Shock And Sadness

I got to class a bit early and Colette was outside walking her dog.  As we went through our pleasantries she stumbled over "the news".  Keith and his family are moving to Texas in a few months!  What!?  He's off to another job, but I thought he was going to be taking over the school at some point!  

I mean I was shocked, but I kept wondering how much it would affect the school.  Keith teaches several classes a day and his wife has been the stalwart teaching the tiny tigers class for years.  I can only imagine what Andy and Colette must be thinking.  Or they just go along with it and sort out what to do next.  Hard to say; they can be very inscrutable.  

The class was very interesting in that we had a new member via Zoom and Keith brought his son.  So the biggest morning class ever for me.  Hah.  But, as I guessed, because there is more than one person I don't get that private lesson attention that I love so much now.  

I also just realized that Andy might not want to do the early class either.  So many questions!

Class today was basics and forms.  Standard but with a lot less corrections because Keith had to pay attention to the new student.  

Sigh, still processing all this.

Deep Sleep To Kicks In A Half Hour

What a start to the day. For the first time ever I slept through my alarm, I slept through my coffee maker starting and was only starting to wake up when the cat was scratching at the litter box.  My wife finally nudged me and told me to get up.  Let's just say I was disoriented.  At least I didn't fall over while trying to get my underwear on and take the rest of the time just trying to get my knots tied on my gi.

My wife told me later she was worried about me driving over to the school.  Thankfully no one is on the streets, but I managed to do a late break so I wouldn't run over an early morning runner.  Figures.

I did my normally but abbreviated warm up this morning at the school.  I run around the room counting in Korean to get my legs moving better.  I start with very modest exercise at the house just wake everything up.  

Andy wanted to complete our work from yesterday.  We had four more wrist grabs/escapes to complete.  I didn't recall these, but apparently I'd done them with Keith awhile back, so it took a bit to remember them.  These four consist of two side wrist grabs and two back wrist grabs.

The back grabs consist of the bad guy holding your arms behind your by your wrists.  In the two different variations, one pulls down and one pushes up.  The push up one we lean over and give a back kick and then step back and switch grips and cycle your arms into a double arm bar.  Once I relaxed it worked fine, but thinking of two wrist releases at the same made my head ache.  

After than we move to Il soo sik. Il soo sik is one step sparring.  That means your partner, the shoe, throws a punch and you do three or four moves against them. For instance, I front kick into an attack, side kick, knock arm out of the way and then do a spinning inside/outside kick, followed by a punch to the gut.

The ones I can remember:

- Sudo the punch, punch the gut, punch the face, round house the stomach
    - Then do it from the left

- Inside block to block the punch, punch the gut, punch the face and then side kick the body.
    - Then do it to from the left

That's four of them and then the ones I did above.  Boy I need a better memory.

Edit:

On one of the techniques we bring down the edge of the hand on the cheek bone.  It's a unique overhand kinda thing.  Andy got a piece of breaking wood out and held it out approximately in the place where we I would hit during the Il so sik.  Boom first try.  There is something other worldly about breaking wood with a hand.  Very reaffirming.  

Eleven Wrists

After the vigorousness of the day yesterday, Andy moved to something a little less strenuous to start us off.  Wrist locks!  Hin So Shul for the rest of us.  I have eleven learned, but unable to recall fully them. In my case Andy goes first and I can do them with less and less prompting, but can't start them by myself.  

Me and Andy were talking about testing in April after I asked if I would get partnered with a more advanced student as a standard.  I was thinking I could handle it if the other guy went first.  No such luck.  You can never tell who your partner might be.  So I have to learn these inside and out.  

As we got further through the techniques Andy said that speed isn't the essence in the exam.  Showing the technique is what is important.  That helps me slow my horses down.  

My recollection, even after two weeks off, wasn't horrible.  Out of the eleven that I know, I think there was about two that needed a complete relearn. Generally, shown once I could reproduce things fairly well.  I'm trying to give them nicknames so I can remember the first move.  That usually helps me to a degree.  

---

As we talked about testing, Andy bought up the April session.  I thought I was going to be in the October group.  I missed the pretest this last testing and thought that had something to do with to process, but Andy went saying that he was going to rely on Keith's report in the next couple of months.  Eek!  

