Kyosa Nim Tried to Kill Us Today

Sometimes class feels like boot camp, and today was one of them. It started when he put his wife at the front of class in the middle of our stretching warm up and she made us jump up and down for a couple minutes. Jumping is incredibly difficult for me (and my husband admitted it was really tough for him too). Then when the instructor was back in front he had us stretching again. I could barely breathe and having done yoga on and off for 9 years I knew I needed to calm my breathing in order to get a good stretch.

The next thing I knew we had our legs spread wide and he wanted us to do excruciatingly slow push ups. The fact that I could do a couple made me feel really good but my muscles started screaming so loud. If I did another one something would snap! "You shouldn't be on the ground right now!" he instructed and I tried again but the pain held me back. Luckily he didn't single me out but frustration filled me because he always notices. I want him to notice that I'm doing push ups every day...not that I still can't keep up. Later I spoke with my husband and he admitted that he couldn't do them all either. This from a man who can do 50 push ups in one session. After that I felt like a little less of a wimp.

We followed that up with squatting all the way down, touching the floor, coming up for a front snap kick (ahp chagi) with the right leg, going all the way back down and coming into a left front snap kick. That was ONE count. I think we did 1o, I lost count about the same time that my legs tried to stop working. My brain would say "Okay, legs, stand up," and they wouldn't move. I wanted to do it so badly but my body just wouldn't concentrate. I finally manged to move in some kind of corny slow motion but I refused to quit!

Despite the fact that I was unable to keep up with the physical exertion, later I marveled at my body's ability to recover. Even though I doubted my ability to move my legs after that, we went right into practicing other kicks and by the time we got to the jumping front snap kick, my legs were back to business!

The day was capped off with a little bit of sparring. I faced off against a skinny tall 12 year old orange belt. I thought I could get him but his technique has improved considerably in the past few months. He got me with a kick right on my temple, I'm still not sure why I couldn't block it. I got in a couple punches to the face (we don't make contact, of course).

My son did a lot better in this class as well. We were threatening to pull him out because he hasn't been practicing or applying himself but today he got two compliments from the instructor and his performance seemed better overall.

What is Tang Soo Do?

Tang Soo Do-Moo Duk Kwan was founded in Korea in 1945. Translated as "a brotherhood and school of stopping inner and outer conflict and developing virtue, according to the way of the worthy hand," Tang Soo Do is a hard and soft style, meaning a combination of hard kicks and punches and soft flowing movements. Hwang Kee (1914-2002) brought together techniques from Soo Bahk Do, Tae Kyun, and Kung Fu to create the physical, mental, and spiritual art of Tang Soo Do. Unlike Tae Kwon Do which uses mostly kicks, Tang Soo Do encourages a balance of hand and foot techniques equally.

According to Grandmaster Hwang Kee:

It is not a sport. Though it is not essentially competitive, it has great combat applications. It is a classical martial art, and its purpose is to develop every aspect of the self, in order to create a mature personality who totally integrates his intellect, body, emotions, and spirit. This total integration helps to create a person who is free form inner conflict and can deal with the outside world in a mature, intelligent, forthright, and virtuous manner.