Hyung of the week followup.

In my last post, I talked about my hyung of the week focus idea. I thought I'd follow up on what I got from the drill. The basic premise was that I wrote the name of every hyung I know on a small piece of paper, threw them in a hat, and would draw a new name every week.

In the process, I drew the following hyung:

• Dangum Hyung
• Seisan
• Bong Hyung Sam Bu
• Pyung Ahn Cho Dan
• Pyung Ahn Oh Dan
• Jindo
• Naihanchi Sam Dan
• Pyung Ahn E Dan
• Sip Soo
• Kong Sang Koon Sho

I was doing fairly well with this, until I got distracted:

I know, I know: "excuses, excuses, excuses..."

That aside, I think that the exercise has had some benefit. It may not be optimal, but I have found that it allows me to pick one thing and work on it in my downtime. My current levels of downtime are low, so having a solitary focus for the week is nice. I can think about the hyung while walking, come up with a few application ideas, do some youtube research to watch variations, etc.

Downside? Well, first off, a week really isn't very much time. I know a few senior Masters who focus an entire year on one thing. And certainly some people take a single form over a lifetime and specialize in it. So what to do?

Right now, I focus on a concept or topic that spans over several hyung. Sometimes, if I come up with something new in my current form, I go back to previous weeks and see if it works. My current concept focus is analyzing trends and repeated movements in a form. For example, in Sae Kye 1, the low block/center punch combination is obviously a key component of the hyung. The #3/#4 cut combo in Dangum repeats several times. As I put these together, I start trying to assign a level of priority to the movement. Then I mix them up, unfold the form and try putting it together in different ways.

I know that to some, this might be a case of blasphemy, but I truly feel that the forms are folded up into footwork diagrams as a mnemonic for an advanced student to unpack, rearrange and add to as needed. Have you ever used a form in sparring and thought "Boy, that really opens them up to THIS!" but THIS isn't in the hyung? To me, those followup movements are either implied or assumed that you know what to do from there.

An example is in Dangum hyung. We have the 3/4 cut combo in the third count. We end the movement with the knife at center level, pointy end directly at the opponent. To me, this says that it is implied that this ending position should either be a stab, or bringing the opponent to a "bargain" (knife pressed against throat) position.

If we can accept that premise, then we can also accept that from that opening, we can continue onward with another portion of the hyung that works from that position. If we return to our Dangum example, we've finished movement number 3. A great way to continue that flow would be a movement from later in the hyung where we perform high/low, low/high thrusts (those of you who practice this form may think of this as the "sewing machine" combo.) Flow from that, into the upward rising slash in count number 6, and we once again find ourselves in a point forward facing position, and we could either go into the "high/side/center" stab combo that is shown later, or we could loop back into one of the other combinations. I don't profess to be an expert in the knife, but my preference is to keep that blade moving and hunting for targets rather than single strikes.

In my opinion, a drill like this does wonders for a student's ability to understand the form. Performance is one thing, and I too am a big fan of maintaing aesthetic. It is a martial ART, after all, and I hate seeing sloppy technique. Unfortunately, a lot of students never move past performance into understanding. They become teachers and risk passing on empty movements that can be arbitrarily changed.

So now, that I've got some spare time (lol) I've pulled another hyung out of the hat. This week's choice: Bassai.

Hyung of the Week

One of my problems in training has always been focusing on one thing. I just jump around from one thing to another far too much. This is great when I have LOTS of training time, as I always have something to work on. When my personal training (as opposed to teaching and training others) is limited, I need to have a focal point.

So, I created my "box of hyung." I cut out a bunch of little paper strips, wrote the names of all of my required hyung, as well as some extras that I like (so ho yun, bassai sho, tokumine no kun, and few others) and put them in a small box. Shake the box, and every Monday morning, pick a new hyung.

Week one was Dangum Hyung, week two: Seisan. This morning, I was re-introduced to a old chestnut: Pyung Ahn Cho Dan.

So far, the experience has been really exciting and interesting. Sometimes, I just like to get up in the morning and walk through the form once or twice, followed by a few harder reps. Then maybe I go backwards, or spend the day thinking about a sequence.