Tenderfoot

Our school got shut down for two weeks due to a Covid outbreak.  Four kids and two adults.  Today was my first day back and I had hoped for a better practice regimen during the off time, but it was about every two days on average.  Good enough that I didn't look like a complete nincompoop, but it could have been better I think.  

Andy is running the classes this week.  He just got back from an eight day test for his 6th degree belt.  It sounded grueling.  7 am to 11 pm for eight days straight.  The cool thing was that Hwang Jang Nim was there and oversees most of the review.  Forty people were testing for high ranks.  One was going for their eight degree.  Impressive.  Andy and Colette won't know about the results for six months.  Huh.

My practice space is in our downstairs family room, which as carpet.  So my practice area is a bit nicer on the feet.  Going back today, and on the hardwood, has left my feet fairly tender.  Ouch.  

I did get a nice compliment from Andy.  He said, "the basics are looking better".  I'll take that!

Popping and Cracking

Just some observations.  

I notice that my ten minute warm up is fairly helpful to prep for class.  SBD uses these stiff legged movements to loosen up the hip joints.  I didn't care for them at first, but now I see they can be used to judge how flexible I actually am.  I notice that when I wake up the popping in my hips can be fairly alarming, but as I warm up I notice that goes away and I can test the range of motion without fearing that I might hurt myself.  

I gather when we sleep, fluids and gases accumulate around joints.  An example is cracking one's knuckles.  Hip joints are just bigger pops; at least on me.

Keith and I worked on wrist grabs for most of the day and then finished up with some one step sparring.  It's getting a little bit more fluid, but I can't remember them very well.  I have to have Keith give me a prompt.  He pointed out that a regular student would have had plenty of practice learning a few at a time over the course of their career.  By the time they get to my "level" they should have most of it memorized to the core.  For me I'm learning everything all at once.  Ugh.  

Just working on push-ups.  I forced 40 this morning which required two stops (I just downward dog for a rest).  Only 15 to go this morning.  

Looking forward to a weekend of possible sleeping in.  Hah!

Kicks And Throws

I feel like I should be sitting on an icepack while I type this.  My back is fairly sore, but I'm able to bend pretty well.  Today was was basics and kicking drills.  Since Keith is slightly out of commission due to a pulled back muscle (not from beatings) he brought his son in to act as my partner.

First we did the basics.  I'm getting better, but the Korean is still tough on me on three or four of the techniques and I have some skill issues of course, but none of this contends with what the son has to go through.  He starts out where my mine is getting challenging.  I feel for the guy.  They are tough.  He starts out at jumping kicks.  

After that, which felt like a lot more work than I remember, and only doing three or four of each, we moved over to the kicking drills.  Now that I've done this a bit more I was excited to see what I could remember and/or do well/or not.  Although there were plenty of corrections I have one that really frustrates me.  The jumping inside to outside kick.  You have to jump with both feet at the same time, swing the kick to the outside and then back straight down and then land carefully.  Both the son and me weren't landing our kicks very gracefully.  Thankfully Keith didn't grimace.  There was probably too much to correct, hah.  

One kick that worked out better was the jumping roundhouse.  Today was the first time it actually looked a bit better.  No compliments, but no corrections, so I count that as a positive.  

After we finished the kicking portion we moved to one-step sparring.  We picked up where we left off - today was 13 and 14.  Back up with a knife hand (back stance), and then grab hand.  Round house kick, let go and outside to inside kick to shoulder.  Jump to the side of baddie and sweep the leg and press back with arm and Shoe goes down.  

It sounded pretty good, but the son and me managed to have all sorts of problems.  Including our falls.  I'm usually good with that, but haven't had to go down in years.  Thus my back feeling it.  And, as per usual, Andy and the others start showing for class and get to see us in all of our uncoordinated glory.  No one makes fun, but we are a mess.  

Nothing vaguely this cool.

 

Pushing Through

As I'd like to be better at the techniques, I practiced Saturday, Monday and Tuesday so I wouldn't look too shabby today.  I think this pays off, but I should probably be practicing Saturday and Sunday regularly.  Somehow the weekends get away from me.  

