01209dom’s Weblog

Thursday

If I had even the slightest idea of just how important and special the weekend that has just gone has been to me I would probably have taken a little more care in packing and arranging my things before departing on the Thursday morning. In my true style I still hadn’t packed my bag with an hour left before I had to leave, having just given my car a mini service and covering my travel clothes in oil and grime in the process. This, coupled with a few last minute complications meant we didn’t hit the road properly until about half two in the afternoon, which meant crossing the entire country in under eight hours. Luckily for us we didn’t have any delays on the road apart from the usual congestion on the M25, so we arrived in Harwich with about an hour to spare. The outward journey couldn’t have been better with perfect sea conditions and a clear sky which meant we were able to watch England disappear into the sunset with a pint of beer on the top deck before retiring to our overnight cabins.

Friday

We were rudely awoken by the ships morning wake up call at about 6:30am having safely arrived in Hoek Van Holland (Hook of Holland) and after a very hasty five minute shower each we got in the cars and took the surprisingly easy Dutch roads into Rotterdam past some very suspicious roadside plantation. I have never driven in a foreign country before and it took a little getting used to driving on the right, but after a while it just becomes natural (especially when you are following someone else!). The Friday afternoon was actually an official 4^th Dan Sabum Nim Grading for some of the English Third Dans, followed by an international meeting and seminar, but as we were prompted that we didn’t have to be there and were subsequently very tired from the journey we decided that it would be in our best interests to have a chilled out day and explore the city instead, preserving our energy for the competition. After checking into our very posh Hilton Hotel we grabbed some food at a nearby café where I somehow managed to order the biggest sandwich in the history of time. After our bellies were nicely full we had a good old ramble around.

Rotterdam is a beautiful city and has some very interesting sights. A couple worth mentioning are the Kubuswoningen (Cube Houses) which were designed in 1984 by an architect called Piet Blom who decided that conventional houses were just far too boring and rotated the normal shape of a house by 45 degrees and flipped it forwards, which means the view from your window would probably be the pavement. The second would be the ‘Euromast’ tower which was constructed between 1958 and 1960 and I think I am right in saying is the highest structure in Rotterdam after an extension was built due to a challenging tower block in the early nineties. The team obviously wanted to take the tour to the top, but due to my acute fear of heights there was no way in hell I was even going to set foot in the bloody thing so I decided to have a stroll down the river instead. We also had an hour an half cruise in the afternoon sun along the Nieuwe Maas river where we learnt a lot of useful information about orange juice containers and all managed to obtain some mild sunburn which topped up my already bronzed and muscular exterior. After a little deliberation the evening meal was spent at a Chinese Restaurant called ‘Idols’ where we enjoyed an all you can eat buffet and enough Sake to fill a small bath.

Saturday

Despite the urge to pursue the alcohol consumption we all got into bed sober and at a reasonable time, which made getting up at 6:15am for a shower and meeting up with the rest of the guys for breakfast a lot easier. I restricted myself to a bowl of Rice Crispies and glass of orange juice remembering previous ‘all you can eat’ pre-tournament hotel breakfast experiences. The GB team bus was fully booked up by the time some of us were ready, which meant that myself and a couple of others travelled to the sports complex on the Germany team bus with Master Uberlander – a very large and terrifying man who you definitely wouldn’t want to spill a pint over but once you get to know him is actually a very nice guy. Fortunately for us the German team were extremely friendly and hospitable to us and greeted us with warm regards as we boarded.

There were apparently around 600 people who had registered for the first day of the competition ranging from white belts to Masters, which is considerably more than any other competition I have attended so far and is consequently where round one of the nervousness always sets in. It’s an incredible experience walking into a huge sports hall crammed full of people wearing white doboks of all different countries, grades and sizes and you can’t help checking out who might be in your category. It was a massive buzz lining up at the start especially as there were so many Masters present, including Grandmaster Theo Salm who gave a long speech (unfortunately in Dutch) and then received his 9^th Dan presentation which was an honour to see, and all of the other attending Masters received commemorative plates marking the official opening of the Worldwide Tang Soo Do Family. We had heard on the grapevine that there was going to be a very special announcement, which would be a once in a lifetime experience to all who planned on attending, and the whole trip feels extra special that we were all there on the day it was founded. The opening ceremony started with a Chinese woman performing a traditional dance and also a Haedong Gumdo sword display, involving various demonstrations and some familiar newspaper cutting which some of us have witnessed before at Seni.

The tournament itself was split into two sections, with all of the traditional Korean Hyung being held on the Saturday leaving Sunday for all of the sparring categories. The hyungs category consisted of the following;

Chil Sung Hyung

Traditional Hyung

Chang Bong (Long Stick)

Gung Bong (Short Stick)

Tanto (Knife)

Plus various other sword forms and even a fan form!

