up in the process – all in terms they can understand. While beginners do not need an in depth explanation, the higher up in rank they get, they need to deepen their understanding, a responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the teacher.

In the meantime, you have to work on your own development as a student, but you also have to develop as a teacher.

The progression from purely student to both student and teacher can be viewed as a set up stairs, with the height of the steps increasing a little with each rank. The progression from 4th kyu blue belt with stripe to 3rd kyu brown belt no longer remains a step, but a jump up to reach that next level. This is because a brown belt is an “Assistant Instructor.”

Being a brand new brown belt (try saying that five times fast), you can see why the issue of teaching has been on my mind lately.

Last Thursday, Mr. Mc brought up the topic. “Other systems,” he told me, “teach you the basics and when you earn your black belt, you are given a choice. Do you want to focus on becoming a teacher, or do you want to focus on being a fighter?”

Our style is different. You come up through the ranks learning how to balance both.

I think this is a great way of easing a student into a teaching role. I started out my Tae Kwon Do journey as a very shy, quiet twelve-year-old. You literally had to drag the words out of me if you wanted to carry on a conversation with me. It was a painful process. If I had been told on day 1 that I would be leading exercises, showing new students the ropes, demonstrating what I had learned to more advanced students, and eventually leading portions (and on occassions the whole) class on my own, I probably would have run as fast as I could in the opposite direction, screaming from sheer terror. “I can’t do that!” I would have said to myself.

But here I am. Doing most of the above on a fairly regular basis, and I’m not running away screaming. I know that I did not start jumping with joy when I was first asked to lead exercises and then teach, but I warmed up to it. Practice makes perfect as they say.

Today, I feel differently about being a teacher. Now, I know that I still have a lot to learn on the subject – and I’m still not the most talkative, bold person that I want to be, but I have realized something recently. Something that I never thought I would ever say.

When the day comes that I finally earn my black belt, I want to pass on what knowledge that I have as an instructor and teacher. I want to help others grow not only in the system that I am so passionate about, but also grow as a person. What I’m getting at is that I want to become the instructor – the teacher to my students that my instructors are to me, not for profit or my own gain (or because I feel pressured to do so), but because I am blessed to be involved in an art that is not a hobby, but an entire lifestyle.

I still have a long way to go. First, I need to become the proper “Assistant Instructor” that the patch on my gi says I am. Then, on to the next step. Instead of the jump I mentioned earlier, this next step looks like I’ll be needing some rock climbing gear. Guess I better go and pack and get ready for it.

Let's Pause for a Quick Commercial Break

It's 8:42 on a Wednesday night. I am sitting in the living room on the most comfortable computer chair in the house and attempting to write an insightful and comprehendible blog post. It's not working too well. So instead, I put my official post on hold and write this instead.

The past three or so nights, I have been getting between four and six hours of sleep. One night was purely my own fault -- I drank coffee less than an hour before going to bed. Needless to say, I am extremely tired.

Add a 2+ hour Tae Kwon Do class involving partner drills and working on a combination of armbars, joint locks, misdirection of punches -- all leading up to an end result of a takedown, and you have a recipe for soreness.

Also factor in a Monday-Thursday college schedule with classes beginning at 8 am...and the fact that I am the only person in my family who hasn't caught the virus that's being passed around at my house....

Mix it all together and your end result is a mentally/physically worn out and quite sore brown belt.

It's 9:11 now. This night owl is going to bed. A long day full of school and Tae Kwon Do awaits.

My next blog topic is "Teaching and Being a Teacher" and should be finished and posted sometime tomorrow.

Have You Ever?

Have you ever heard the following:

"You need to know you form backwards and forwards."

It literally means that you need to know your form inside out....be able to do it in your sleep, blindfolded, etc., right?

Our sister school came up to our class last Saturday for one of their student's black belt test. During the candidate's test, their instructor invited one of his blue belts onto the floor to demonstrate something different than what any of us has ever seen.

She did one of her forms backwards.

