Sick Hands Bro 2

Well, my face is red.  I was so pleased with my memorization of terms from yesterday that when I walked into class this morning and started talking about Il Soo Sik I was crushed when I found that we were working Ho Shin Sool.  Hah!  Wrist escapes are Ho Shin Sool!!

Il Soo Sik mean Il (one) Soo (hand) Sik (techniques)or in English one step sparring.  Sigh.  That post title is hot fire and completely wrong.  

Andy SBN was my teacher again this morning and we went back to the wrist grabs at my request.  We had done six yesterday, but my notes weren't particularly helpful in remembering what to do.  

So we spent the whole class just working on number one (Il Bon).  My knee is pretty warmed up and stiff now that I'm sitting, but the moves might actually be sticking for once.   Andy and I talked at length while I sorted out the dynamics so the class was done in a moment.  

Notes on Il Bon:

• Move to corner stance.  Right foot out.
• Role right hand to palm up to break cross grab.
• At the same time sudo to the neck with left hand.
• Left hand chop comes with front stance to right.
• Right hand palm to face in left front stance.
• Left hand groin strike while in right front stance.  Ki-Hap.
• Right chest hold in left front stance.  

The moving back in forth is done on the heels, which is new to me.  I can do this fairly well at a slower speed.  As I ramp up speed my stances look/feel shabby.  Andy tells me that I can keep to the lower speed because the testing board well be looking at technique.  Sounds good to me.  

Sick Hands Bro!

Just some quick notes for today.  SBN Andy is back after his medical hiatus and apparently good to go.  My normal guy Keith JKN is out for a few days so the private lessons continue just with another teacher.  Where Keith focuses on basics, Andy focuses on the wrist grabs and one-step sparring.  So I end up having a full range of items that I'll be expected to know for my future testing.  

Wrist grabs and releases are called Ill Soo Sik.  I think I can remember Il (Sick) Soo (Hands) Sik (Sick again).  Double sick hands bro!  

The releases come with a follow up of three strikes.  So it feels like one-step sparring with a bit of purpose.  Beware anyone that grabs my opposite wrist standing in front of me, hah!

Andy told me that I had 19 to learn altogether for my cho don exam (1st degree black belt).  That's sounds daunting to me now, but if I practice this regularly this will hopefully become automatic.  

Like my Tang Soo Do school from almost a decade ago I'm back to using some borrowed Aikido.  One of the old moves (wrist twist) is back with corrections.  Keeping my hands in front of me instead of behind my head keeps me from being sat on my butt.  

My biggest note was that the first two techniques were difficult to get going, but after that everything went easily.  I'm not sure if it was me waking up or relaxing and not over thinking.  Maybe both.

• Elbow release, palm to mouth, palm to groin, side hand to chest
• Wrist rollover, forearm to wristlock, elbow to head, turn to do elbow to chest.
• Elbow release, back fist to nose, fist to groin, ridge hand to ear.
• Push release, left chop to neck, palm to face, palm to groin, side hand to chest.
• Missing one?

Ouch!

I Pity The Fool Who Can't Jump

I'm not sure if Tae Kwan Do does this, but as you go up in levels of belts difficulty gets compounded.  For instance a same side punch goes to a opposite side punch (to your stance) as you go up next in rank.  Same with kicks.  The first kick is the front push kick and now I'm around the 6th Gup it's turned into a jumping front kick.  Not horribly complex, but you have to push the hip forward in the air, which I found complicated.  I got it fairly quick, but it was challenging.  

In my mind I thought, "this isn't going too bad since it all echoes stuff I've done over the years".  And then we got to the jumping spinning back kick.  Good gravy.  

I'm writing down the steps so maybe I can remember a bit.

• back stance - hul gul
• front leg goes up for prep for turn
• jump while turning body
• front leg should end up with heel toward target
• back foot becomes kicking foot
• tons of stuff I'm missing

Rebuilding this kick over and over again was pretty tough.  Targeting, keeping my knees bent, etc.  

Mr. Mack is going out for the next two days so I'll get SBN Andy to torture me for the next two mornings.  He's off the sick list and back in the game.    

Here's a little example that's slightly different from what I learned this morning from the Ginger Ninja.

Early O' Clock - Day Three

I'm not sure one gets used to this schedule, but today was day three of the 5:45 schedule.  Today was all about one-step sparring.  I'd learned various forms of this at my old Tang Soo Do school.  Basically your opponent gives you a punch and you work on a predetermined response so long that it becomes ingrained at a neurological level.  Of course you work on basics the whole time, which in theory, making you better in all areas.