Fist up were the team forms section which started off with some of the young Americans. Although the traditional element went slightly adrift it did seem that they would be hard to beat. That was until the final group; the Dutch led by a very impressive guy called David Chung who shone throughout the entire tournament. The Dutch guys put on an awesome display which rather pleasingly beat the Americans. The Masters category was followed and then the Dan grades, which meant they were then free to judge and assist with the legions of gup grades participating. I had to wait literally all day before my category and to make matters worse there was a complete mix up, which is actually quite common for me in competitions. My name wasn’t on the list for what I assumed should have been my category, so after a frantic rush to the front desk to register myself I had about five seconds to prepare myself and go in front of the judges. My display of Pyung Ahn Sa Dan was a little on the rushed side to say the least and I almost fell over on one of the side kicks, luckily managing to drop into the elbow strike without completely messing it up. Somehow I managed to get away with it and ended up tied for third place meaning I had to perform a different form (Pyung Ahn Sam Dan) against someone else. Luckily it was enough to secure third place and a bronze medal. About five minutes after my category had finished my name was called out for the children’s form section… sigh.

In the evening we attended a Banquet dinner at a floating Chinese restaurant which we were told had a black tie dress code. Now this usually means bow tie, cumber bund, cuff links, etc, so when we noticed that pretty much everyone else had gone for smart casual we started to feel extremely overdressed. I’m not that bothered as I hardly ever get to dress up smart and I felt like a million dollars being chauffeured down to the restaurant. It was a really nice evening and the view outside was of the river and the backdrop of Rotterdam lit up at night. Midway through our meal there was a Chinese dragon dance accompanied by drums which went around all of the tables which was very cool. Afterwards we got some really nice photos overlooking the river and city. Very memorable.

Sunday

It was another early start the following morning, where the only real difference was a change in cereal before heading off for day two. This time a few of us managed to get a lift with Master Nessworthy who is a really funny man and had us in stitches on the journey over and on the way back. The day started with another line up and bow in, followed by the Masters division sparring and then Dan grades. Unfortunately they messed up my category again and my name wasn’t called out for the second day running, so eventually I was put in with a load of very large green belts which I don’t think was quite right as there were lots of people more my size competing on an adjacent mat.

Anyway I managed to claim my first fight quite comfortably with a six one win, which lifted my spirits but my second fight was against a huge Dutch guy who was about a foot taller than me. I just couldn’t get around his front leg and without trying to make excuses, seemed to suffer some slightly questionable points against me. I also lost my last fight which was a little frustrating as I had high expectations which I didn’t live up to. I’m not too disappointed as I took a lot of positives out of it and to fight in a world championship is definitely something to be proud of in itself. It has made me really hungry for more competitive fights though and I am going to work flat out to improve myself before the European championships next year.  

When all of the individual rounds had finished all of the lights went off and spotlights hit the centre mat for the Masters Team sparring event. The atmosphere was intense and all of the respective teams were moved into different parts of the hall to cheer on their team which got very noisy. The American Mi Guk Kwan team won the event as expected, but it was still awesome to watch and even though our team was weakened due to a couple of injuries the guys still gave a really good account of themselves, especially Master James who won both of his fights against extremely tough opposition, one of which being the highly acclaimed son of Master Ferraro and David Chung the guy who apparently never looses. I will leave that for further discussion as I won’t do it justice and it is probably best explained from a first person perspective anyway! 

The final section of the competition was the grand champions division which included some of the higher Chil Sung forms performed by the Americans and their interesting shin chook breathing techniques. This was followed by traditional forms including Wang Shu and Kong Sang Koon (among others) plus various weapons forms, one of which being a double dagger form performed by a young American called Kyle. Obviously this was completely based on traditional values and had some superb backwards windmilling (for Christ’s sake, only the Americans).

We had planned on hitting the town after the tournament with the rest of the British team, but we were all so exhausted we decided to have a few relaxing drinks in the hotel bar instead. Master Kumar Senior got into the spirit of things and had smuggled a large bottle of Whiskey down under his jacket and continued topping up everyone’s glasses. By the end of the night we were all pretty inebriated and even when everyone else retired, we went back up to the hotel room and had a night cap. Some corridor antics followed involving handstands, kicking and a fire hose before we eventually crashed out at about 4:30am. You can take the boys out of Camborne…

Monday

Not surprisingly we had a slightly later start at about 11:00am the following day and there was also a change in the weather where we had lots of rain and strong wind, which restricted us to wandering around Rotterdam with sore heads, very tired and aching from the competition. We checked out and left for the ferry port at around seven in the evening and managed to board the ferry with a few hours spare. The sea was very rough over night which meant we were all suffering from motion sickness in the morning. We drove continuously from Harwich to Exeter without stopping and when we did finally stop for some food we were swaying around all over the place which must have looked hilarious. Finally we got home at about half two in the afternoon.

