Christmas Party

Last night we had our first Christmas party at the Scappoose location of World Champion Taekwondo. Master Eric said that he was a little nervous, but he did a great job. We started with a performance from the demo team. We did hand techniques, kicking combinations, tae guk pal jang, basic breaking, flying side kick, jumping front kick, power breaking, punching and the student creed. It was super-fun.

Next we all went across the hall to the next room for a pot luck dinner. There was a lot of food. It was all really good. Then we returned to the dojang for some games. We started with family limbo, so that if one member of the family fell, then the whole family was out. It was fun. My children cheered me on each round. Then we reversed it, so that instead of trying to scootch under the belts, we tried to jump over them. This quickly became dangerous as children enjoyed diving over the belts and they came very close to falling on top of each other.

The next game was a quiz game. This was my favorite. I got to show off. Some of the questions were:
(1) Where did taekwondo originate? (A) Seoul, South Korea
(2) When did taekwondo first appear at the Olympics? (A) 1988
(3) When did taekwondo become an official olympic sport? (A) 2000
(4) Who is the highest ranked taekwondo athlete in the United States? (A) Steven Lopez
(5) What is the name of the world taekwondo headquarters? (A) kukkiwon
(6) How many campuses does World Champion Taekwondo have in Oregon? (A) Seven
(7) Where are the seven campuses of World Champion Taekwondo? (A) West Union, Saltzman, Murray Hills, Monroe Park, Lake Oswego, Gresham and Scappoose.
(8) Who are the masters at each of the seven campuses of World Champion Taekwondo?
(9) When and where did Master B.C. Kim win each of his five world championships? (A) 1989 Taekwondo World Cup in Cairo; 1989 World Games in Karlsruhe; 1990 World University Games in Santander; 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona; 1993 World Championships in New York.

After the quiz game, we had a talent show. Monique did a cool dance. Chase and John did some self defense techniques. Dominic and Jared did some nun-chuck techniques. Samantha sang a Taylor Swift song with Jason and Jacob as backup dancers, and then a boy whose name I forget read a really cool story that he wrote for a contest. It was about a Halloween bat. The story he wrote won the contest, and the contest organizers turned it into a play.

After the talent show Tristen's mom presented Master Eric with a photo album. Then we bowed to the flag and said our good-byes. It was a great evening.

My 11th Belt Test

Last night (12/8/2011), my nine-year-old daughter and I participated in our 11th belt test. We have been studying taekwondo at World Champion Taekwondo for 33 months. We advanced from red belt to black stripe. We were the only two in our belt group. We began the test at 6:15pm. Our instructor, HyungMin Jun (aka Eric), called up the red belts. He had us do jumping jacks and pushups and more jumping jacks. Then we did basic punching and Hand Technique Number 3 and Kicking Combination Number 3. I lost the count during the kicking combination, and we had to do it again. I was breathing heavily by then, so I was glad he didn't ask us to do our form next.

Next, we did self-defense and one-step sparing. My daughter went first, so I had the chance to breathe a little bit. Betty (green belt) came up to work with Samantha and Nancy (brown belt) came up to be my partner. She was a very good partner. The self defense technique required the attacker to grab my sleeve, then I spun my arm around her hand, locking her attacking arm before throwing a punch to the solar plexus, a c-strike to the throat and an elbow to the face. Then, I grabbed my attackers belt, stepped forward, placing my foot behind hers and threw her down to the floor before delivering a final punch to the face. Of course, I did all of this without actually hitting my partner.

The one-step sparring sequence was a bit less complicated. The attacker began with a round house kick. The defender slid back before delivering a spinning roundhouse kick followed immediately by a spinning hook kick. Getting the spins right is pretty tricky, and I could actually use a lot more practice. In an actual sparring situation, it is unlikely that I would have actually hit my target with either kick.

We finished with our form: tae guk pal jang. This has been one of my favorite forms. It has two jumping kicks and couple of really cool hand techniques in slow motion. I made a mistake or two, but I was able to compensate and continue. He didn't ask us to start over or do it again. Then we sat down, it was 6:30 pm.

Next, the brown belts stood up and did nearly the same thing except that they performed a different form. Only Nancy and Robert were in attendance. Bert had tested earlier because he knew that he would be out-of-town today. Claire had a fever this evening. She will probably miss the demonstration tomorrow, too. I expected to see J.T., but she wasn't there. She is moving to Texas later this month, and she said she was going to do this one last belt test, but she didn't make it. Deacon also stood up with the brown belts even though he is a blue belt.