I was really appreciating the prolonged warmup today.  My muscles are struggling to adjust to most of the hip based work we do for punching, blocking and kicking.  The full twists are loosing up long dormant tendons and muscles that have shrunken and tightened.  I notice that I'm pleasantly sore this morning versus Tuesday evening where I couldn't even move a few steps without groaning.  

To warmup we did the first three forms for SBD.  Super basic "I" shaped stuff to make sure you know how to move, turn, block and strike.  Mack JKN ran me through each to make sure I remembered the forms and then ran them all together.  One of the eight concepts of SBD is En Neh (endurance), so if I overdid the muscle work on this I would be exhausted by the end.  Mack was pointing out that I was giving nearly 100% effort, so I needed to relax a bit to make it through.  

After that, we went to the one step sparring.  The first set is a knife-hand block, middle punch, high punch and a round house kick.  Seems simple right?  I ran into timing issues, stances issues, Eye contact issues and a shoddy kick because I kept straightening my leg.  Sigh.  

I think I improved by the end of a class, but I have to practice during the weekend so I don't forget what I've picked up.  Definitely need to practice roundhouse kicks.  

Me in action this morning

Early O 'Clock - Day Two

It was a long day yesterday due to the lack of sleep and all the exercise, but last night I slept great or at least it felt that way.  I notice my sleep app always seems to give me a slightly worse review that what I feel like I got.  Ah well.  I woke up sleepy, but not wrecked and went directly to beatings were I got some more warm up time.  

We worked on a few review items from yesterday, but moved on to the next rank up basics (7th).  The posters with Korean are still a bit of a mystery but some of the words are finally sticking.  Front, side, stance, etc.  It makes things a bit easier to absorb, but I have to ask for things to be repeated slowly so I can maybe learn a word each class.  

One new block, two new punches/attacks, one new stance and three new kicks.  

• Outside to inside block -  feels like a strike to me, but instead of started at the ear we now just come from the shoulder.  
• Side punch - new mechanics with more hips
• Elbow attack - which is a new one, but I saw a little kid try to break a board doing this.  Lot of power can be generated in the hips
• Back stance - I would say it was a modified cat stance.  Heels line up, so I'm using different thigh muscles.  They want me low.  Ouch.  

Kicks

• stretch kick, stepping behind - dear god, thankfully this isn't extreme.  It feels incredibly painful if you push it.  Swing your leg up while stepping through backwards.  Yahhhh
• step through side thrust kick - back to kicking above the belt and trying to keep my balance.  My god that's tough.  The added dynamics to do this SBD style is maddeningly difficult.
• spinning rear leg side kick - sure, why not make is harder?  Supposedly easier because of forward momentum, but I love to straighten my down leg so balance just goes away.  Weee.

Wrist lock escapes

• twist your wrist and add three strikes
• twist your wrist while striking and then add three strikes.   

I'm hoping to do this a bit more since they don't feel sunk in after one session, but tomorrow should be one-step sparring which isn't necessarily tough, but remembering patterns at 6am might be a challenge.

I asked today where I need to be looking during an attack.  Directly in the eyes.  It was so intimate it made me laugh.  I'm used to looking at the spot where the shoulders meet the neck.  Less intimate?

First Official Break!

Due to the many exciting things going on in my life at any given time, taking time for martial arts can be a challenge.  My wife and me are preparing a rental and doing work in our new place, so an afternoon class breaks things up too much and I can't get things done in a consistent fashion.  

Fortunately, the school offers a class at 5:45 in the morning.  No one has been going so one of the trainers has offered to start it again for me.  It's basically private lessons!  

Today was my first day (we are going to try Tue - Thurs) and I was surprised I was able to shake off the sleep and get going.  Mack JKN ran me through all my basics and we worked on language whenever we could.  As usual, working on basics is a continuing kind of thing.  You're never actually done, but I'm bottom rung in this process.  I'm literally retooling my punches and kicks.  To be specific I feel like I'm learning kicks for the first time.  Back when I was in Tang Soo Do we did a lot of kick basics, but it's long since gone in my memory.  However, I cannot remember this level of scrutiny in the mechanics.  

Since my world view in martial arts is shifting quite a bit I realize the focus in my Shudokan school was kata driven.  There were kicks, but really most of the time we focused on how to do them well enough that the kata looked good.  Soo Bahk is definitely focused on generating power within a technique and technique is a huge focus.  

To wit - To show that you can do the technique you have to break some wood.  In my TSD school we didn't break because of the cost of wood.  Island life made that an uncomfortable price and my teacher didn't want that outlay.  In Shudokan it never even came up.  So I have belts in two arts and never broke anything (not entirely true as we played around with it at TSD with plastic boards).  