It’s hard to put into words how I feel about the trip. It has certainly been the best Tang Soo Do event I have attended, which I’m sure is what everyone else feels too. We have been part of the EMTF for quite a while now, but it seems that we have really left our mark this time as we were approached by almost everyone and had some very positive feedback. Rather than be just another club, it now feels like we have built a strong friendship with all of the other British based clubs and I think we will see a lot more communication between the various clubs now.

It has been a very special trip for me and I would like to thank everyone for a superb trip to Rotterdam. I feel a lot closer to all of you now and hopefully we will all be there for the next Tang Soo Do trip along with many more. The sense of achievement is huge, but to me the most important thing is spending time with my friends, without whom I would have nothing!

Well done everyone.

Tang Soo !!!

I must say that the last two years of my life have been a bit of a blur to be honest. The amount that I have learned in such a short space of time is quite scary when I think about it as it feels like I have been training for years, certainly a lot longer than two years that’s for sure. That’s why the last couple of weeks have left me scratching my head and wondering how I have suddenly got to the point of being eligible to grade for my 3^rd gup red belt. It’s insane.

I got a fairly early night on Saturday and surprisingly managed to get to sleep ok although I did wake up at five o’ clock and had to make do with lying awake for two hours before I eventually got up. I thought that this time around I was much better prepared for the grading as I had practiced my form a million times over and had worked a hell of a lot more on my Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun and Ho Sin Sool than previous gradings which made things a lot easier on my mindset prior to Sunday and half of me couldn’t wait to get there and show off what I had learnt. Obviously this was shrouded by the simple fact that I was going to be completely destroyed beforehand though! Ever since I started training everyone has always said that the Red Belt gradings are extremely hard and I have heard all of my seniors say it at one point or another, “You thought that was hard? Wait until you take your Red Belt gradings!” or something along those lines! What also added additional pressure was the fact that not only was I the highest gup grade grading, I was also the only regular adult from the Academy grading, with all of the other guys coming from the Falmouth class which made me feel I had an extra responsibility to give a good account of myself.

Looking back, I would say that was the hardest grading I have had so far. Maybe I just wasn’t prepared enough physically, as in hindsight I did seem to start flagging very early on in my physical which I really can’t remember too much of. After about ten minutes or so I just died on my feet and couldn’t cope with what was being asked of me, which is weird as I haven’t ever had that before. I can usually find something in reserve to drive me onwards, but this time it was just torture. By the time it came to line work my head was swimming. My mouth was completely dry, I had cold sweats, my vision was blurry and I was gasping for my breath. I found it hard to work out the simplest of commands and had to take a few seconds to think about the technique before I delivered it. I think I got most of it correct apart from miss-hearing a command and performing an inside outside block instead of a kick. There were some very fun ones thrown in too – Dwe Yup Pal Koop Kong Kyuk – absolutely loved that one! 

When it came to forms I still hadn’t managed to pull myself together and I was a little ‘wobbly’ to say the least. I had to perform Pyung Ahn Sa Dan, Sam Dan and Ee Dan in that order and again, I really can’t remember how good or bad it went apart from a slightly late kihap and some wayward Soo Do blocks in Pyung Ahn Sa Dan. I think the first real rest point I had was when it got to Il Soo Sik and Ho Sin Sool as it means your movements cover a much shorter distance! My two one step sparring involved a take down finish, but as my volunteer assistant was a young yellow belt I didn’t think scything his legs off was probably the appropriate way to conduct myself so I just took him to the point of ‘off balance’ instead. Had it have been anyone from the Academy I would have though!

The last physical test was sparring and my second wind finally came as I was putting my pads on as it suddenly dawned on me that after that I only had my board break and terminology left to do. The sparring was hard work, but the contact was restricted probably due to the fact that both me and my first opponent are attending the Rotterdam championships the following week and injury concerns are set at maximum. My second fight was against one of the Falmouth orange belts who is cleverly disguised as a Karate Dan grade. I was told that I did quite well against him which was pleasing to hear a) because its always nice to do well against a black belt and b) because by this point I was absolutely f****d.