When the brown belts finished, the green belts stood up. My six-year-old son was the smallest among them. They were the largest group. I think there were seven: (1) Nick, (2) Tristan, (3) Trinity, (4) Betty, (5) Eladio, (6) Jacob and (7) Jason. They went through all the same things as the two previous groups, except of course, they performed a different form.

For the grand finale, we all stood up with our boards. We read our philosophies by belt group. Then we read our bad habits. Then the children promised their parents that they would change their bad habits. Then we lined up for breaking. The green belts and blue belts went first. The green belts broke with hammer fist and the blue belt broke with elbow strike. Then the brown belts broke with with spinning roundhouse kick. I remember Nancy needed two attempts. Then the red belts lined up to break with spinning hook kick. I needed two attempts, too, but I made the break. Master Je Kim held my board for me. He told me I had a nice spinning hook kick. I love it when the masters compliment my kicks.

Next, Master Eric asked all the children who would be earning their fourth or eighth star to please stand up. The children are awarded stars if they earn ten stripes in the quarter. The earn stripes by showing a good attitude at home. Only Eladio stood. My six-year-old son had three stars on his uniform, but he hadn't earned ten black stripes, so he couldn't earn his gold star and trophy tonight. There had been some tears at home about that, but I had decided to be stricter about signing for those stripes, and so they hadn't earned as many. Samantha was up for her 10th (and final) star. She was the most devastated about not receiving one tonight. I rather hope that she is recognized at the Christmas party this year. One interesting change this test: they awarded medals to the adults. Since adults don't participate in the stripes program, we don't usually receive medals at the test. We did not receive gold stars for our uniforms.

The very last thing were a whole bunch of announcements. The school is restructuring some things in the new year. First, Master Eric is adding a Level 4 class for brown belts, red belts and black belts. The Saturday class is specifically to prepare for the black belt test. By adding brown belts to this class, it makes me think that maybe Nancy, Bert, Claire and Robert will be able to test with me and Samantha in April. I hope so. It will nice for the school to have so many black belts. On the other hand, adding a Level 4 class means that I won't be able to attend classes with my son anymore. He is in Level 3 (green belts and blue belts). That means I will be putting in some time on the bench with the other moms.

He also announced a change in the way that they teach forms, self-defense and one-step sparring. In stead of each belt learning a different form, self-defense technique and one-step sparring sequence. The four belts in the same level will all learn the same one, then they all learn a different one for the next quarter. It will rotate each quarter so that everybody still learns everything, but they learn it together. This way, it will take up less class time and hopefully improve the quality of the instruction for everyone. I think it will be a good change, but it won't affect me, since I will soon be starting on the black belt forms, self-defense techniques and one-step sparring sequences.

They are also changing up the weekly themes. The attitude stripes I mentioned above follow a weekly theme: (1) respect, (2) appreciation, (3) cleanliness, (4) responsibility, (5) love and thanks, (6) above and beyond. There are 12-14 weeks in each quarter, so the themes repeat. Now, they are adding a corresponding monthly theme: (Jan) goal setting and self control, (Feb) love and positive attitude, (Mar) perseverance and team woke, (Apr) integrity and sportsmanship, (May) respect and responsibility, (Jun) se;f-discipline and focus, (Jul) cooperation and forgiveness, (Aug) organization and determination, (Sep) courage and friendship, (Oct) confidence and courtesy, (Nov) leadership and motivation, and (Dec) self-esteem. The instructors will take a minute to discuss each theme at the beginning or end of class each day. I imagine this will be something like the Scoutmasters minute in Boy Scouting. And the students will wear a colored rubber band to represent each theme, a different color each month. These rubber bands look a lot like the popular Live Strong bracelets. The rubber band will be considered a part of the uniform and must be word to class each day. I think the program will be a nice addition to the curriculum. I hope they are not so big that they fall right off my sons small wrist.

Tae Guk Pal Jang

There are many sites on the Internet, which offer instruction on performing the forms of taekwondo. They vary widely, partly because instructors refer to the same techniques by different names, but mostly because people just write things differently. I am intrigued at the notion that although we are all doing these forms exactly the same way, we are all talking and writing about them very differently. It's really easier to learn forms in class than it is to learn them from written text, but I think this is helpful. I wrote this out to help me study for my test (December 2011), and I offer it up to anyone who might find it useful. If you note any errors, please let me know. Thanks.


Tae Guek Pal (8th) Jang is represented by the symbol for earth.


From the Joon Be (ready) position (facing north):

1. Step forward with the left foot in back stance and perform a double middle block with the left hand, then immediately move left foot to to create a front stance and perform a middle punch with the right hand.
   
