He made it!

Master Red Eagle has achieved his 5th Dan rank. Deserved. He trained with great devotion several months despite problems at work, and when he returned to Texas, USA, he got tested and promoted to Master Instructor. We in Slovenian Hankuk TKD School are so proud he trained with us, and actually prepared his promotion with our Master Kim. Congratulations Master Instructor Red Eagle!

Some videos

This time I have decided to let Master Kim enjoy his own narcissism. As he provided me with his camera and some Hi8 material and asked if those can be set on his web page (remember http://hankuk.pleskina.com?), I took my video capture device and spent few hours digitizing clips below. Results are not bad, although not because of video quality or my editing skills but due to amazing technique of Master Kim. Enjoy watching or visit Hankuk Club home page and see videos there. Thank God for technology and YouTube! :))


Master Kim performing 360° kick:

Master Kim performing 540° kick (!!!):


It is actually impossible to say if it is the lack of gravity or thickness of the air which helps this man to stay up there longer than usual, hm...


Poomsae Chonkwon:

Some basic technique embedded into creative Poomsae:

How to Take a Punch

OK, while Her Majesty walks around Slovenia, let me express pleasure that someone wrote a great article about something many TKD practitioners widely forget in modern days. As WTF Taekwondo is (after being martial art) full-contact sport (and nonetheless important for ITF Taekwondo which approves head punches even in sport combat), taking a punch is as much important as knowing how to deploy it. Read on very interesting article until I come with more to say.

If you missed the link in above paragraph, clik here.

He is leaving after all...

Well, yesterdays' blog prognosis came to be true - Master Red Eagle really leaves us due to business matters, his flight taking off Monday. A bit sorry to leave he is, which I believe him, he must have had great time training all together. It was at least very interesting experience and he brought much interesting moments as a master from distant part of the world. He wanted to take some pictures as memories so I used an opportunity and made these shots before training session.

After training we went for couple of beers and the same we will do this evening, as I must leave for Croatia tomorrow and will not be back before Monday evening that will also be a goodbye-beer. No one in dojang is glad to know that the first (and probably the only) native American who honored our school by visiting and training with us already leaves.

As Master Red Eagle said, he is not Terminator to say "I'll be baaack", but he promised to try to visit us as soon as possible, with great possibility that his next job takes place in close countries. If not, I hope he goes for better conditions at work and of course more success. Good bye and good luck Master Red Eagle!

Red Eagle About to Fly Away???

I know, I know, who the.... is Red Eagle? In a few words, great master with high ranks in more martial arts, who came to train for some months in our school in order to prepare for his 5th Dan TKD promotion test under Master Kim's supervisory. But - that is not all. He is native American, precisely Navajo, probably the only one with high FAA certificate, commercial airline jet pilot with 24.000+ hours of flight mostly as captain, who was two (!) times in Vietnam in his young days and generally with rich and full life behind. He was hired by Adria Airways to fly regional flights on CRJ 200 and 900 jets (these guys are funny, so many planes and so few pilots).

It was tremendously interesting to talk to that guy beside couple of beers - about martial arts, Taekwondo specifically, or aviation. He is full of tricks, practical advices and knowledge. And very agile for a man of age 57.

As no one ever before gave me Navajo name, he thought out one for me: "The One Who SOUNDS Like Bruce Lee". :)

I hoped to hear and learn a lot or at least to spend much nice time in interesting talks and write something about him on this blog, but - yesterday I found out that maybe he will not return to Slovenia after taking his promotion test in November. Mabye that will not hold...

My Back... Hurts!

Every now and then. Let us say it happens two to three times a year and is - I am almost completely sure now - connected to significant weather changes. Yes, I do sit a lot because I work in IT, and that is sure an area where TKD saves my... whatever a lot, but this nightmare comes that rare and makes me incapable of normal living for a few days. Then, like it never happened, it disappears, making it hard to diagnose and eventually prevent next time.

Am I too young for this kind of ... to happen to me? Well, let me shock you, I suffer that periodic trouble for more than 14 years now... and no medical examinations and treatments really helped. So I learned to live with it.

The funny thing is that symptoms have changed a bit during years. In the beginning, the pain used to appear in my left or right hip and spread to appropriate leg, almost paralyzing me - I literary could not move or turn in the bed, sitting was impossible as well as standing on hurting leg. Lately it changed to lower back pain which just annoys a lot, prevents sitting (and thus working) and bending forward - I can only tie my shoes if I squat.

I wonder what it is to become in the future. Each time it stops I feel like reborn and am instantly capable of doing wonders in sport. Then I forget about it and next time it shocks me again.

I wonder if other people doing Taekwondo have ever experienced similar problems? If so, a piece of advice could help - so far all I tried was not helpful. It just comes again and again and it picks the moment by its own - several times not a very good moment.

Right today I got rid of it (or better said it showed some mercy and left) and I feel great. But yesterday I had to miss my training, there was no chance to perform well. And I have to be careful about possible injuries when I have not complete control of my body. Can not wait until next week, actually, to be back to the gym.

