A "cheesey" lesson!

[shesulsa]

There is a student at our academy who is terribly shy. She studied TKD prior to studying with my teacher and has always had a problem with Kihaps - power yells.

Tonight it was just her, me, and one other black belt and we really wanted to help her get over this hump, so finally I told her that if she didn't find a natural kihap coming out with the next kwon bop (basic exercise) that I got to pick a word she could use. At this point, my buddy / cohort in crime / fellow bb said, "Yeah, and I know just the word!" He whispered it my ear and I could hardly believe it, so I asked him to repeat it and he did.

Well, needless to say, the student performed the exercise without the power yell, so I gave her the word suggested by him ... "cheese."

Upon repeating it to her I began to see where this was going before she ever even said it. So, upon the last strike in every exercise, she had to say, "cheese." We were rewarded with the opportunity to see this young woman's technique, purpose and form increase immensely. She already had good form and beautiful movement, but had the common habit of looking at the floor, or around, or whispering out the moves as she did them (front kick, double punch), etcetera. But giving her this word supplied her with a focus. She no longer had to look around to search for her meaning or strength or sound. By the end of the evening, she was looking where she was striking, moving sharper and stronger ... the transformation was amazing - just in one lesson!

Now, I know we've discussed kihap sounds before, but I had never heard anything like "cheese" and my buddy Chris tell me he first heard it as a yellow belt in TKD from a BB testing for 4th dan. His kihap was "cheese" and gave Chris a case of the giggles. But he told Chris that if you analyze most people's power yells, you will find some form of the sound, "cheese."

I'll bet whoever said, "Never underestimate the power of cheese" had no idea of this application!

 

[bignick]

We do this quite a bit at my taekwondo school. Not "chees" necessarily, but if a student is shy or people just aren't really yelling and the class seems to be loosing intensity the instructor will say to either pick it up or he'll give us something to yell...

In fact, it happened on Tuesday night...the head instructor told us all she didn't like our yells and we need to pick up the intensity...everybody had to have wild yells or everyone got 50 pushups. Of course, the more shy people were still kinda quiet....so a couple minutes later she goes, "You lost, but we'll go double or nothing one more chance." Finally the quiet people started showing some confidence...but evindently we weren't quite wild enough so we only got 50 out of the 100 pushups....

I guess that's why they call it gambling...

 

[dubljay]

I find this to be quite inspiring. In my experiences with teaching I have found getting a novice to make noise of any kind (meaningful or not) is very difficult.

This also reminds me of when I asked to join an informal practicality class. I was to prove myself before I could join. This was not a test of skill or ability, but something else, commitment and depth of character as a martial artist. There were three requirements: 1) Gobble like a turkey 2) Walk around like a monkey 3) strut around to some song playing on the radio. Ridiculous sounding? That’s what I thought until I actually experienced it.

This single test gave me perhaps my greatest insight to my character as a martial artist than anything I can think of. Allow me to explain: 1) the gobble: How simple and silly sounding right? Well it turns out it was not so simple, you could not draw in a breath to make the gobble sound, it must be done spontaneously. This really changed the way I kihai (spelling?). Always before I had taken a readying breath, but now I simply expel the air and make a noise. This simple fact increased my reaction time quite noticeably. 2) Monkey: Even more silly than the gobble? This was to demonstrate your humility. One cannot learn without being humble. Simple yet true. 3) Strut around with music: Not even related to martial arts? This was to show that you had rhythm and timing. Necessary for any martial artist. Each of those things forced me to rediscover myself as a martial artist.

A bit off topic I suppose but I felt this was appropriate to share.

-Josh-

 

[Zepp]

Good story, and good idea.

I would have picked "yabba-dabba-doo" myself. I know it wouldn't really work, since it's more than one syllable, but it would just be too much fun to make someone yell that in class.

 

[shesulsa]

I could be totally wrong, but if you take a second to say the word "cheese" you'll notice you have to "load up" for the "CH" sound and the rest of the word just kind of flows out and forms a rather traditional kihap.

It's also a word just about everybody has said for the camera and where are we looking? What are we doing? Looking forward toward a focused end to an event (the snapping of the shutter), and we are looking directly at the point of focus, the camera. Once the picture has been taken, we relax, indicating we have focused energy on the event right when the shutter clicks.

Anyone else care to pick it apart?

 

[still learning]

Hello, I heard of kids using ( Uu-Saw) when they punch or kick. Sounded funny at the time and I try using it and the kids would laugh, but understood the purpose of kiai. Many would echco the kiai sounds to get louder......Aloha

 

[TigerWoman]

I hear Uu-saww alot at tournaments. Well, cheese beats pow any day. I still would rather do a an aihhh! Or even Gah! But when everybody is doing pow... Interesting story, shesulsa, apparently that word worked for your student and helped her. TW