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During class last night, we did techniques and forms with weights. Master M had us pick a weight we thought we'd be able to handle comfortably. She led us through drills with the weights doing Sah Dan Mahkee (low block) and Ha Dan Mahkee (High blocks), along with side kicks, front kicks (sorry for not using the Korean on this). Then she had us move from the rubber room (called that for the floor, which is made of hard rubber) into the Wooden room (wood floor) and we got another set of weights. She gave us the option of going down to a lower weight or even up if we wanted to. (I stuck with 5 lbs) We started into forms, which was a bit more challenging.
Doing Keecho Hyung Il Bu with weights was not as difficult as it could have been. It wasn't too bad. It was harder to do than it normally is, but it wasn't horrible.
What was hard was when I was told to do Bassai and I lost it completely. It seemed that once the weights got into my hands, my brain leaked the form. As a result, I had to do 10 crunches. I had no problem with that. I didn't like the fact that I forgot my form. Oh well. I'll review it and fix it.
Master M had us do a form of our own chosing and do it with the weights. That was fun. Several of us picked out Pyung Ahn Sam Dan to do. THAT was challenging at the end because of the jump/simultaneous elbow strike, back punch.
After class, I got Ms. S and Master M to help me refine Pyung Ahn Ee Dan. I now know what I was doing wrong, so I need to practice it and improve it.
(Please bear with me for the apparent mis-spellings and whatnot. I just had eye surgery last Saturday and am "finding" my vision again.)
Today I'm going to practice a few of my basic forms. Keechyo Hyung Il Bu comes to mind. Why am I starting with the basic instead of the advanced forms? Well, partly because I feel that to become well rounded, I need to start at the beginning and work my way back up. Besides, I haven't done forms in over a week and I'm extremely rusty. I haven't worked out at my school in two months, so I feel like I'm a slacker. That ends today.
A few months ago, after a very intense discussion with Master G, I did some soul searching and decided that no matter what, I want to continue on with my martial arts studies. I need to learn the Han Gul, the Bunkai, etc. I think that by associating with the different martial artists I'm "hanging out with" on the Internet, plus the ones I talk to here in town, I'm going to do that. I talk to the Mr. L's (there are 3 of them to talk to and learn from), to Ms. S, to Ms. Mad and Master Mac. I talk to Master G. I will learn. They may feel like they have to beat it into my head at times, but I'll "get" it. I'm already understanding a lot more than I used to.
I love my new school. I like the idea of learning a movement and being told, "you'll do this in a battle because you could be taking out a sentry (in the case of the opening of Bassai)." I love the fact that it's not a "just blindly do what I say because that's how it's done." No. I am learning to question the forms. I am learning that this is how it is because in a fight, you'd want to be able to defend yourself. This is true "Self defense". There's a guy at work who constantly belittles me for taking martial arts because he says "why are you taking it if you can't defend yourself?" Well, he has a point. He won't be able to say that to me much longer!!
Yesterday I watched a killer video from Prairie Martial Arts. I have to say that I found it informative and found the light bulbs going on again. I had another "aha!" moment. I saw a practical application for Pyung Ahn Sah Dan. I watched a version of Pyung Ahn Sam Dan, which was most excellent. I could see differences in how we do things in our school, but I also saw similarities. That was a nice thing to see. I am looking forward to going back to classes and seeing how much more I can do.
I've been cleared by my eye doctor to practice forms, so today I plan on doing most all of my forms. I will start with the basics, as I said, but I will do them the three or four different ways Mr. L and I discussed on New Years. Lefthanded, righthanded, forward, backwards. Yep. It'll be fun to do. He has a point...some of the higher forms will be most interesting when done "backwards" because remembering where the jumps fit in will be a little challenging. Since I don't quite have the hang of forwards left and forwards right, I'll just do those first.