I turned 55 this Monday and as I mentioned, progress is pleasing at this point in my life.  As part of this progress I set up a deal with my self to do 55 push ups a day for 55 days.  I'd done something like this in my late 30s with 100 push ups for 100.  That was a tough start, but this seems tougher.  I'm only a few days at this point, but my chest is telling me I've got some growth to go.  

In class, I somehow thought I was going to rip right through the basics, but we ended up working on them for 45 minutes.  As usual the kicks present an issue for me, but as we progress Keith has been able to diagnose a lot of the reasons why one side is better than the other and then help me fix that pretty quickly.  That is super fun.  

A case in point was my spinning back kick.  One side is good and other, not so much.  Meaning I'm kicking low and losing my balance after the fact. 

The corrections:

• moving my non-kicking foot into proper location
• bending my weight supporting knee significantly and keeping it that way
• depending on the kick; I need to twist up tight to spot correctly
• keep the torso pointing downward, ahead of the spotting
• and so on

I'm sure I'll be revisiting this quite a bit, but today felt like I had two big fixes and they felt great.

No Youth And Some Vigor

Kicking drills.  I'm not sure why I'm so excited by them, but in the course of talking about class to anyone that would listen to me blather on, I found that my new found enthusiasm seems to be based on the fact that I'm turning 55 in a few days and I'm not stressing about getting older for the first time in a long time.  Why you ask? I'm mentally in a good space, I don't have any florid physical problems, and then there is the martial arts.  

SDB is turning out to be just what I needed when I need it.  Even though my growth in this style is modest, I'm able to see it.  So, although I'm getting older I'm able get feedback that I'm getting better at something.  And it's a physical thing!  We're supposed be getting slower and smaller and all that.  And I'm avoiding that for a little bit longer!  

Today's positive feedback was actually after we did the kicking drills.  I was asking about breaking and how frequently we practice that.  Quick answer - not that often, but as I get closer to testing I'll practice with wood, but in the mean time it's pads.  

Keith pulled out the the water dummy and explained the set up of the kick (jumping, turning back kick) a bit better.  Jumping kicks are set up in a corner stance and offset from the target.  So when I turn and duck down for the jump, I'm able to spot the target and the kick lands easily.

I was able to repeat this three times in a row at the appropriate height!  He then set the dummy on a line and and wanted me to put force into the kick.  If I can move it back two inches then that equates to two boards.  

I smashed it and it moved back the requisite two inches!  Whoop!  I just have to keep that up!  I was floating by the time I got home.  Too much adrenaline.

---

Note - It would appear that if you concentrate on where you place your feet following the execution is as important as the kick itself.  It turns you in the air better, etc.  

Soon baby!

Robot Kick

We started the day with Ho Sin Sul, (wrist locks and escapes) which is interesting, but I wasn't totally awake yet.  I would say that by halfway through the class I was able to keep up and do a reasonable job, but by that time we'd gone through so much material I not actually sure what I was able to retain. 

There are thirteen wrist locks and escapes (I think) which are done in succession from one side and then the other.  We do cross hand grabs, same side grabs, two on one and two on two.  I still have to so sides and the rear, but the learning curve is significant.  Back in my old TSD school we went through this so I'm fairly aware of the ideas, but these are all slightly different.  

After getting through the two on two grabs we moved over to Il Soo Sik (one step sparring).  I think there are eighteen of these.  We were focusing on where we left off (maybe number 12?) and jumped into some complicated ones.  The last one we worked on was a front kicked followed by a turn and back kick, a big block and then a punch.  I was starting to not look like a robot and then Keith had me to do the technique on the other side.  Back to robot.  

I never thought I would say that I was happy to go to kicking drills, but that's tomorrow.  Gotta stretch out fully tonight and tomorrow.

Just like that

Japanese Or Korean Accent

I miss going to beatings on my off days, but by the end of the week I'm fairly exhausted and I experience some dread getting up and working as hard as we do. This comes from my light sleeping and waking up early.  I love sleeping in when I can and it's become very hard to do over the years.  Since I get up at five for beatings, I need to get to bed fairly early to be fresh.  I doesn't always work as the week goes by.  

The belt exams were during the weekend and we could sign in and watch via Zoom.  This was a unique method and I loved it because I could sit at home and enjoy the process in my sweats, drinking coffee.  I was able to watch a few fellows from my school go for their first (cho) and then watch Keith go for his (Ee).  The format had changed a bit so instead of rest breaks between skills they had to go all the way through.  So exhaustion was a big issue.  