2. Perform a jumping front kick with the left foot. KI HAP! (yell) Land in front stance, left foot forward and perform an outside-in middle block with the left hand, followed immediately by two punches.
   
3. Step forward with the right foot into front stance and perform an middle punch with the left hand.
   
4. Turn 270* to the right into front stance right foot forward (west), look back (east) perform a low block with the left hand and a middle block with the right hand (also known as mountain block).
   
5. Turn both feet 180* to the left into front stance with the left foot forward (facing east) and perform an upper cut with the right hand in slow motion (8 count).
   
6. Step back with the left foot into cross stance with the arms crossed in front of the chest and look right. Step forward with the right foot into front stance left foot forward (east), look back (west) and perform a low block with the right hand and a middle block with the left hand (also known as mountain block).
   
7. Turn both feet 180* to the right into front stance with the right foot forward (facing west) and perform and upper cut with the left hand.
   
8. Turn 90* to the left into backstance (left foot forward) and perform a double knife-hand block with the left hand, then shift into front stance and perform a middle punch with the right hand.
   
9. Perform a front kick with the right foot. Bring the right foot back behind the left foot in tiger stance and perform a palm block with the right hand.
   
10. Turn 90* to the left in tiger stance with the left foot forward and perform a double knife-hand block with the left hand.
    
11. Perform a front kick with the left foot, landing in front stance with the left foot forward and perform a middle punch with the right hand, pull the left foot back into tiger stance and perform a palm block with the left hand.
    
12. Turn 180* to the right into tiger stance with the right foot forward and perform a double knife-hand block with the right hand.
    
13. Perform a front kick with the left foot. Bring the left foot back behind the right foot in tiger stance and perform a palm block with the left hand.
    
14. Turn 90* to the left into back stance with the right foot forward and perform a double fist low block.
    
15. Perform a front kick with the left foot followed immediately by a jumping front kick with the right foot. KIHAP! Come down in front stance with the right foot forward and perform an inside-out middle block with the right hand followed immediately by a middle punch with the left hand and another middle punch with the right hand.
    
16. Turn 270* to the left into back stance with the left foot forward and perform a single knife-hand block with the left hand. Shift into front stance (left foot forward) and perform an elbow strike with the right hand followed immediately by a back fist with the right hand and a middle punch with the left hand.
    
17. Turn 180* to the right into back stance with the right foot forward and perform a single knife-hand block with the right hand. Shift into front stance (right foot forward) and perform an elbow strike with the left hand followed immediately by a back fist with the left hand and a middle punch with the right hand.
    

My second demonstration

On Friday night, July 30, 2011, my taekwondo school performed a demonstration at the Scappoose community festival at Veterans Park in Scappoose, Oregon. It was the second time I have been involved in a taekwondo demonstration with my school. I performed a power break as part of the grand finale. I stood up with three other adult students to break through ten boards with a hand technique. My hand technique was chop. I only broke through seven boards on the first strike. I think part of the problem was that we were performing on grass. It was a little bit soft and squishy, so the boards moved away from our hands a little bit.

My eight-year-old daughter also performed in the demonstration. She also appeared in the grand finale power break. She also did an axe kick break earlier in the demonstration. She did a flying side kick and self defense routine.

The demonstration opened with a form in which ten students demonstrated blocks and punches. My favorite part was when the transitioned from a high block and a chop to a punch. It looked really cool, reminded me of a scene in Kung Fu Panda 2.

The demonstration was a big hit. Lots of applause. I think we signed up a lot of new students.

Taekwondo Day Camp: Day Five

Today, Friday, July 15, 2011 was our last day of day camp. Today we didn't start with a run. Today we started out writing letters to our parents. Most everybody wanted to write about how much fun they were having at camp, and how grateful they were that their parents had paid to send them to camp. My six-eyar-old son wanted to write me a list of gifts he would like to receive at the earliest appropriate moment. My eight-year-old daughter was much more sentimental. I wrote my father a get well soon card. I received an email yesterday from my mother explaining that he has an infection in his foot. He's been in the hospital for a couple of days, but they haven't made any progress on slowing the rate of infection.

After we wrote letters, we did our conditioning drills. We did the drill where we form up a line and we zig-zag between our team mates. It took a bit of practice to get the turn right. Then we did the same basic thing, but we sat down and took turns jumping over each others legs. I only recall winning one of these events. We mostly came in second.

After our conditioning drills, we played dodge ball. My team, the green team, paired up with the yellow team and the blue team paired up with the white team. It was great fun, but I don't think we found a winner. After playing a rather basic game of dodge ball, we played another version in which one team dodged and the other team threw. It was fun to see who might be the last man standing.