So some crying at this blog for a change, enough. Happy training, folks, and let mistery pain never come to you!

How to Choose a Taekwondo School

Interesting bit of information. Anyone looking for a good Taekwondo school, or wanting to make his one be really good, go have a look here. With so many schools around, picking a right one could be a hard job. Now, I don't say the school must be perfect, but collecting as many good points from the list and avoiding worst of them should help.

"One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it"

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

How much truth in how few words... Just to end the day with some nice thoughts. These are both from "Kung Fu Panda". Even if you think you are too old or too grown-up to watch such a movie, go see it. Maybe you learn something you would not expect. I was certainly astonished. Well done, authors!

I went to see it some weeks ago, but right now, listening to the soundtrack, I can not resist to think about words of old master Oogway and wonder how many wise masters live anonymously in the world passing their wisdom and experience only to their students, not for money, not for glory, just for the sake of itself. And how many "warriors" and "masters" do not yet know what they will become. I wish all of them find the right way.

To hear some beautiful music from the movie... click here.

Some Narcissism

First of all, I do not like to be photographed because I am not photogenic - lines of my face, skin color and some other things including faults in (recent) digital imaging technology produce strange effects which make me look old (which, however, I could be considered, although not yet forty), tired, and even evil in some cases. Second, photographs (can steal your soul! No, no, just kidding :) ) usually capture and show things you don't want to be seen. And last, I am not beautiful, so why would someone want to see photos of mine? Except myself. In that case, refer to the title of this post.

However, demands of web activities I perform lately have put it to the front - everyone wants to see how do I look like (and unfortunately those are not only beautiful women). My move - here it is. A fresh photo taken yesterday in Master Kim's dojang after training session. Maybe you even notice that I am sweaty. At least I hope nobody will get too scared after taking a look at the picture. If you are shocked at very start, please do not click the image to see it bigger. ;)

Now that everyone's curiosity is satisfied, a little about photographing athletes and actions in training and demonstration sessions. Maybe we find some more reasons NOT to be photographed during such events.

While practicing some special actions as well as basic techniques for demonstration purposes, we (the "demo team" of our school - several enthusiasts in constant fight against our own age) were constantly told by Master Kim about errors and wrong performance. Which, for veterans like me, sounded strange. I know everything can be made better - even when close to perfect - but at least basic techniques are something I adopted years ago. Other guys did not look like doing anything wrong too. And then all of the sudden Master Kim took video camera out of nowhere and started to tape the training.

Should I say that we were all sorry to take a look at video material at the end of training?

Well, no, the things were not that bad at all, far from critical anyway, but there were so many little things that made good performance look crappy every now and then - so we all asked ourselves - do I do that often? Such mistakes, like tending to force and speed and forget basic positions probably don't show for un-experienced eyes, but in case some expert watching - it would be better if video would not exist at all.

I know that much depends on angle of recording, light, the right moment and everything, but the possibility to rewind and look at the tape again and again can do two things: good for me (to spot the mistake and correct it next time) and bad for observer (to think "Oh my God, what is this guy doing?!") if he knows what we actualy are trying to do. :)

Should the title be "Self-criticism"? Anyways, the picture is there. So be afraid, little children! ;)

Cheers!

The Eternal Question

Funny, I was recently re-annoyed with good old well-known question I face since I ever started to train TKD: Why (or often "how") Taekwondo differs from Karate? This time, asked by my girlfriend who is better known for not asking something on the first ball, the question sounded like it (again) deserves a good answer.

Needles to say, unlike people introduced to martial arts by more than watching Jean Claude Van Damme or Jackie Chan or (The Legend!) Bruce Lee movies, most of others experience difficulties to notice reasons why there are different names for exercises that all involve punching and kicking.

The Internet (and Google in the first place) knows all, so I dig a little and here is best of what I have found: Article 1 and Article 2.

The Articles are somewhat "technical" so I must add some subjectivity of my own. How I used to explain the difference to my fiends. I will try to throw out competition, as it is obvious that rules and practices differ here and there is so much written about it.

Yes, both Karate and TKD use punches and kicks. Both introduce and develop self-defense. Both have forms (or patterns) - TKD has Poomsae while Karate has Katas. However, I found TKD's natural energy transformation and movement closer to my way of moving and using the body. If you take a look, TKD athletes will mostly perform TKD kicks with more softness, higher rate of limb extension and more round paths. Overall, there seems to be much more flexibility and smoothness than in Karate's hard and short techniques. It all seemed like dance to me and made me feel like performing in a ballet - although the last was often used by some Karate fans to mark TKD as "unusable" as real martial art (which does not keep the water because these "balette" kicks are performed with much strength and speed and are in fact far more powerful than short and straight Karate techniques).

The most important difference is probably kicks emphasizing in TKD over Karate. For all said in paragraph above, TKD's leg techniques are driven to perfection. There are lots of non-fighting techniques which are complex and impressive but will probably never be used in a real fight (liek 540 degrees spin kick) but also basic techniques are significantly more teatrical.