I also found out that the exam is not strictly pass or fail.  Well maybe if you blow enough of the sections it's a fail, but of my three, two folks have to go back in a few weeks to redo a section.  Once your cohort completes the redos all the testers get their belt.  

Since I opted not to do the pre-evaluation I won't be able to test in April which might have been a possibility, but I'll end up testing next October and I "should" be squared away by then.  My pre-evaluation will occur in April.  

---

Today was basics and forms.  What I found in the test was basics are performed in threes.  So it's pretty fast.  I finally figured out that was what Keith was running me through.  He would add one or two more for techniques that needed a lot of love.  Out of the thirteen basics I have, about three or four that really need fine tuning.  I'd like to see those improve for sure, but I understand that in any martial art I'm always going to get a lot of finer and finer detail to address things.  

After we finished going through the forms a few times Keith collected his thoughts. I can't give you the verbatim, but this is my best recollection.

"I can see when you do Nihanshi and Passai, that you are bringing your history with you.  When you do Chil Sung - since you learned it here - that you are doing as we would do the form.  You still are showing your Karate roots in the other forms.  All the pieces are in place but we need to you move over to the Korean side of the house.  It's like speaking with an accent.  We want to you to develop a Korean accent."  

Gotta work on that accent!

Ookie Shoe

 As per usual, Keith and me were twisting and kicking all through the class.  We went through all the wrist grabs (14?) and then moved on to one step sparring.  I think we got to seven.  While I did my elementary moves in a halted, uncoordinated fashion, Keith would do his more complicated higher stuff - practicing a bit for his test tomorrow.  This ended up being a bit jarring from time to time as the impact was a reminder to loosen up instead of eating kicks and grabs.  

Talk about a flashback.  I remember the shoulder discomfort from this stuff from back in my TSD days.  I'm going to be so sore.  Ugh.  

Andy asked me if I was going to do the pre-eval at the end of class.  There wasn't any pressure, but I realized as I was driving home that I didn't want to do it where I wasn't with other people around.  Weird.  It wasn't like anyone was going to feed me the lines anyway, but I can imagine flailing around in my basement trying to guess at what Korean was being said on a zoom call.  Somehow that was more embarrassing?

I'll watch Keith and Bill test tomorrow to get an idea of what the test looks like in action.  

In Japanese styles the guy that throws the punch and gets tossed around in tests (and practice) is called an Uke.  It's pronounced "Oo-kay".  In Korean the term is Shoe.  I have no idea how it's spelled yet.  Keith has a sizable volume of partners work for his test and Andy is going to be his Shoe.  Hah!  

Aww Yeah!  Bill should walking away with the Midnight Blue!

Fitness Alert!

I got another message from class - My fitness extends to kicking drills and then I'm starting to tap out.  I was told today by Keith that the process goes Basics then kicking drills, then self defense, then breaking, then endurance (120 punches in 30 seconds) and then forms.  Holy cow!  I was gassing at the end of the kicks.  Granted I'm not great at them which means that I'm working harder than necessary, but over all pretty tiring.   

Colette sent me a message yesterday asking if I was going to participate in the Friday evening pre-evaluation for potential black-belts.  I didn't even know what it was.  As far as I can tell, they run through the test to see what areas to work on.  On top of that I'm not sure if they wanted to me to show up at the school or do something via zoom.  I'm really not great at interpreting stuff via text or email apparently.  In the end I don't think I'm even ready to do the eval because I can't understand the words for stuff just yet.  Keith said I should be ready by March.  I'll take him on his word there.  

He and a couple of others will travel down to Camus tomorrow evening and take their tests while we can watch via zoom!  Pretty exciting stuff.  At least I can see the protocol and all that.  

I've come to find that being the morning zombie class of one is rewarding, but keeping up with the school is tough.  I feel like I'm missing a lot.  

Not me.  Photostock man is way more handsome

Testing, But Not Me Thankfully

The Dan test weekend is coming up so my teacher, Keith is going to be heading off with a few others to show their stuff.  He's got a tremendous heel bruise, that looks horrific, from some hard practice.  He was a bit ginger during class, but ended up doing jumping axe kicks without any problem.  If he was having a problem it didn't seem so from my point of view.  