We did kicking drills and forms and nun chucks today. He taught us Nun Chuck Form Number Two. It's quite a bit more difficult than Nun Chuck Form Number One. There are fifteen single nun chuck forms. There are about ten double nun chuck forms.

At the very end of the day, Instructor Eric explained to us why he asked us to pick one person to stand up as the best team member and one person to stand up as the worst team member each day. Sacrifice. Since we had to pick a different person each day, some one had to sacrifice part of their ego for the good of the team. This was to teach us that none of us can do taekwondo without our team. Master Kim is an Olympic Gold Medalist, but he has also said many times, that he did not win his gold medal alone. He had his coach and his team mates and his parents all supporting him, and without them, he could not have won a gold medal.

Taekwondo Day Camp: Day Four

Day Four proceeded very much like Day Two and Day Three except that our runs were longer again by one minute each. On Day Four we played capture the flag again. My team did better than we had done on Day Two. On Day Two, I think we came in dead last for the capture the flag tournament, but on Day Four we came in second. In spite of this proud showing, we continued to lag behind in our total points. I believe it had to be because I am so very slow during the conditioning drills. I forgot my ice which was sorely missed. We practiced with our nun chucks again. I was mostly too tired to blog about the day afterward.

Taekwondo Day Camp: Day Three

Day Three proceeded very much like Day Two except that both of our runs were longer by one minute each. We played another soccer tournament on Day Three, and my team won again. In spite of this proud showing, we began to lag behind in the points. We didn't practice nun chucks today which was a little disappointing. We did have a great time. We were all a little sore and a little tired, but we were all very happy to be there. I also began to notice that not everyone was washing their uniform every day. I brought ice bottles to use on my feet during lunch, and this helped a lot.

Taekwondo Day Camp: Day Two

Today I can admit that I was tempted to complain that yesterday's workout was a bit light. I felt no such temptation today. We began with a five minute run. Every time Deacon (our fastest runner) completed ten laps, we switched directions. After stretching, we ran conditioning drills. Some of them were relay races for points. We had trouble with one of the drills and we had to repeat it many times before we got it right.

Then, we played capture the flag. I would not have thought it possible in so small a space, but we had a lot of fun. My team lost our first game but we won our second, placing us third in the tournament and earning us six points.

After all at running around, we took a little break and did some reading. Of course, the tendon in my foot tightened up something awful while I was sitting, and I limped rather heavily as we started our next thing: kicking drills, but they loosened up after a bit. Kicking is my favorite. Instructor Eric had us do a tricking kicking drill where we did a roundhouse kick followed by another roundhouse kick with the same leg. We had to make a funny switch between kicks in order for them to both be back leg round house kicks.

After kicking drills, it was time for lunch. We take a whole hour break for lunch even though it only takes about 20 minutes to eat our lunch, so that our food has time to settle. With nothing to do, a few students got in trouble (again), but most everyone else got out their nun chucks to practice their form. I was surprised how many students had practiced. Almost everyone had the form memorized.

After lunch, we started with three minutes of running. This time we switched directions every time our slowest runner completed ten laps. Instead of blocking and punching drills we practiced forms. We did basic forms numbers 1, 2, & 3. It has been a very long time since I had done those forms. I was surprised at how quickly they came back to me.

Finally it was time to practice with our nunchucks. I was really surprised that everybody was so much faster than me. I'm slowest at almost everything except maybe punching, but I practiced a lot with my nun chucks last night. Thought I would be amazing, but I'm still the slowest. Oh well, a good reason to keep practicing.

Taekwondo Day Camp: Day One

On Monday, July 11, 2011, I joined my eight-yar-old daughter, Samantha, and my six-year-old son, Jason, for a five-hour day of taekwondo day camp. We arrived at the dojang at 9:00 am. We warmed up with some jumping jacks and some pushups. Colin lead the stretching, and they we divided up into four teams. Instructor Eric called out Monique, Claire, myself, and my eight-year-old daughter Samantha as team captains. There were four students on each team. Jason (age 6), Jacob (age 9) and John (age 10) were on my team. We received a green sheet of poster board, so we were known as the green team. We also received four colored sheets o construction paper. We each drew a picture on our sheet of construction paper and pasted it to our poster board. Then, Instructor Eric mounted the poster to the wall and that spot in the room became our team base. The poster board would also be used to record our team points for the week.