Sitting at work in a boring meeting, pull up Youtube and search for alternate versions. Study the differences, ask yourself why you do it your way, and try the other way out. Seisan is a great example with the use of kicks in many other versions. Adding the kick, or thinking about the implied kick in the footwork gives you some flexibility in thinking about the movement.

Dangum hyung has been my favorite so far, and I hope to blog some of my results when I get some time. One of the things I truly enjoyed about studying Dangum hyung was that when I started to break down the hyung into repeated movements, the results surprised me. What I always categorized as a "slashing" form actually has a close to equal number of thrusting movements. Some other factoids (right handed versus left handed, reverse grip versus forward grip) were in line with my thinking.

One thing I was initially worried about was whether changing my focus weekly would be a detriment. Sure, I could pick one hyung and study it for years on end, but that doesn't really match my training goals, and I continue to need to access the parts of my brain that teach the other hyung. Instead, what I've found is that I can apply a lot of universal concepts to each form, and whichever concept I'm working on, it allows me to apply it to a more "basic" hyung. Sometimes, the form is just a starting point or a springboard, and what I actually physically practice looks almost nothing like the form. Just movement inspired by the form. This happens a lot when taking a posture or movement and adding in any extra strikes, kicks, etc. It's not supposed to look pretty or be a canon version of the form, just a training tool for that point in time.

Note taking is very important. I keep a small journal with me, and I write down ideas while walking so I can explore them later in class. I can't recommend the Moleskine notebooks and a good archival quality pen.

In my next entry, I'll try to list a few different methods I'm using to play with the hyung.

I'm still alive!

Last post was in... March?  Yikes, time for the "here's why I've been so busy, and here's a half-hearted pledge to post more" blog. :)

My attention span has been all over the place this year, attempting to round out my own development, build some interesting drills, and get past "here's what I was taught" in terms of my teaching ability in a few areas.  What I can tell you is that nothing makes you really examine what you know and what you are comfortable teaching until you are in charge of your own class.

Youtube is finally catching up to being the martial arts instruction utopia that I thought it could become when I wrote about it back in 2006 for my Sam Dan essay.  Video is so cheap and easy now; even cell phone video is tolerable.  In my opinion, there are two folks out there who are setting the bar high for everyone else: Iain Abernethy and OneMinuteBunkai.

What I really enjoy about 1MB is that there is no excessive talking, no 30 second banner intro with obnoxious music. Just quick applications that are easy to see and make sense. Add these guys to your subscription feed, right now. More soon... maybe even in less than 6 months. :)

A healthy respect for weaponry.

Hey, we're all adults.  We know that knives are pointy, swords are sharp, and sticks can crush.  Most of us have had a few cuts and contusions to hammer the point home.  Oddly enough, for most beginners, I feel that while they are inherently aware of these facts, it doesn't register in a martial context.

I will have an adult student who does food prep on a regular basis, chopping vegetables, cutting chicken, beef, etc. look at me thunderstruck when I do a cutting demonstration.  Something about that cutlet of chicken breast is so far removed from a living thing that we can't see how the damage done - and let's be honest, we are damaging that chicken breast by irreparably cutting it in half -- could ever translate to being stabbed.

I have never been shivved or stabbed.  I've barely been lightly poked by a knife.  I'd say this puts me firmly among the majority of first world residents.

You see this in a movie theatre.  People will watch the most amazing displays of violence without batting an eye.  If the star of the movie gets a paper cut though, everyone gasps and shudders a little bit.  We can identify with this pain, it is familiar and we relate to the discomfort on a personal level.  Being stabbed or beaten is just so far removed from our experiences we can only look at it from a clinical level.

So as a service to your students, do everyone a favor and line them up and stab them. At this point, I should point wildly to the disclaimer on the top left of the page which mentions my parent organization does not share or endorse my views.

Though the Internet Sarcasm Font is still in development, I think everyone can tell that I was joking.  Right?

Why am I thinking about this?  For most of my time as an instructor, I have taught adults.  I've taught adults from 16-60+ from White Belt to 3rd Dan.

For the past few years, I've taken to teaching kids.  My most senior kid is a Red Belt.  And he is nine.  He has been my guinea pig as I get used to teaching kids (because he gets everything first as senior rank.)  How do I teach Bassai? Let's try with the kid...  Expectations for drill combinations?  Let's try with the kid.