To prep for this week I made sure I practiced the last two days and sorted out a few more of the errors I've been making.  Namely a jumping side kick followed by a punch.  I'd been leaping incorrectly - I should have been turning in the air to use the rear foot as the kicking foot.  And I totally forgot the lead foot pumping to get me more height.  Ah well, that's sorted out now and looks a bit better.

Today's class was basics and we ran through that fairly quickly with corrections on only a few items.  Better?  Maybe.  

We ended up on forms where there was a plethora of corrections.  I'm good about remembered a third at best.  You skip a couple of days and it's all down hill I swear.

---

I'm coming up on my 55th birthday and have meditated on it a bit.  The only real question is how long can I be this active doing this kind of thing?  I would like to be able to keep doing this with the assumption that I'll get better, but I think the consensus is that you don't get better as you get older.  That doesn't appear to be true though, at least not in my case.  I'm getting more comfortable with the kicks and jumps and even a little bit with the Korean.  

So I'll update my profile in a couple of weeks and keep moving forward with the thought that I'll get better.  

One Day Week

My wife has been gone most of the month so I've had some difficulty stabilizing my life. Trying to get to bed on time and eat right; stuff like that.  Last week I did pretty good and, as always, it makes going to beatings so much easier.  

I've only got space in my schedule for one class this week and that was this morning.  And as usual, my enthusiasm wakes me up at least an hour before my alarm.  To my knowledge I've only slept to the alarm once.  So I started waking around 4 and tried to force myself back to sleep.  That didn't work.  So I tossed and turned for 40 minutes and finally got up.

I had plenty of time to warm up at the house and practice forms so when I got to the school I didn't have too much to do to get ready, which is nice!  More stretching and practicing roundhouses.

Because it's a one day week Keith and I decided to focus on Ho shin sul.  This is the self-defense/one-step sparring.  There are ten (I think!) and we got up to nine.  It's really five techniques, but you have to mirror the technique.  So the attacker delivers a right punch and you either attack or defend from the right side and then the left.  

I started out with the basics to get warmed up. I can tell that my technique is good enough when he doesn't make a comment. I can track some progress in this fashion.  Of the 13 basics I have four or five that still need tons of work, but each time they are getting better.  

Note:

I finally got to have lunch with another student this weekend.  Bill is going to be testing for this BB in a couple of weeks.  He said that I might be getting a pre-eval myself.  No one has mentioned that, but I can't imagine that'd it would go well.  He said it was a modest skill check and the big heads give you feedback.  That sounds reasonable.  

Clear-headed Beatings

Almost looks like a prep for a Peet Chai Kick

I hit the ground running this morning.  I went to bed at the correct time and slept through to the alarm (7.5 hours!), woke up refreshed and alert.  Did my light warm up and petted the cats.

Got to the school early as usual and started my newish routine.  I run counter clockwise while counting in Korean for three or four laps and then switch direction and do the same again.  Then I do a bunch of chair height squats and then start stretching again.  If I have time before Keith comes in, I do roundhouse kick preps. Not actually a full kick, but bringing my leg up and making sure my ground leg is bent.  It's just a way to check my balance and get hips a bit warmer.  

Since the schedule was bit off today, Keith had me run through a few basics to warmup and then move on to Forms.  I finally had a thing sink in today!  Defensive use of hip versus offensive.  In defensive use, the hip follows the block and the Offensive hip rotates back very far to match the striking arm or leg.  

After going through a lot of nitty-gritty we worked on my three forms, Chil sung ee ro, Nihanshi and Passai.  Each one got a lot corrections and review which ate up the whole class time, but what I drew of the work today was running the form like it was Tai Chi.  It forces use of slow twitch muscles instead of the fast twitch and causes me to think which completely unravels the form.  

My prescription is to do the form fast and then slow and then try to find the speed somewhere in between.  Weeee.

Modest Day

I made sure I went to bed right on time last night because I wanted to be well-rested and squared away this morning.  Unfortunately, my excitement about getting to beatings meant that I got up earlier than I hoped.  I think I was up at four thirty.  I just spend the time lightly warming up here at home and having some coffee for a few minutes. 