Then we faced off in a soccer tournaments. Two players from each team faced off for one minute. Then we rotated in other players. My green team won our first game against Claire's white team. Jacob and John played well together, and so did Jason and I. I also tried pairing Jason with Jacob and then with John, but neither of those pairings worked out very well. Then, Samantha's blue team lost to Monique's yellow team, so we played the yellow team - and we won again! Then Samantha's blue team won a match against Claire's white team. Instructor Eric said we are going to continue with tournament play liek that each day, and at the end we will be awarded points for our team. I'm not sure why we were not awarded the points each day, but I'm sure it will make sense before the end.

After soccer, it was time to do some reading. Each students was asked to bring a book. Two students forgot, so they were set to work reading the student manual. That did not really hold their attention very well. My son Jason had some trouble in that he has not yet learned to read, so he wanted me to read his book to him. I thought that would be hard to do without bothering everybody else, but it didn't matter. He wasn't listening any way, so I was able to read to him VERY quietly.

After reading, it was time for kicking drills. We paired off and held targets for each other. I was paired with Claire. We practiced front kick, face-high front kick, round house kick, face-high round house kick, and axe kick.

Finally - lunch. I think I might better eat a bigger breakfast tomorrow, so I don't get so hungry before breakfast. The lunch break was one hour. It didn't take most of the kids an hour to eat their lunch, but it was important that we didn't get right back into it so that our food could digest a bit, and we didn't end up vomiting all over the dojang (yuk). So Instructor Eric had us lie down for nap time on the mats. It soon became painfully evident that I was in a room with mostly 10-year-old boys. Everyone thought it was incredibly hilarious to make snoring, burping and farting noises. :rolleyes: Instructor Eric was kept pretty busy taking care of the trouble makers.

After lunch it was time to work on our blocks and punches. Everyone was able to earn lots of points for their team during this activity. John was the star of my team. He performed the entire punching sequence quickly, powerfully and without any errors.

And finally, the very last 30-mnutes of camp, we received our brand new foam nunchucks! We lined up and spaced ourselves out so we wouldn't hit each other, and Instructor Eric started teaching us the first nunchuck form: spin-down, spin-up, figure eight, over-the-head, one-hip, the other hip, and KIHAP! It was surprisingly difficult, but tons of fun. I can't wait for tomorrow!

My First National Tournament

On Saturday, July 2, 2011, I competed in the 2011 ATU National Taekwondo Championship. The ATU (American Taekwondo United) is an association of mostly Korean masters of taekwondo in the United States. Among other things, they sponsor a national tournament every year. This year it was in Los Angeles. Last year it was in Texas, and next year it is scheduled to be held in Atlanta.

I qualified for the tournament by placing second in forms and first in sparring at the state championship earlier this year. My friend Dominic also qualified, and he traveled to Los Angeles to compete, too. We both competed in forms and sparring. The tournament also offered team demonstration competition, but no breaking competition.

The tournament started on time at 9:00 am with forms and sparring competitions for competitors age 5-11. I did not know many competitors in this age group, but TEAM OREGON did bring a few. I think Jessica lost her match 16-19, but it didn't look like she was upset or injured. Madeline took first in forms and second in sparring. That's quite excellent. Austin did not win his match, but his competitor's lack of sportsmanship is more noteworthy. Whenever he scored a point, he shouted, held up his hand in victory, and looked to the referees as if to make sure they saw it. In my opinion, this sort of thing violates the spirit of humility that is supposed to be a trademark of the martial artist, and I think he should have received a warning and a point reduction if he was not able to behave better. Martial arts is not worth doing if it's not going to be done well. If you need to be a braggart, you should maybe study western boxing instead of Asian martial arts.

The opening ceremony was supposed to begin at 12:00 pm, but the first group took a very long time, so the opening ceremony began at 3:00 pm. It was a nice ceremony. The masters and grand masters were briefly introduced. The president of ATU and the president of California ATU made very brief speeches. Then there was a parade of flags. First the US flag and then the flags of the fifty states. Then the referees filed in followed by two competitors representing all of us. Someone sang the national anthem. They did not play the Korean national anthem. Nor did I see the Korean flag displayed. The referees took their oath and the competitors took their oath.

After the opening ceremony, the team demonstrations began. The team I liked best took third place. I liked them best because even their "dance" moves were actually taekwondo techniques. For example, they used low kicks to simulate a shuffle. They also used synchronized hand techniques to cover the transitions between breaking techniques. Many other teams create two distinct segments. I liked this better. Another team had rigged their boards to explode when they were broken. They attached a small firework to each board. They used the type of fire work that is designed to explode when you pull two strings in opposite directions. They attached the end of each string to opposite ends of the board so that when the board broke the stings were pulled apart and there was a spark, a pop and a puff of smoke. It was very exciting. The winning team was very deserving. They also had a very exciting demonstration. The most notable moment was when the men all removed their long sleeved white shirts to reveal black tank tops. Some of them were impressively muscled. They finished the last bit of their routing in this costume change.

