10/3/07 -
Story Continues
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt
From Ancient times, deep learning and valor have been the two pillars of the path: Through the virtue of training, enlighten both body and soul.
Morihei Ueshiba
As my physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health increased, I not only lost the need to fight, but learned self-self defense. I could be my own worst enemy. I learned to convert toxic energy into life giving energy, and this opened-up taekwondo to becoming an expressive performance, and something that I did not fear, but gave me joy. I have found that the martial arts have become an assistant to practicing my religious faith, by helping me center and look inward. Taekwondo’s philosophy has reinforced doing the right things in my life over and over. How have the martial arts managed to take the harmony and unity of mind, body, spirit, and emotions and help me to become a truly better person?
I believe we are all seeking enlightenment whether we consciously think it or not. We search for the truth!
The Sun Buddhist of Korea believed the ultimate goal of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment and that enlightenment is the inner experience of recognizing the Buddha-nature in the nature of oneself. Meditation was the one way to achieve this. Through exposure to meditation at the beginning and end of class we start to be able to be still in ourselves, and after we can calm the mind we find the being behind endless clatter of thoughts.
When we are truly present everything becomes more powerful! Ultimately, when we know our true self, we know how to prioritize our time, use our energy, and communicate what is important!
The quest to advance belt levels and win championships helped fuel me, but in reality it was the changes in how I felt about myself and related to those around me that helped make those changes last.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
9/26/07 -
The Tournament of Life
We have seen the enemy and it is (within) us
Pogo
Peace comes not from the absence of conflict, but from the ability to cope with it
Anonymous
I invested years of training for the goal of National Champion. I was zeroing in on this goal in 1988. First winning the State Championships, then advancing to the National Championships in Miami, Florida. My first round match was against a very tall, thin fighter being coached by a seasoned competitor that I had knocked-out at Nationals in 1986. I had a lot of trouble getting in on his long legs, but I was being coached by National Team Coach Dae Sung Lee and he was able to help me to hit the guy with two spinning hook kicks to win the match.
My second match was with the previous years Olympic Sports Festival gold medalist. I was in a really good place for that match. My body was still in good shape from the previous match and I was flying high from the victory! I don’t remember having to think at all during that match. It seemed that what ever I threw, I hit with. It was like a dance with my opponent in which everything was in time and seemed effortless. This was my first strong experience with the concept of Mushim.
My third match was with the current National Team member. I knew that I would not be able to compete with his speed and technical ability, so I used a completely different strategy in this match. My goal was to get him to make the mistakes. I moved patiently not letting my opponent get a good position. I fainted attacks and clinched whenever I could. I could tell this was really frustrating him. I knew it would because I lost to a competitor who used the same tactic on me the year before at Nationals. The three-round match ended with my victory not by points but by his warnings.
Whereas the first matches went closely one after another, I waited a number of hours before my fourth match began. This opponent was young and strong. My foot had taken a pretty good pounding in the last matches, and I was a little slow on my feet. I had a hard time dealing with his relentless counter roundhouse kicks. I had many coaches trying to signal me to try their trick. I tried everything they were suggesting, instead of having faith in myself. I lost the match and a chance for the 1988 Olympic Team Trials!
This was an incredible learning experience. I should not have lost my last match after beating the previous opponents, but I had lost confidence and defeated my self.
Later that same year at the Collegiate National Championships, I was still in peak physical and mental condition for these championships, but I decided to move-up to bantamweight division. I had a large number of competitors and ended-up with five three-three minute round matches! I sprained my knee and ankle in the fourth match and could barely put weight on it, but I did not want to bow-out. The competitor who I faced had a bye, a knockout and a competitor withdrawal from a match. He was also a top Olympic contender.
I showed gear spirit in this match and even received an ovation from the audience even though I did not win. My experiences competing, strengthened my will and focus in dealing with the challenges of the “tournament of life.”
Healthy competition is the natural way to insure we improve ourselves. As long as you are in the world, you must compete, and if you must compete, you must win. I believe in the importance of competition within our selves and to challenge our selves against other’s achievements. In this way, we put pressure on ourselves to change and it encourages us to bring out our best qualities and to compound those advantages into superiority.
The Dojang includes healthy competition as do all sports, but it encompasses a greater system for self-improvement than any other sport. Martial arts have a unique opportunity to train mind, body, spirit, and emotions in harmony through a unique system. This system empowers people for life! Although I though I was training to become the champion in the ring, it was really being a champion at life!
The Tournament of Life
We have seen the enemy and it is (within) us
Pogo
Peace comes not from the absence of conflict, but from the ability to cope with it
Anonymous
I invested years of training for the goal of National Champion. I was zeroing in on this goal in 1988. First winning the State Championships, then advancing to the National Championships in Miami, Florida. My first round match was against a very tall, thin fighter being coached by a seasoned competitor that I had knocked-out at Nationals in 1986. I had a lot of trouble getting in on his long legs, but I was being coached by National Team Coach Dae Sung Lee and he was able to help me to hit the guy with two spinning hook kicks to win the match.
My second match was with the previous years Olympic Sports Festival gold medalist. I was in a really good place for that match. My body was still in good shape from the previous match and I was flying high from the victory! I don’t remember having to think at all during that match. It seemed that what ever I threw, I hit with. It was like a dance with my opponent in which everything was in time and seemed effortless. This was my first strong experience with the concept of Mushim.