After spending a lot time breaking down my kicks and rebuilding them, Mack JKN slid a board holder to about my chest height and put in a plastic breakaway board. The framework holds the board with bungies and has a pad in the back so you have something you crash into.  

So I did a roundhouse and made modest contact and the board fell on the ground.  The next shot went well and the fake board shot everywhere.  Too much gas apparently.  Mack JKN pointed out that I was far beyond where we working and thought I could do more boards.  Oh my.  

Who knows what will be on tomorrow's plate!

 

Kyum Son Means Humility

Last night was test night, but the kids classes are the standard organized pandemonium that seems prevalent in any martial art school.  This is compounded by a rigorous schedule.  I showed up a bit early to warm up, but that wasn't going to happen because there is a class directly before the one I was supposed to attend.  

So I sat and stayed quiet while one of the most patient people on earth tried to teach some four and five year olds how to do a presentation for a video submission.  I kept saying in my head, "bless her heart," and "what a glutton for punishment."  

Once they bowed out the next class was getting organized.  Colette SBN was trying to get a video participant on line squared away and a field of eight to ten year olds organized for their videos.  While another Jokyo worked on basics with them Colette grabbed me and another 8 year old to work on our basics for our "test".  I wasn't clear on the test part as it seemed super informal in my case, but it consisted of all our basics, one form, sparring with me and breaking a board for my diminutive partner.  With four feet in height disparity I felt that I had the advantage, hahah, but I have to admit the kid wasn't intimidated.  Since it wasn't a contact thing we spun around each other and chucked kicks and punches at one another until Colette called it about two minutes in.  

At this point I assumed we'd have a formal test in front of a judging table, but she stopped at that point to get the video submissions of all the kids for the virtual tournament. So I sat with the kids while one by one they got up to perform.  As you can imagine the lack of experience for an eight year old who just started a few classes ago lent to some dramatic revisioning of the basic forms.  It was a bit hard to watch at times but everyone was very supportive.

So my question was did I take a test?  I'm not really sure, but I did everything pretty poorly.  My struggle with Korean is an ever present obstacle and then there was the constant corrections.  I don't there was one item that didn't need a fix and Colette was there pointing them out.  Ouch.  Right in the pride.  

Due to the mayhem that was the class and the next people coming in as we bowed out I didn't get to find out what was what, but I was left with this comment, "we'll keep working on this basics for now."  Ouch. Right in the pride.  

The Danger Of Speaking Too Soon

Yesterday was our video submission for the national and international tournament.  We spent the bulk of the class refining our moves on the forms.  I was working with Jokyo Nim Holman (JKN from now on).  He was submitting the same form so we just dug at it for the first 45 minutes.   

Mine wasn't perfect, but way better than last week.  I made one obvious error and I'm sure many things could be improved, but given my time with the form I was pretty please.  JKN Simonis was very complimentary in saying that I simply corrected my mistakes just being told once.  It must have been a good day for me.  Hah.

When we were lining up for the class to complete, Colette SBN mentioned testing.  I was partially tuning out because I was trying to remember Korean words.  We'd just been given eight on Monday and I was struggling as per usual.  My attention returned to her as she started talking about testing in the next class.  I realized she assumed that I'd be participating.  Wait, what?  Apparently, I'm going to get run through tests for each rank.  So this would be the equivalent of a white belt exam.  Unfortunately, I had already committed to work with my wife, so I had to offer an alternative.  

So today I get to test in the evening with a bunch of children.  This should be wildly hilarious.  Thankfully I'll get to wear a mask to reduce overall embarrassment.  Maybe nobody will recognize the fact that I'm six feet plus amongst people who are about three feet plus.  That's fine.  

I'll report in tomorrow about all this goes.

Stress Free Test Prep

Things continue to improve for our main teacher since the previous Friday.  He was back on his feet a few days after getting knocked flat.  The final thought was that he had a heart attack, but it didn't appear to be the case.  To confirm that, today he goes in today to get an angiogram.  I have my fingers crossed it'll all be good.  

While the school evens it's keel, my program has remained the same.  Practice the basics, learn the words and work on Chil Sun Ee Ro to get ready for the virtual tournament.  It's not a lot of time to practice, so I'm a little concerned that I'll be turning in a substandard video, but the nice thing about this is that you can take continuous takes until you feel good about it!  Nice.  

We had most of the class out yesterday so it was just me and Mr. Schwartz being led by Jokyo Simonis.  She's pretty impaired by MS so she just tells us what to do and if I run into a problem with the Korean she tells me in English.  If a demo is needed Mr. Schwartz does a demo.  