After the demonstration teams, it was finally time for everybody else. The program called for the 12-17 year olds to do forms and sparring first and then for the adults to go, but it was getting late and everyone was tired and wanted to go home, so they ran the two groups simultaneously. This was very complicated for Erica who was entered in both. Apparently if you are 17 and a half, then you can compete against 17 year olds and also against the 18 year olds , so she was running back and forth like crazy. I haven't heard yet how she did.

My friend Dominic is 13. He's a black belt. He competed in forms against three other 13 year old black belts, and scored in second place receiving a silver medal. Then he competed in sparring. I didn't see his match, so I'm not sure how many competitors he faced, but I know that he won his first match and lost his second. He received another silver medal!

Forms competition is divided up into weight classes the same as sparring. Doesn't make sense to me, but there it is. It makes sense to divide competitors by age (at least the children) and experience (belt), but what's weight got to do with it? At any rate, there weren't any other competitor's in my weight class: heavyweight, age 41-50, red belt. (I actually wear a brown belt, but at this tournament a brown belt is considered low red, so my division was red belt.) So they put together an exhibition match. We all win gold for showing up, but we still get to compete against each other. My exhibition included a 20-something blue belt and a 30-something red belt. We all received first place, but we had a moment afterwards to compare scores and my score was actually highest. I scored 25 out of 30 points (8.2 + 8.5 + 8.4). Not great scores. I don't think. I would have been much happier with some 9s, but I didn't get nearly so nervous this time as I did the last two times. This is a point of great personal improvement for me and I'm very excited about it. I hope to do much better at the next school tournament.

Just like forms, there were no other competitors in my weight class for sparring, so they put together another exhibition match. I fought a 20 year old red belt named Alicia who was significantly shorter and lighter than myself. Alicia is from California. She beat me 8-5 primarily because most of my kicks were landing quietly. I was kicking her hard, but they weren't making any sound. This was very frustrating. Two other problems I had were (1) that I tend to stop after I score, giving my opponent a beautiful opportunity to score, and (2) I failed to attack my opponent when I really needed the points. Alicia had to go on to fight a 50-something black belt. She was a lot slower than Alicia, but she liked to use back kick, so she gained a lot of points at first, but Alicia was able to compensate. I think she even got in a head shot. She won 15-8 (or something like that.). Age matters in this game, but we all received gold medals in spite of our scores :-)

Between Alicia's match with me and her match with the black belt, there was a match between two adult men. They were black belts and they were big. I would estimate their age between 25-35. They looked terrifying. At one point in the match, blue, who was six inches taller than red, backed red up against the time keepers table, and kicked him in the nose. I don't know why the referees allowed it. I guess he was technically still inside the ring. He had one foot in the ring. The timekeepers table was probable too close to the ring. Red was mad! They called a timeout and EMTs attended to red's bloody nose, and they were able to finish the match, but red finished the match angry. He was not able to close the point gap, and he lost the match, but he was able to injure his opponent, who limped out of the ring. I can forgive red his poor sportsmanship. Pain has made me behave badly. I understand. But red's supporters booed blue when he won, and that is not cool. We can do better than that.

My second tournament

My second tournament was 05/07/2011 (a year and a half ago). I competed as a red belt. It was sponsored by my school association, same as my first tournament, but this one was billed as a state championship and a qualifier for the 2011 ATU National Taekwondo Championship in Los Angeles in July.

I entered sparring, forms and breaking again. I was a lot less nervous during my forms competition, but I was still nervous. I received second place again.

I remember that I only broke 5 of my boards this year. Last year, I broke 6, but I hurt my hand. I think I was afraid to hit it so hard this year. A friend of mine from Scappoose was also entered in breaking, and she powered through 8 boards! She's the only woman I've ever known to break so many at once.

This year, they found three women to put together in a sparring division. My friend and I and a woman our same age who was wearing a junior black belt that was too small for her. I suspect she earned it as a child and is now working towards her second dan.

My friend fought her first and lost. She was really frustrated, and she really wanted me to beat her. I did, but just barely. She was a tough competitor, and I was barely holding my own. At the end I was really tired, but I was frustrated, too. In the last seconds, I punched her really hard, squarely in the chest. She took a step back, stunned, leaving her open to a roundhouse kick which scored me the winning point.