To be correct and fair I must say that I have seen many karatists who executed their kicks with flexibility and movement very close to TKD, and I have noticed too many TKD practitioners performing with more stiffness than worst karatist, but... well, that is why world is beautiful and fun.

Now, just to illustrate the subject of this post a little, some materials from almighty web, as one picture worth thousand words:

Karate (Shotokan) front kick
Taekwondo front kick

Karate side kick
Taekwondo side kick

Karate roundhouse kick
Taekwondo roundhouse kick

These are of course three main kicks. There are other less or more advanced techniques in both arts, but even if you don't practice any you can see differences while watching videos. YouTube sure has many more examples so whoever is interested, can find a bunch of examples from here on.

If after reading and watching you still think that difference is small or does not exist at all, I give you right. After all every martial art depends on performance of the athlete, and like my Master once said, not two people on earth are the same, so how could their performance even in the same martial art be. Let's believe him. ;)

Master Kim

I always wondered what feeling must rule the soul of a man who leaves his country and almost all his life to go to distant foreign land and start his own Taekwondo school. How much must he miss all he left at home, how difficult it must be to adopt different people, culture, lifestyle. And to keep will strong enough not to go back after few serious failures, when life shows his teeth and reminds us that this is Earth and not heaven...

Master Kim left his home in Korea more than 10 years ago and went many timezones west to teach people what he knows best. He instructed many people and let them know The Way of Taekwondo helping his Master Shin in Austria; then moved to Slovenia in order to help national TKD team. Some time later he succeeded to open his own school in city of Ljubljana. Such an enterprise, in so small country where Taekwondo is still some "exotic" sport (or art) for people who lose their eyes (and money) staring daily at ball-based sports (namely soccer) emitted on TV, with a glass of beer.

He organized classes starting with rented gyms, later arranged his own in former hangar which he adopted together with few enthusiastic students some three years ago. And worked hard and professional to give his students the best.

He proved himself as the only "real" master of the art under this part of the sky, which, however, did not help him to stabilize income and push the school up; frankly, although I never ask him or talk to him about that, I think he is struggling a lot and like mentioned in previous post the school is probably going to be closed soon, unless a miracle happens. The miracle would be that people again discover how great Taekwondo master is teaching in their neighborhood, and how many benefits for their mind and body they could gain training under his leadership. Maybe that happens next month, later last evening Master Kim was quite optimistic.

What I can do to help? Like I do - tell everyone I know and wider about my Master and help him show the beauty of our art to people in the right way. This blog is for sure one good way. So I enclose some pictures of Master Kim performing at his best. Information about the school can be found at it's official homepage: Taekwondo Club Hankuk Sport Ljubljana.

Go on doing a good job, Master Kim! The rest will come. The better, or the change. To better, we believe. :)

Winds of Change

It is now more than 3 years since my return to Taekwondo. Ten years of pause from active training were devastating for my overall physical condition and now I truly realize what I was missing all that time. A good moment to write a little why I came back to something that was once my lifestyle, and is again now.

I used to train Taekwondo in high school, and finished my "basic education" with black belt exam one distant December just before I had to join the army. Years that followed were stormed by war and changes and turnovers in my career and life and - slowly - sport and martial arts became something more like obligation than joy or way of life. Moving to a city where there were no close facilities and schools to train in, made situation worse. I really think it is hard to force yourself to train alone, especially when you are young. So I faded. And thought Taekwondo was not important to me anymore.

Trying to engage myself physically after many years of computer-based work with less sport activities lead through search of appropriate sport. In a new place again, distant town I used to work in. Another town, another country... Not surprisingly, I was immediately attracted by the sport I once enjoyed in, when I found that there was a new dojang just across the street I lived in! And Korean Master running it...

I had a great deal of doubt in myself. I felt old and stiff. I had NO condition. My technique, beside I had all clear in my head, performed by my neglected body was like that of blue belt student. Sometimes I felt really embarrassed among younger guys performing with much energy and stamina. Yet, I had knowledge they were obviously missing, concentrated more to "sporty" way of training. At least something!

However, Master Kim made a miracle. By showing. That everything is possible, when you get some self confidence and strong will. By each day of training, even with many breaks and pauses because of work demands, I felt better and went forward. I made my 2nd Dan grade after not one whole year of training. I was back and it made me feel fantastic.

And now, suddenly, the unstoppable change comes like it happens so many times in life. The school is probably going to be closed due to financial issues. Too small country for a private self-sustaining school. There will soon be no trainings on red tatami under Korean an Slovenian flags. Unless a miracle happens. We shall see. Where to go on from now? I can train for myself for some time, but I am also sure that loss of will is going to come sooner or later, without community spirit you can feel during group trainings.

I am not going to leave Taekwondo ever again and am very thankful for past three years which brought me back. Optimistically, let us say that maybe this wind of change brings something new, which even considering the end of a nice period can be good. Positive point of view? Damn right!

The Blog Has Been Created...

... And there is a long way to go. But we are optimists. :)