Back to Basics

(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.