I was really happy, but I remember that one of the referees said something which made me think that he was disappointed with my win. He said that she was really tired. True, she had just fought a round, and I went in fresh, but that is part of the sport. It wasn't very nice of him to say that.

I brought home one gold and two silver that day. My daughter brought home 1 gold (breaking), one silver (sparring), and one bronze (forms). She was really disappointed that she didn't do better in forms. She is always the first in our class to memorize her forms, but she likes to do them fast. She isn't very careful to them right. She was proud of her silver medal in sparring, and she wanted me to take her to nationals, but she didn't beat anybody. There were only two fighters in her division.

My son also competed that day. He brought home 1 gold (breaking), and two bronze (forms and sparring). This was his first sparring competition, and I remember that his opponent kicked him really hard in the chest. He said that his heart moved from one side of his chest to the other, and he did not wish to continue the match.

My eighth belt test

On Monday 03/07/2011 I took my eighth belt test at KnK World Champion
Taekwondo in Scappoose, Oregon. I advanced from blue belt to brown
stripe (a blue belt with a brown stripe). It represents two full years
of taekwondo study. This time next year, I will be preparing for my
black belt test. This was my first belt test without Master Jason
Leitzke. He had been my instructor up until he enrolled in nursing
school in January. It was a little sad to test without him. Our new
instructor is Mr. HyungMin "Eric" Jun. Our test was scored as usual by
Grand Master Byong-Cheol Kim, but Grand Master Je-Kyoung Kim was not in
attendance. He has only ever missed one other belt test. I imagine his
schedule did not permit him to be in Scappoose that night.



My test began at 7 o'clock and included green belts, blue stripes and
blue belts. The white belts had tested at 6 o'clock and the yellow and
orange belts had tested at 5 o'clock. Our school doesn't have any brown
belts or red belts yet. We do have one black belt (first dan) and one
black stripe. He will test for his first dan next month. Sometimes
they attend our belt tests as assistant instructors, but they did not
attend tonight. There's been a lot of flu going around. I hope they
are not ill. Their absence made me high belt, so I lead the bowing
ceremony. It's pretty simple and easy enough. I just have to say:
"Attention, face the flags, bow. Attention, face the grand master, bow.
Attention, face the instructor, bow." But I have to say it all in
Korean, and I couldn't' remember the word for grand master, so I just
said the word for master. No one corrected me, so I guess I didn't
offend anyone.



We started with some jumping jacks and some stretching. Then, the
instructor asked the green belts and the blue stripes to sit down. And
the blue belts did some pushups, blocks, stances and punches. There
were only four of us: me; my friend, Heidi Peck, my eight-year-old
daughter, and her six-year-old son. We did our self-defense and
one-step sparring (which seemed to me a lot like a self defense move).
Our self defense move started with an attacker holding a knife on us.
We slapped the attackers wrist from both sides with our hands, causing
him to drop the knife. Then we jumped up, spun around and kicked him in
the chest with a back kick. Our one-step sparring moved started with a
bear hug from behind, we dropped to a bent knee position and trust out
our arms to break our attackers grip, then we placed two elbow strikes
in his ribs, jumped up and placed a back kick in his chest. We
practiced lots of back kicks in preparation for this test.



Our form this time was Tae Guk O Jang. It was a little complicated
because it featured lots of back fist strikes and middle blocks which
look almost the same, so it was challenging to perform them both
precisely enough to tell the difference. I had a little trouble keeping
my back foot down during all the front stances, but at least we didn't
switch stances constantly like in our last form. The form also features
a side kick with a punch. We've never done a kick and a punch at the
same time before, but the best part was the hop. After the last kick,
we hop forward, land in cross stance, perform a back fist strike and
yell. It's a pretty cool finish.



After our form, we lined up to kick a target. We did round house kick
and back kick, four each with each leg. Grand Master Kim complemented
me on my back kick. He said that I had very good form. I felt seven
feet tall. I've been working really hard, but my back injury has made
every thing very difficult these past few months. I think maybe all the
work I've been doing with my physical therapist to improve my posture
has made me a better martial artist. Who would have thought?



Then we sat down, I was a little surprised. It didn't seem like we had
done very much. The green belts and the blue stripes took the floor and
did their pushups, blocks, punches, forms and kicks. There were eight
of them: four green belt and four blue stripes. It seemed like they did
more, but maybe it just took them a little longer because there are more
of them. I remember Master Kim had a lot of praise for one little boy
who showed much improvement. He's a shy little guy that mostly just
tries to keep up by copying his brother. They look the same size, they
might be twins, but they are very different in temperament.