Mondays, I have figured out, are basics and forms.  Since I'm essentially a white belt at this point I'm running through basics and trying to reinvent my personal wheel.  My current list is:

- Middle Punch
- High Punch 
- Middle Punch Opposite Side
- High Punch Opposite Side
- High Block
- Middle Block
- Low Block
- Knife Hand Block
- Stretch Kick
- Inside Outside Kick
- Front Thrust Kick
- Round house Kick - Rear Foot
- Round house Kick - Step through
- Round house Kick - Shuffle forward

I'm probably missing something here, but focused on my horrible roundhouses.  Everyone reminds me that I'm just coming back, etc, but I always thought I was so good at them.  My balance is shabby because I straighten my ground leg and I can can't quite look over my shoulder and hip anymore due to flexibility.  By the time we finish that section I'm starting to warm fully and become more stable.  

Colette and Andy SBNs have been working very hard behind the scenes on my behalf, which kind of embarrasses me. I really didn't walk in with any agenda other than working out, but they definitely want me to have my 1st/2nd Don via transfer, but it means they have to do political wrangling on my behalf.  So they go up the chain about what to do and how to go about it.  So they don't want me to buy a dobok (gi) until they sort out my perceived rank.  As part of this they seem to really want me to get rid of my Japanese belt.  Especially for the virtual test.  Colette has been trying to find a midnight blue belt (SBDs version of a black belt) for a few weeks with no luck, but Andy popped out last night to say high to the class and waved me over.  He gave me one of his old belts with his name covered!  I'm not sure I showed enough appreciation since we were in the middle of the class, but I think I'll send a message today about it.  

I need to wear my oldest gi tomorrow so I don't stand out too much and wear Andy's belt.  

Teacher Down!

We've had a lot of activity at the school in the last couple of days.  Our main teacher fell ill on last Sunday afternoon.  He's a diabetic and went into a near coma.  He finally got out of the hospital yesterday and the doctors were concerned that he may have had a heart attack which would have created the issue.  It now looks like he's going to need an angiogram.  He said hi when we were starting class last night and looked pretty good considering.  

Class was led by an older teacher who called the work, but mostly sat down.  Very nice lady and one of the instructors took over any demonstration.  

We ran over basics, which for me is the mostly humbling experience. Everybody does the basics for their level of experience so the guys on other side of me are jumping and spinning and doing all kinds of combos while I struggled through doing punches and blocks.  Kicks were pretty tough as well.  

After we did that, it was back to working on Chil Sung (form).  I'd been thinking it was a pretty simple form for a dan test, but as it emerged judges examine how all the basics are played out in the form to tell if the student is meeting the criteria for physical knowledge.

Punches and kicks (via the SBD method) are dramatically different from what I've been doing for the last couple of years.  The idea is still to generate power and place your punch and landing all at the same time but the execution is vastly different.  In SBD we put our shoulder and hip back so the body is almost sideways.  When the punch lands, you are driving the hip and shoulder as well as the arm into the punch.  It feels incredibly powerful, but setting yourself up is massive.  Maybe that'll come more naturally in the future.  

Kicks have a similar restructure.  SBD closely looks at the form (don't all schools!) and it's all about cocking the physique and on impact forcing or rolling the hip extract all the power that can be had.

This morning I'm stiff and my back is groaning.  I'm going to take it as a sign that I did really well, hah!

Virtual Beatings

Years ago my buddy Todd would playfully scold his dog, but saying, "beatings!"  After laughing because the dog saw it as an invite to play, I stole it for my karate class at the time.  Everyone in my circle called it beatings from then on.  At my new SBD school it hasn't come up because of the generally serious nature of things there.  But in my mind it's a filler word for many of the things said.  

Each week we have a have a word or concept to focus our development.  This week was Moo dan(?) jaseh.  If I have the words correct, it means "martial stance."  I won't bore the readers with reading into that, but as the teacher went into that all I could think of was "beatings!"

Because my normally expansive jocularity is being suppressed, I'm actually paying more attention and have a better idea of what's going on in class.  When the teachers were busy for a minute I asked a few of the other students about the upcoming virtual tournament.  I'd never heard of one and they didn't seem to know much about it.  As if by providence, Sabom Nim started talking about it and I just assumed my newness precluded me from participation.  I was wrong.  She was encouraging all of us to participate including me.  

Apparently, this was a one off due to the plague so they are doing the national and international tournament via video submission.  So no sparring, but just forms.  Since I'm a tentative first rank they want me to submit something and that ended up being the form below.  Fairly simple, but a requirement for a first dan in SBD.  So I'm to refine this as much as possible - see below:

Sorry about the editing.  Anyway, this will hopefully look more refined in the next couple of weeks.