I may test for 1st dan (aka the school black belt) next week. Emphasis on may. Most of our regulars are college students and they are done this week. After that the campus sees a mass exodus. So there may not be enough high belts to join in the beat down fun.
So we will see after this Wed. night. If the ranks are thin we can just wait ’til January. No big deal there. I’ve been at this 2.5 years and have well past 300 hours in training. So another month is fine by me.
Past that it’s just more polishing. Last night we mixed up the 22 one-steps and spent most of the advanced class working on them. Ours have a high number of rolls and take downs–both for the attacker and the defender. That’s normally a fun thing but not when you practice on a very wooden ballet floor. About half way through I made the comment that “I’d love to see Master C’s students have to practice in here for a month.” To which my instructor replied: “He’d lose half his students.”
I’m not as sore as I thought I’d be but my neck is pretty stiff this morning. My right wrist is also pretty sore because we were emphasizing technique and sabum was in the mood to practice her wrist locks and wrist take take downs.
When you are off even just a little with your technique the wooden floor lets you know. It’s also indirectly desensitizing us to pain so I think that’s a plus. (maybe)
Again with the one-steps: They are all choreographed routines. Some could work very well under the right circumstances. Some have a greater chance of working the longer you’ve been training. While maybe a 1/4 to a 1/3 are just exercises in complicated body coordination, dexterity, and muscle memory. That too has value but some masters sell them all as the be-all and end-all to fighting. More on that in a second.
On focus…
As I prepare for the end (or the beginning?) one thing I’ve really noticed is my focus. Both myself and sabum put in a full day at work then come into taekwondo practice for another two hours. Sometimes it’s a battle to go but once you are there you feel pretty good after you leave. The thing is sometimes due to being mentally and physically tired whatever it is we are working on just goes terribly (especially in the second hour). Then you get mad and focus and are often able to pull it together. That’s a pretty amazing thing when you think about it. It’s also a side benefit from practicing any martial art. Related to that are these:
- Coming to know your body very well
- Knowing your limits
- Knowing what you can do and under what circumstances
- The ability to work around pain and keep moving
- Thinking in terms of multiple steps to land one technique rather than”one techique one kill”
A good example of this synthesis is trying any of your self-defense or one-steps at almost full speed and in a situation that’s as real as it can get. This is something we do a lot of which is something my old school never did. One of our low self-defense steps is a simple escape from a double rear wrist grab. The choreographed routine has the defender stepping into a deep horse stance while simultaneously bringing both hands forward and in front, kinda like you are praying. That’s part one. The next part involves grabbing the attackers left hand/wrist and throwing them.
The problem: If you do part one correctly and with force you almost always break their grip so you can’t do part two. (however, after the grip break you can land a side kick on the opponent to your rear) Well the thing is to practice part two the attacker and defender have to go through part one about half serious which is not realistic. So to test it a few weeks ago I had one of our stronger ex-athletes actually try to hold both my wrists from behind. I could not break the grip with part one. In fact, about all I could do is make it to horse stance then I was done. The ONLY way I could break it was to move into technique the split second I felt his hands on my wrists. Give him time to grab with full strength and it’s game over.
Now I don’t know if this is our particular school, accrediting body, or a result of the “reality fighting craze”. But I do know there are schools that would not break down their techniques like this and would still sell them as the Gospel truth. In fact, the taekwondo school I was at 15 years ago did it that way.
Honestly, one of the best lessons I’ve learned these past few years is what to do when a technique does not work. Depending on your opponent and a whole host of other circumstances, they may not.
The only other things to report are 1) I have a new kick: The jump turning crescent kick. Given time I think I could actually pull this one off in sparring. Owing mostly to my long legs the inside crescent is actually one of my power and scoring kicks.
2) Sabum pointed out that on any of my jump kicks I’m sliding my lead foot about 1″ just before jumping. Not only is this taking away from speed and telegraphing but we discovered it impacts my jump height. Given my age and fat ass I need all the airtime I can get so anything that helps is a good thing!
~BCP