Their self defense moves included throwing their attacker to the floor.
Mr. Eric made a great show of falling very hard as usual, but two
students: Mr. Rob and Ms. J.T. move really very fast, so I'm not sure if
he was just showing off, or if he really did fall that hard. I tried
throwing my partner really fast like that once, and I dropped her right
on her head. Since then, I've been very careful about my self-defense
routines.



The next thing we did was to read our philosophies and our bad habits.
I wrote that my bad habit was eating junk food, but Master Kim
remembered that was my bad habit last time. I did not remember that, so
I tried to think of what it was last time, and my friend, Mr. Bert
reminded me that last time I said that my bad habit was spending too
much time playing video games - everyone laughed at that - again.



We all broke our boards without any trouble. Blue belts used an elbow
strike to break their boards. My eight-year-old daughter received a
trophy and a gold star for having an excellent attitude for the past
several weeks. I think all the children earned their trophies this
time. At the test, they did NOT have new belts for us. They have been
ordered, but they have not arrived. That's always a little sad and
frustrating and anti-climatic, but they did have two very exciting
announcements. First, they will be having four session of summer camp
at our school in Scappoose, so the kids can come and play taekwondo all
day long for $150 per week. They are even going to teach them some
nunchuk routines. Second, they will be going to Korea and China in
June. I wish I could go, but they need the money by the end of the
month, and even though it's only $3300, I just can't put it together in
time, but I have started a plan to get it together for next year. My
eight-year-old daughter is planning to raise her share of the money with
a lemonade stand!

Tae Guk Oh Jang

There are many sites on the Internet which offer instruction on performing the forms of taekwondo. They vary widely, partly because instructors refer to the same techniques by different names, but mostly because people just write things differently. I am intrigued at the notion that although we are all doing these forms exactly the same way, we are all talking and writing about them very differently. It's really easier to learn forms in class than it is to learn them from written text, but I think this is helpful. I wrote this out to help me study for my test, and I offer it up to anyone who might find it useful. If you note any errors, please let me know. Thanks.



Tae Guek Oh (5th) Jang is represented by the symbol for wind.



From the Joon Be (ready) position:

1. Turn 90* to the left, stepping with the left foot in front stance and perform a low block with the left hand.
   
2. Turn 90* to the right, returning to ready position, look left, and perform a hammer fist strike to the left with the left hand.
   
3. Turn 90* to the right, stepping with the right foot in front stance and perform a low block with the right hand.
   
4. Turn 90* to the left, returning to ready position, look right, and perform a hammer fist strike to the right with the right hand.
   
5. Step forward with the left foot into front stance and perform an outside-in middle block with the left hand followed immediately by an outside-in middle block with the right hand.
   
6. Perform a front kick with the right foot, coming down in front stance and perform a back fist strike with the right hand and an outside in middle block with the left hand.
   
7. Perform a front kick with the left foot, coming down in front stance and perform a back fist strike with the left hand and an outside in middle block with the right hand.
   
8. Step forward with the right foot into front stance and perform a back fist strike to the face. KI HAP! (yell)
   
9. Turn 270* to the left (so that you are facing 90* to the right) and step with the left foot in back stance and perform a double knife hand block with the left hand.
   
10. Step forward with right foot into front stance and perform an elbow strike with the right hand (left hand holds right fist).
    
11. Turn 180* the right and into back stance and perform a double knife hand block with the right hand.
    
12. Step forward with left foot into front stance and perform an elbow strike with the left hand (right hand holds left fist).
    
13. Turn 90* to the left and step with the left foot in front stance and perform a low block with the left hand followed by and outside-in middle block with the right hand.
    
14. Perform a front kick with the right foot, land in front stance, and perform a low block with the right hand and and ouside-in middle block with the left hand.
    
15. Turn 90* to the left without moving the right foot and slide the left foot forward into front stance and perform a high block with the left hand.
    
16. Perform a sidekick with the right foot and a face high punch with the right hand, landing in front stance then perform an elbow strike with left hand (right palm holds left elbow).
    
17. Turn 180* to the right and step into front stance and perform a high block with the right hand.
    
18. Perform a sidekick with the left foot and a face high punch with the left hand, landing in front stance then perform an elbow strike with right hand (left palm holds right elbow).
    
19. Turn 90* to the left, stepping with the left foot into front stance and perform a low block with the left hand.
    
20. Perform a front kick with the right foot and leap forward into cross stance (left behind right) and perform a face-high back fist strike with the right hand. KI HAP! (yell!)