Now can you say that you know your form backwards and forwards?

Merry Christmas and After Christmas Shopping

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! My family and I stayed home all day yesterday and just relaxed after opening presents. It was nice to just sit back and enjoy the day and not have to worry about any obligations.

My post mentions after Christmas shopping, but I did not dare go out in all the rush like my mom did today. Instead, I did some 'surfing' and 'clicking' and found something I really needed on KarateDepot.com. (Link to their website is on the top corner of the page) A new sparring gear bag.

My current one has one compartment to hold all my sparring gear and my belt. One compartment is NOT a good idea for me. After some of our workouts in class, I really don't want to store my belt with all of the sweaty sparring gear, so here is what I'm getting:

Have a great rest of December!

Class Party and End of Year Break

Today is December 22nd. More accurately, by the time that I finish this post, it will be December 23rd. Where did the rest of the month go? It can't possibly be time for a new year to be rolling around yet, but it is.

Back on the 8th, we had our annual Christmas party at TKD. There were tons of drinks and snacks which I was too busy to enjoy until after class, seeing as how a small forest's worth of boards were brought in for us to break. Everyone, (including parents) got a chance to break if they wanted to try. The reason why this is special for our class is because breaking is not something we focus on -- or test on. Add a bunch of white and yellow belt kids who have only been coming to class as of this year and you can see why this is always an exciting time for us. Most of the kids went home with an armload of the wood almost as tall as they were. I mostly supervised and watched, but I had my share of breaking time too, beginning when I was asked to explain how to set up the first break of the night and then demonstrate.

Our class was for the most part, a break from the norm. We did begin with a warm up and a few basics, but then we jumped right into the breaking and games. We played several rounds of dodgeball and one game of kickball. However, our games still required some essential things that we work on in class: Speed, coordination, focus, and good form on the kicks just to name a few.

Another important item of the night was the surprise 2nd part of a brown belt test for my friend and training partner Rachel. Even I didn't know it was coming. Needless to say, she earned her 3rd kyu brown belt! I am so excited for her!

All in all, it was a great night. But our Christmas parties also mean one thing. It's also an 'end of the year party,' which translates to: 'no more Tae Kwon Do class until January the 5th of 2010.'

Oh. No.

I hate having any kind of break from my normal routine of Tae Kwon Do class every Mon/Tue/Thur. So to help relieve some of my anxiety over not having an organized class tonight, I conducted my own 'class' in my driveway. I dragged out all the puzzle mats I have and set them up. After going through a fairly comprehensive warm up, and persuading the cat to stay out of the 'dojang,' I worked on several of my kicks and forms, followed by a 30 minute brisk walk around my street.

So even though I didn't go to class tonight, I still feel fairly satisfied with my at home practice.

As my ending thought, I have a question. What do you do when you are unable to attend class or have an extended break? Do you practice more at home? Get together with some training partners and work out? Sit back and enjoy the break?

Oh, and have a Merry Christmas!

Great News -- The Actual Post

My  plans to write this post yesterday didn't quite work out, so now that I have a good two hours before I leave to go to my Thursday night class, I'm beginning this... erm.... novella-length post.

So....for my great news! How do you like the new blog colors? I thought it was appropriate since on Tuesday, December 1st 2009, I was able to test for my 3rd kyu brown belt! Woohoo! Cue the celebratory music and confetti!

I think I'm still in a state of shock. I think it's because I have been a blue belt for quite a while and I just cannot believe that the day of the test finally came. Even though my instructors gave me a vague timeline for my test date, Tuesday night was still a great surprise, and one the best early Christmas gifts I could get.

I wasn't sure if Tuesday was going to be the night. When we started, the kids class lined up with us since there was going to be a surprise test for two of them. That test lasted a good 20ish minutes, and the two brothers received their new green and yellow belt ranks respectively. Their class then dismissed for the night.

Our class of five students and five black belts divided everyone up. Mr. G singled me out to work on all of my advanced kicks. By this time I was definitely suspecting. The black belts then called up the other blue belt, and then me (separately). I was asked if I felt confident of my four self defense techniques. By this time, I knew what was about to happen.