My third match was with the current National Team member. I knew that I would not be able to compete with his speed and technical ability, so I used a completely different strategy in this match. My goal was to get him to make the mistakes. I moved patiently not letting my opponent get a good position. I fainted attacks and clinched whenever I could. I could tell this was really frustrating him. I knew it would because I lost to a competitor who used the same tactic on me the year before at Nationals. The three-round match ended with my victory not by points but by his warnings.
Whereas the first matches went closely one after another, I waited a number of hours before my fourth match began. This opponent was young and strong. My foot had taken a pretty good pounding in the last matches, and I was a little slow on my feet. I had a hard time dealing with his relentless counter roundhouse kicks. I had many coaches trying to signal me to try their trick. I tried everything they were suggesting, instead of having faith in myself. I lost the match and a chance for the 1988 Olympic Team Trials!
This was an incredible learning experience. I should not have lost my last match after beating the previous opponents, but I had lost confidence and defeated my self.
Later that same year at the Collegiate National Championships, I was still in peak physical and mental condition for these championships, but I decided to move-up to bantamweight division. I had a large number of competitors and ended-up with five three-three minute round matches! I sprained my knee and ankle in the fourth match and could barely put weight on it, but I did not want to bow-out. The competitor who I faced had a bye, a knockout and a competitor withdrawal from a match. He was also a top Olympic contender.
I showed gear spirit in this match and even received an ovation from the audience even though I did not win. My experiences competing, strengthened my will and focus in dealing with the challenges of the “tournament of life.”
Healthy competition is the natural way to insure we improve ourselves. As long as you are in the world, you must compete, and if you must compete, you must win. I believe in the importance of competition within our selves and to challenge our selves against other’s achievements. In this way, we put pressure on ourselves to change and it encourages us to bring out our best qualities and to compound those advantages into superiority.
The Dojang includes healthy competition as do all sports, but it encompasses a greater system for self-improvement than any other sport. Martial arts have a unique opportunity to train mind, body, spirit, and emotions in harmony through a unique system. This system empowers people for life! Although I though I was training to become the champion in the ring, it was really being a champion at life!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
9/19/07 -
Evolution of Martial Arts
Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance
Samuel Johnson
Through a careful observation of life as a whole Asian philosophy developed their construct of the universe. The theory of um-yang ohaeng sol has been understood as the ultimate principle of cosmic order that enables production of all life forms that act and react. Humans have been on a journey to conqueror nature since our beginning. The study of martial arts at its very core is about harnessing our own human nature by bringing harmony and unity to the energy within us.
Senior Grand Master Choi has described the evolution of martial arts historically and how it evolves in each one of us as well. When we are born everything has a primary mission to live happily and reproduce to continue the existence of one’s kind. In primitive times humans protected their territory against each other and other stronger creatures, using their intellect to develop strategies to survive. Hide-and-seek was the most primitive skill against bigger and stronger opponents. Humans then discovered fire and other weapons as well as living in packs to protect themselves.
In ancient times, strong leaders developed who coordinated tribes to defeat opponents and invented effective military systems. Longer range weapons made empty hand combat less prevalent. In modern times, armed forces and law enforcement took over the task of survival aspects of martial arts. Gangs and bullies remained, but those who killed were punished.
In times of peace, martial arts skills were converted to sports ands games. Taekwondo in particular developed into a modern Olympic sport. Sports became a way for communities and nations to develop and show pride.
Martial arts also developed into street defense against criminals, and military and law enforcement hand-to-hand combat and conditioning. As the weapons and tactics of violence and crime have changed so have martial art responses.
As contemporary life has become more complex and stressful, martial arts have stepped-in to help student attain inner-peace. Through an integrative method of training the mind, body, spirit, and emotions (shim-shin-sooryun), students gain life skills to thrive.
Evolution of Martial Arts
Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance
Samuel Johnson
Through a careful observation of life as a whole Asian philosophy developed their construct of the universe. The theory of um-yang ohaeng sol has been understood as the ultimate principle of cosmic order that enables production of all life forms that act and react. Humans have been on a journey to conqueror nature since our beginning. The study of martial arts at its very core is about harnessing our own human nature by bringing harmony and unity to the energy within us.
Senior Grand Master Choi has described the evolution of martial arts historically and how it evolves in each one of us as well. When we are born everything has a primary mission to live happily and reproduce to continue the existence of one’s kind. In primitive times humans protected their territory against each other and other stronger creatures, using their intellect to develop strategies to survive. Hide-and-seek was the most primitive skill against bigger and stronger opponents. Humans then discovered fire and other weapons as well as living in packs to protect themselves.
In ancient times, strong leaders developed who coordinated tribes to defeat opponents and invented effective military systems. Longer range weapons made empty hand combat less prevalent. In modern times, armed forces and law enforcement took over the task of survival aspects of martial arts. Gangs and bullies remained, but those who killed were punished.
In times of peace, martial arts skills were converted to sports ands games. Taekwondo in particular developed into a modern Olympic sport. Sports became a way for communities and nations to develop and show pride.
Martial arts also developed into street defense against criminals, and military and law enforcement hand-to-hand combat and conditioning. As the weapons and tactics of violence and crime have changed so have martial art responses.
As contemporary life has become more complex and stressful, martial arts have stepped-in to help student attain inner-peace. Through an integrative method of training the mind, body, spirit, and emotions (shim-shin-sooryun), students gain life skills to thrive.
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