I was surprised to hear that my board break was a roundhouse kick as according to my student manual it is a back kick, but even so I broke it on the first attempt. Terminology was about 50 – 50 I think although I can’ remember what I was asked. I think one of the questions was ‘internal energy’ in Korean and in my head I new it was one of two, Neh Kung or Weng Kung. I’m pretty sure I chose the wrong one! I honestly didn’t think that I was going to hear if I had passed or failed until after Rotterdam, but surprisingly we all found out we had successfully passed immediately after the grading finished, which then went on to an hour class with some very cool Korean wrestling and other fun activities.

It is very surreal thinking that soon I will be wearing a red belt as it still hasn’t sunk in yet, I just feel very tired and very sore. I will be a green belt for the next couple of weeks anyway as I am registered as a 4^th gup for Rotterdam and have to perform the relevant Hyung and wear the appropriate belt and dobok trim, which is actually really nice as it gives me a while to make the transition. That didn’t stop me having a sneaky look at Pyung Ahn Oh Dan last night though!!!

I have been a little slack recently so it’s defiantly time to update on a few things. With the EMTF Championships in Rotterdam now only a couple of weeks away my thoughts have turned to strict training and a lot more focus. I started the year with good intentions but somewhere along the way have managed to slip back a bit. It was however very good to get away for a couple of days up to Bedford for the EMTF seminar/squad training session in view of the upcoming Championships. In retrospect the journey (up and back) was virtually flawless, apart from “Mr Chuckles” the Porsche 911 driver who took a disliking to another vehicle being in his fast lane and subsequently felt the need to drive in front of us, slam his brakes on and drive at 30 miles an hour.

We were honoured to be staying in Master Kumar’s guest house which was right in the middle of town and after arriving we headed out for a couple of beers which culminated in my first ‘New York, New York’ nightclub experience, a takeaway and then a virtually sleepless night due to the loudest snoring known to man. The seminar kicked off at about eleven as we had agreed to get there an hour early for some extra pad work. We had initially expected a five hour beasting, but it was actually quite varied with a sword display involving a Master having a cucumber cut off his bare chest, some sword forms and a bit of Korean sword history which I found absolutely fascinating. After that we did get the beasting, where we were subjected to Master Anesh and his barbaric warm up and partner assisted drills. The final part of the day was split into two, with the Dan Grades and above going into a separate room to go through the higher forms and myself and the rest of the gup grades going through some sparring things with Master Keits.

It was a great weekend away and we also got our new team dobok, jacket and t-shirts which made it even better. My only slight whinge was that the gup grades didn’t go through any forms, which I was really looking forward to. I am still not sure if I am going to be doing Pyung Ahn Sa Dan yet and if there are any differences in how Master Kumar teaches it, or if it actually matters what form (or version of a form) I do!? Oh well, we obviously do it the best in Cornwall anyway!

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On Sunday we were honoured to have multiple world champion Drew Neal attend the Dojang, who hosted a three hour seminar on competitive points sparring which was very good timing in view of Rotterdam. We attended one of his seminars last year in Fraddon, and it was a similar mix of blitz and kicking combinations and techniques with virtually an hour of constant sparring at the end.

On a personal level he is a really nice guy but when you fight him he certainly doesn’t mess around. I was unlucky last time as I didn’t get to fight him as there were considerably more people at his last seminar and he had a constant stream of challengers, but this time I knew I would be good for a round or two with him which was a very interesting experience! For one he is just way too quick and before you know it you have a glove on your head, but I did at least have ago at scoring against him. I think the closest I got was when we both blitzed at the same time and I think my flailing glove might have grazed his forehead as he smashed my face into next week!

I took many positives from the seminar but it did also leave me with a slight issue involving my natural fighting stance as it was suggested that it is better to fight with your best arm and kicking leg forwards. Unfortunately I am a mix of both as I naturally prefer fighting in a left stance but kick better with my right leg! In the long term the simple question has to be; “Which is going to be my main sparring stance – left or right?” while also spending a lot more time practicing my right side blitz and left leg kicking.

It’s now just a case of getting the final travel preparations in place for Rotterdam and trying not to get myself injured. Unfortunately I have managed to tweak my hamstring which is very painful, but as long as I don’t aggravate it I think it will be ok. I am still not sure if I will be grading a week Sunday yet, but I have been studying and practicing my syllabus requirements as frequently as I can just in case. With the recent emphasis mainly being on sparring for the World Championships my initial concern has been planning the trip and worrying about the tournament itself, but over the last few weeks the thought of taking my 3rd gup grading has quietly began to grow on my mind, and actually cost me a nights sleep two days ago. If I am not eligible to grade then I won’t be too disappointed, but the thought of taking my red belt grading fills me with excitement and absolute dread every time I think about it. Finally the nerves have got me.

It’s going to be a long month.