At red belt in my organization, you are formally introduced to the knife.  While the dangum hyung is still many years off, we begin teaching standard knife defenses at Red Belt.  That means disarming someone who wants to stab you.

That means disarming someone who wants to kill you.

Adults, adults who should know better, often forget this.  I watched an E Dan Candidate at her black belt test perform a jump split while simultaneously performing a low x block to her attacker's knife wielding hand.

Does a nine year old stand a chance in hades of disarming a fully grown, knife wielding adult intent on killing them?  Well, let's say I don't like the kid's chances.

So the lesson boils down to teaching the mechanics.  Like most techniques, they will grow into it.  Focus on the distance, using the body with the throw, breaking the balance, etc.  All great lessons.

Consider the knife again.  To be a good partner, we must also give a good attack.  This means, we need to teach the nine year old how to cut, how to stab, etc.  We are trusting the kid with deadly motions, even in the hands of a nine year old.  Where his back kick may harmlessly bounce off me, he can probably stick a tanto into my ribs pretty easily.  Can I most likely outsmart him and defend against him?  Sure, but don't be an idiot and think that the stakes didn't just go through the roof.  People have been killed in dumber situations...

You might roll your eyes and think I'm being a little hypersensitive.  "It's just a skill",  "if they are a serious student, it'll be ok" , "no big deal we teach our kids sentry removal techniques all the time."

It is a big. Damn. Deal.

Let us go back to the simple staff, the great teacher of the weapons.  What lessons do we learn from staff? A hard long stick gives us reach and extra power.  Ask a kid who messes up a full speed figure 8 if staff can inflict damage.  They've felt it.  They respect it to some degree.   Even a staff is a dangerous weapon, and needs to be treated that way from square one.

I force my kids to carry their staff to and from the dojang upright tucked behind their arm, paralel to the body.  Don't swing it, or carry it horizontally, bumping clumsily into your surroundings.  Look at who is around you before you pull it from the bag, be aware of your surroundings before practice.  Hand off the staff respectfully.

Why do I focus on these things?  Because each of these kids, with a staff in their hand, can seriously injure someone and being accidental in nature doesn't make it hurt less or take back the action.

How many people have been killed and their last words were "relax, it's not loaded."

We might dress up a staff, taper it, cover it in glitter, holograms or unicorns farting rainbows, but it still represents something very powerful.

All of this babble leads back to my Red Belt.  The one I've already trusted with a staff.  He's a good kid, but I'm not giving him my Spyderco anytime soon.  He gets a wooden knife.  Then maybe a more real looking rubber one, then an aluminum trainer, and finally maybe an actual dangum.  This is over the course of years.  If Mom and Dad want to buy him a Randall A-1, that's their choice, but on the floor they can use the stick for a few years.

My goal is to create a weapon safety program for my kids, like the Totin Chip card used in the Boy Scouts of America, to show that they have earned the right to practice with weapons in the dojang.  If a kid earns his card and does something stupid like take a swing at someone, then they can't bring their staff on the floor for 3 months.  Three months?  But what about testing?

I guess if they can't bring the required tools for training onto the floor, they can't pass, so I guess it's not even worth letting them test.  Lesson learned.

The Meihua Saga Continues - DIY Plum Blossom Poles

I have posted a few times about Meihua or "Plum Blossom" poles in the last year.  Traditionally planted into the ground at varying heights and distances, these poles are great for building strength in stances, building endurance, balance and maintaining proper weight distribution and alignment.

Planted into the ground, they are a great permanent addition to your yard or training area.  Not everyone has this luxury (or the desire to dig several holes in the yard.) In researching the topic, I came across this thread.  A portable post set that is lightweight and easy to move.  Unfortunately, the thread is now several years old, and there isn't much information on the construction.  But after seeing the video, I was hooked.

I used 3" PVC pipes for the poles, and 2" pipes to join them.  The 4 corner poles have 3" to 2" tees.
The tops and bottoms have 3" PVC flanges.  Each one uses a 12" length of PVC and a 6" length. The Tee and the flanges give a little extra height and it takes a good step or hop to mount the poles.

