Finally, Some Height

Make no mistake, at fifty-four (for another month) Soo Bahk Do is challenging.  I'm pretty sure I made it abundantly clear that the hand stuff isn't too bad, but the kicks and jumps are really difficult for me.  As a result I've been practicing every day to see if I can find the right dynamic to get me to where I need to be going.

Due to the four stretch between classes I have ample opportunity to work at all the notes I'm collecting.  As I slowly incorporate them into regular practice, the focus has moved to my more advanced techniques.  One of the hand techniques I'm trying to get used to is the Jang Kap Kwon Kong Kyuk (say that three times fast).  

I can't even describe this very well, but it's a strike to the front and the rear.  The front is a jab, while the back swings around in a 270 degree backfist.  If it connects it cleans the clock.  It's like nothing I've ever done before, but done right feels awesome and looks cool.  I can't say that it would be any use in a fight, but if you have someone behind you, it might work out.  It's all timing and hips of course.

But mostly my learning curve is all about the kicks.  As I've mentioned before neither of my previous schools really focused a great deal on kicks.  Here, the most basic levels have a good deal of kicks under their belt.  So their foundation pretty solid by the time to they get to BB level.  Jumping isn't too much of stretch.

Currently my jump related kicks are a jumping front, a jumping side and a jumping inside out. I'm now trying to learn the jumping back with a turn.  I'd been working with kicking at low pillows, but distance and height have been the enemy, to say nothing of targeting.  

Today there was a bit of sunshine; my practice was incorrect, but it gave me slightly better footing in our work today.  We first saw improvement on the jumping inside/out.  By moving my stance to be perpendicular and launching on both legs at the same time I was able to give a reasonable facsimile of a decent kick.  But we both saw the height go way up. 

We moved on to the turning, jumping, back kick.  I'm going to say that my improvement is measured on increments.  Today I got maybe two increments.  We pulled out the water dummy and set a mark on the floor.  Based on the movement back, we can loosely assume that one inch is about one board broken.  Each inch is another board, etc.

I finally started to see some height here.  I'm hitting about belt level, but I'm supposed to be about six inches higher.  Still, it was miraculous to me.  Targeting was crap though.  I've got a micro second to check the target before it's lost under all the body movement.  

I went home completely ragged out, but pleased about the slight improvement.