A few minutes later, the most exhausting and difficult test that I've ever taken began for both of us. I was and am still glad that I did not have to test alone. The testing itself was comprehensive of just about everything we knew, which translates into a very. Long. Time. Not that I kept up with the time, but I do know that we went past class time.

Some memorable events of the night included:

• Starting with Basic Blocks and Punches -- the first set of techniques (that could be called a form) that white belts learn other than basic stances and commands -- and having to start over because we were not putting in quite the snap that the black belts wanted. "We could just go back to 1 steps for the rest of the class night instead of this test if you want...."
• Being told that when we were going home at the end of the night, that we should not have nothing left in us to give. Absolutely nothing. It should all be out on the floor. Basically, we would be dead on our feet, having given everything we had and then some.
• Answering our female black belt's statement to me by saying "Yes sir" and then realizing immediately what I had done and correcting it.
• Demonstrating and teaching my 4 Self Defense techniques that I had been worrying about for months (and months and months) and them going off smoothly.
• After finishing a teaching spar, a spar against a black belt, and a spar against a green belt guy, being told that I had to do a 2 on 1 spar with two of my instructors -- my first time to do so. Ever.
• Focusing on what I was asked to demonstrate so much that at times I forgot about the other students and parents who were watching us.
• Realizing that I really am doing this.

And finally,

• After everything I've worked towards -- all the years I've put in -- all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, and most importantly, all the support I've been given, being awarded my 3rd kyu brown belt.

If you can't tell, I'm ridiculously happy right now. It's just a huge relief. All the anxiousness from waiting and not knowing when it was going to happen after being told months ago that I was going to test is gone. I feel like I have room to breath again if that makes sense.

But that's not to say that I'm going to slack off now. No. Even though I did take a day off, I'm getting right back to work. Since Christmas is coming up soon and my TKD classes will end for the year, I have to stay sharp. Especially since there's going to be a black belt test on January 2nd and I have to be prepared to be involved in that test.

Before I end this post, I'm going to leave one last thought that just came to my mind. It goes well with the last paragraph actually. After the test, one of my instructors talked to me for a bit. He basically said, and I'm paraphrasing: "You think that it was hard at blue belt and that we were critiquing you a lot then? Well at brown belt.... It just got a lot harder. Put that in your blog."

Great News!

So I have some excellent, fantastic, absolutely wonderful news!

But at the moment, I'm dead on my feet -- even though I'm currently seated at a desk. I'm somewhere between asleep (maybe the correct term is passed out?) and a zombified state, so my long, detailed post rant is going to have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Sorry, but I couldn't do it the justice it deserves right now. It's almost 11:30 and I have an eight 'o clock class tomorrow plus a research paper to turn in.

Until tomorrow then!

Have an awesomefultastic night!

Spinning Reverse Crescent Kicks

Try saying that five times fast. If spinning reverse crescent kicks isn't a mouthful, I don't know what is.

I'm keeping this post short since I have an American Lit research essay due in a few days and I need to get back to working on that. Ah, research essays. Don't you love them?

Back to the kicks. As of this past Wednesday (Thursday night class was moved back to Wednesday for the occassion of Thanksgiving), I began learning the spinning reverse crescent kick. I first started practicing a reverse crescent, and then a regular crescent kick on a hanging heavy bag. Since I don't think I can do it justice trying to explain how the kick is thrown, I'm including a link that explains --> Crescent Kick

Later, we began working on the spin. I have to say that this is the most challenging kick that I've ever attempted and yet I am told that once I "get it," it's so very simple. If that's the case -- and I'm confident that it is -- I don't see how it could be true at this point in time. And this is all without having made it to the actual kick -- I'm still stuck on the spin. It's a full 360 degrees, but I don't find that the hardest part. I'm used to: a) starting the spin with the hips when kicking, and b) controlling my kicking leg throughout. This kick seems like the exact opposite. Not only does it begin by getting the shoulders all the way around, then the hips, but the kicking leg is almost limp, and as far as I understand, you don't control the kick the same way as you would say a front snap kick. The trick is all in the setup. The spin winds you up, and the release is when you unwind with the kick.

