Kum Ye Do

Honest Mind, Loving Heart, Strength in Body! The Martial Arts way of Life at The Taekwondo Network

I have spent the weekend training with my master from Korea in the Korean sword art of Kum Ye Do. Every muscle I have is sore from my forehead to  my toes.

Grandmaster Jung comes over from Seoul twice a year to hold two consecutive intensive weekends with his students which means I will be doing this all over again this weekend.

We spend 4 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday swinging wood swords and learning forms and techniques.

I enjoy it very much but find it difficult to master. I have figured out after 44 years on the planet that I am most definitely a visual learner. I was probably a chimpanzee in a former lifetime. That is my only saving grace in studying Kum Ye do because my master speaks no English and I speak no Korean.

He lectures and imparts his wisdom and I wish I could understand what he's saying.  I have a feeling I could learn much faster if I knew the point of the movements I'm memorizing. Of course, it would also help if I understood simple commands like right, left, forward, back, turn around, etc. But even these simple commands paired with one or two more words of instruction whiz right past my ears.

Okay, I'm done whining now.

After this Saturday's class we are going to see the K-tigers who are in town to perform this week.  I just saw them in Korea during the World Taekwondo Culture Expo but they are so amazing it will be great to see them again.