Pneumatised!

Thursday (August 18) was another gumdo day. I went to gumdo practice then after I took the taekwondo class. Afterwards, I practiced some more gumdo to get ready for my test the next day. (Then, I did manage to get to the gym afterwards and do some weight exercises.)

Friday (August 19), I went to gumdo class to get warmed up for my test. It was a good class – one full hour of practice. I don’t get to go Fridays all the time, so it is good when I can go. We had our test after the class. First, we were tested on “kyo gum”, which are duelling/fighting techiques, consisting of around 4 steps/techniques. Next, we were tested on “ssang soo gumbup” which are sword patterns. Then we had to answer some terminology questions. Gumdo is a Korean martial art so the terminology is Korean. So we were asked for either the English or the Korean for a few terms.

Finally, we had to do “candle begi” which is blowing out the candle with a sword. I managed to blow out the candle. (Yay!) It took me somewhere between 20 and 25 strokes. I lost count. Well, that’s much better than when I started (took me 50 strokes). (See my previous post on gumdo under the general category.) I still need more practice. Next time, I have to do it in 10 strokes. Then, they start adding more candles!

So, on Tuesday I guess I get to learn new forms for gumdo. I can’t wait. I love doing martial art patterns. It’s very meditative in a strange way. Makes you quite aware of everything around you while teaching you to remain focussed.

Saturday (August 20), I had taekwondo for 3 hours. It was a black belt meeting and training day. We did some warm up punching and kicking drills, then practiced our patterns. Afterwards, some light kicking and we practiced chest guard kicking (i.e., kicking our partner who was wearing the chest guard). It’s been awhile since I’ve done that training so I had to get used to getting kicked wearing a chest guard. Frankly, no one really likes doing this (unless one is masochistic!), but it’s good practice for both people. Afterwards, we had our meeting, which took a little longer than it should have. Then we had some food. Nice! Our Master bought Korean food for us. Yum!

Today, I have to do some running as it’s been 3 days since I’ve done some serious running outside of the do jang. So, Nathan and I are going to head out on the trail run I planned out earlier. I’ll be back later with an update.

Cassandrah
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