2" PVC joins each corner to the center pole.  each piece is 12" long.  That doesn't sound like much, but put two together, and the width the the cross and the two tees, and you've got a pretty good stance length.  If you're like me, you will vastly overestimate the length of your front stance (must be a guy thing.)  Do NOT be overly ambitious.  I think I've heard that one somewhere before...

Do you like the chairs?  Since people notice them first, and then the poles..  They are from Target, about $20 a piece.  They are good for sitting on and watching someone else use the poles. :)

I haven't talked about the center pole yet, because it's a little different.  We use 2 3" x 2" crosses joined by a 3" piece of 3" PVC.  To get everything to work out right, you have to finagle your measurements so that everything lines up properly.  I believe I used 2 6" pieces of PVC for the center pole on the top and bottom.  This, combined with the 2 crosses matches the height of the corner poles.  This is why two sets of corner poles have the long end on the bottom, and two have the short ends on the bottom.  Why is it this way?  So we can do this:

It folds up.  By not gluing the little piece in the center post, it allows us to rotate the pieces for quick storage.  Since the force in your stances is all downward, you're not really losing anything to stability.  Now we can pick it up, put it in the car, or store in the corner of the garage so you can still park inside it.

And now you've got a good idea of scale.  For me, the width is about right for a good front stance.

OK, so now for the interesting part.  How do we use them?    I'll be completely honest, the first time I got on them, I immediately regretted the decision and was positive I was going to impale my crotch on a pole.  Luckily, this did not happen, but any dreams I had of immediately moving from pole to pole like a martial mountain goat were quickly dashed.

Static training is a blast.  Getting the body used to holding the stances on the poles (there is a little wiggle due to my completely lackluster construction skills ) is a challenge.  From there, moving slowly from one stance to another with balance is even more fun.  Pretty much every stance is possible on these, as illustrated below.

Han Bahl Ja Seh

Kyo Cha Rip Ja Seh

Hu Kul Ja Seh

Chun Kul Ja Seh

Kee Mah Ja Seh

Yes, I'm also rocking my Vibrams.  Best training shoe ever.  Sorry Feiyue.  Word of warning.  If your shoes or the poles are wet, the difficulty factor goes thru the roof.  Make sure everything is dry for your sake.

So where am I at this point?  Just getting started, and still getting used to the poles.  Trying to work on static stances for now and building up strength, balance and endurace. Putting together some transitions that I want to try (1 legged stance to front stance, turn into fighter stance, etc.)  Research a form, modify some TSD hyung and see what comes out of it.

Good times...

Meihua Followup

In a few previous posts, I've talked about my Meihua pole project.  Over the winter, I was able to procure all the materials and put them together with a little trial and error to make everything match up.

This weekend, I was able to glue everything together (I needed a high enough temperature in a well-ventilated area.) and I'm happy to say that it is ALIVE!

Pics to come soon.  After Saturday's gup test, I will hopefully have some time to take pictures and start training on the poles.

Hyung in a Minor Key

As we are on our path to 10,000 repetitions, we will most likely find some ways to mix them up a little bit. Hyung practice is no different. As adult students, many of us can recall training sessions where we repeated the same hyung over and over again, no rest, no instruction, just doing. This in itself is a great practice, especially if we get our brain to shut off and just perform the hyung.

However, we've probably all mixed in a little variety to keep things interesting from time to time. You may have practiced your hyung at top speed -- or maybe -- in slow motion. I once made the kids in my class do the hyung with animal noise kihaps on every movement. You can even do the forms mirror image, or even from last move to first. All of these are great exercises and key to understanding the hyung beyond the surface.

Another fun exercise is to perform the hyung in a different key, so to speak. Look beyond the labels of the techniques, and try to execute them with a different mindset or intent. Maybe the low block becomes a low strike. Or maybe that hard low block becomes a softer, more circular technique. Think about each move, how it relates to the move before and after. Maybe, instead of stepping to the left for the first technique, you turn left, but step backwards. Make the transitions into formidable attacks and defenses.

Ever been to a class where the senior instructor asks if people can demonstrate an application for a movement? And in that same class, no one raises their hand because they don't want to be wrong? And, you're one of those people, who suddenly becomes very interested in your toenails, hoping to disappear and not be called on? Fear not. Try these drills and methods to unlock new understanding, and be a hit at parties and in the dojang!