I thought my second day of the week was forms, but because Keith's son came to class again he wanted to get partner drill time in.  I was only familiar with the first four partner drills.  They are based on a single attack (punch) from the partner and then you, as the defender, respond in a pattern of moves.  It's usually a block, punch to stomach, punch to face and then a kick to body or face.  These change slightly in the beginning and get more complicated as we progress.  I was able to get to seven today.   

Due to my general lack of coordination that burnt the whole day.  I'm sure Keith was hoping to get farther, but there was a lot of attention on the details.  

Note:

Andy saw me struggling with the jump kicks yesterday and said, "since you're over 50 you don't need to do those.  You can replace them with a hand technique".  Figures.  I'm sticking with jumping since I can do it and I'm getting slightly better as time goes on.  

Sweating, Spinning, and Jumping

I took a week off to go back East to visit my Dad.  I had only intended to miss a few days of class, but ended up taking all of last week off due to jetlag.  Apparently it's getting harder for me to recover from flying West than it used to.  Anyway, it was great to get back to class today, but my practice was intermittent so I wasn't feeling confident.  

My practice consists of doing the three kata and the thirteen basics and maybe a few hand techniques if I can remember them.  This takes about a half hour and it leaves me completely drawn.  I talked with Keith about it and he explained the exam is broken up so there are some rest breaks involved.  But to improve my anaerobic conditioning he suggested doing two hundred punches a day.  Gads.  My practice for the 120 in 30 seconds has left my rear delts completely torn up.  I'll have to go slow to do his recommended work.  

Today was basics and kicking drills.  Even with inconsistent practice I was able to forget certain pieces that I thought were really good and in place. I also had to correct three or four that I'd been practicing incorrectly altogether.  Yeah Korean.  

After sweating through the basics, which includes three jumping kicks, it was on to the kicking drills.  I generally like this kind of thing, but I was in rough shape.  It starts pretty simple, and gradually gets more and more complicated.  We go to the last three which require a spin and jump.  I'd soaked my gi (dobok) at that point and never so thankful that the time ran out.  

Incremental improvement!       

Quick Note Before Vacay

It's day two in my sequence of training and that means forms! I generally love doing them and corrections are usually easy to put into place, but today there was a few too many to absorb.  

I've been practicing once a day and have been trying to knock off the errors that I can see.  Today I found that I'd been practicing a few things incorrectly - as per usual.  It's a standard for me.  Since we are doing three forms and there was multiple fixes I need to right things down pretty quick to remember stuff.

Bassai:

• first U punch is a slide over
• first crescent kick after the ball grab, stand up straight first before kick
• stomp louder
• at stomps at blocks before elbow fist strikes

Nihanshi

• get low and stay that way
• more hips!

Chil Sung

• get low
• timing is an issue.  I keep thinking about what the next move is, but forget there is timing in every form.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow and won't get a class in till next Friday.  Lots of practice at my Dad's house I'm guessing.  

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.

 

Kicking To Happiness

Il so sik and Ho sin sul

Part of the Soo Bahk Do curriculum is self-defense (Il So Sik), but based around wrist and elbow locks.  There is eighteen of them and I'm supposed to be demonstrating proficiency in them at some point. I made it to nine today so I'm half way as it were.  Thankfully many of them are one side and then the other so it cuts down on remembering something super new.  

The second area is Ho Sin Sul which is one-step sparring. Your training partner initiates action with a single punch and you do two to four response moves.  The standard response it do block, do two strikes and end with a kick, but there is a bunch of these to explore.  I'm not sure where I'm at with these, but they are fun and engaging.  

I was doing well today and this could be attributed to a few things.  My work week has been horrible this week.  10 hour days and unendurable stress.  So bad that I can't sleep.  However the magic of beatings is that you go in and for an hour you can't think about anything else and you can come out whistling or singing until the world catches up to bite you on the ass.  

I worry that I'm too tired to do the class, but yesterday Keith worked me so hard that I thought I wasn't going to walk right ever again and today Andy kept me going straight through.  

The benefit of sleeplessness is that you can get up early and spend a lot of extra time getting warmed up.  When I left the house this morning I was already sweating.  I had two cups of coffee and was ready to go.  I got to the school early and ran while counting in Korean.  Pretty good start!  

Not me at all