I'm still trying to figure this thing out. I'm sure it's going to take quite a bit of time, but I will update on my progress as I learn more.

Oh, and since I know that this blog is now known to at least two of my instructors, one of whom taught me this kick -- I have one last thing to say. Next time we work on the spinning reverse crescent kick, we have to use the homemade spin kick table again. =)

You Just Kata Do It!

I can hear the groans already from my bad pun. Moving on....

So I've had a lot that I've been working on since my last post. From the title, you may be able to tell what form my thought patterns have been consumed with. Call them what you like. Kata, forms, patterns, hyung, tul, or poomsae -- that's been my main area of concentration.

In my style of Tae Kwon Do, we have three basic forms and five advance forms before you get to the black belt form Hwa-Rang. I hope I spelled that right...  4th advance is what I call "my" form, as it is the one I am required to demonstrate for my test. I will most likely be asked to demonstrate everything I know, including all of the forms, but 4th advance is the most important for me to nail at the moment.

I know my forms well enough, it's just a matter of polishing them until they shine. What I mean by polishing is that the forms need not to be just technically correct, but they must also have proper snap, good timing, smooth transitions from one stance to another, and a dozen other technical things that I'm trying to keep straight in my head. All that, but also the addition of the constructive criticism and suggestions that I receive from my instructors. Believe me when I say that this is hard work. I have to think about this, but also try not to think about them at the same time. Make sense? Well, in a straightforward way, what I mean is that I need to know the forms inside out -- so well that I could do them in my sleep. Or blindfolded.

Blindfolded. Now that's an idea. I have tried practicing forms with my eyes closed before, which presents a challenge in itself. But never blindfolded when I wouldn't have the temptation to peek. I might have to try that this week.

Anyway, I have been getting a lot of experience with practicing on a variety of surfaces which I will give the pros and cons of.

Away from class, the most common surface is carpet. Rough, awful carpet. I can't stand it. I must be a little too heavy on my feet, because I keep getting carpet burn on the side of my big toe and the ball of my foot when practicing. I think I'm dragging my feet too much. That and my feet keep catching when I slide forward. I can't think of any pros to training on carpet. Maybe if you're only doing hand technique drills and kicks, but not forms. Ugh.

Smooth, waxed gym floor concrete. This is the floor that we have in our dojang. I've been training on this type of floor for years, and I cannot find many cons to it. The only horrors of this type of surface would be in the following situation. Imagine that your martial art class is meeting in the gym/lunchroom area for a church that also houses a school. Picture what training on a lunchroom floor means. Even with sweeping, there's still going to be who knows what on that floor. Now look at your feet and groan with horror and disgust at the layer of black gunk stuck to the underside of your foot. Got all of that firmly in your head? Good. I'll leave it at that.

Regular Concrete. Ie: the concrete of your driveway. Not one of my favorite surfaces. Either you have to put on shoes, or try desperately not to scrape a layer of skin off the bottom of your feet. I'd rather deal with the former, so that's what I've been doing. Most of my at home practice takes place at the bottom of my driveway, which a portion of is at a slight incline. Not ideal, but I make do.

Grass. Again, not my favorite, but better than carpet and regular concrete in my mind. The pros? A somewhat more forgiving surface than concrete. The cons? Grass + dirt + rain = muddy mess. Grass can also be slippery and have hidden rocks and other nasties. Don't forget the bugs and for me, the multitude of mosquitoes that seek me out when I take to the grass at my home.

Lineoleum and Wood. I haven't had much experience with these. I would like to find a place where I could train on the latter, especially if it's a smooth hardwood floor.

I didn't realize I was going to spend so much time talking about training surfaces. It's getting late and I have three classes tomorrow, so I'm going to call it a night.