An Afternoon with the Grandmaster

[Zepp]

I would have posted this sooner, but I've been swamped with schoolwork until just now. I'll warn you in advance, this is a long post that probably won't interest anyone who doesn't practice Chung Do Kwan TKD.

This last Saturday, the much beloved Grandmaster Duk Sung Son, of the World Tae Kwon Do Association flew out from his headquarters in New York for a special workout/get-together here at UC Santa Barbara. Besides our usually class of 20 or so, several instructors brought up students from their respective schools to join us, some from as far away as Colorado. I think we had a class size of about 40-something.

This was my second time seeing/being lead by Mr. Son, the first time being at summer camp in New York where I tested for 1st dan. He's quite a guy. A former head of the Chung Do Kwan in Seoul, he came to the US in 1962 (one of several teachers who broke away from the KTA), founded the WTA, and still leads classes just about every day of the week even though he's nearing 81. He also barely speaks English (though he seems to understand it pretty well), but he can still get the idea across pretty well whenever he wants to correct you in something (and he can be such a cranky perfectionist too).

The workout followed the usual format, with some small changes. The Grandmaster prefers to use basics mostly for a warm-up, spending more time on forms and sparring. At larger sessions like this one, I guess 2 on 1 sparring is typical. For some reason, we do 2 on 1 before 1 on 1. And for some horrible reason, I end sparring 2 on 1 against 2 1st dans from my own class, one of whom is twice my size! After that, I was almost too tired to spar with any of the colored belts. Fortunately, I gained my second wind in time to spar with some of our more distinguished (higher ranking) guests from out of town.

Lastly, the Grandmaster tested many of the lower belts present for their next belt rank. No dan tests though. It's too bad that we ran out of time for board breaks. I was hoping to show off in front of Mr. Son.

Afterwards, we all went our separate ways temporarily to clean up and get ready for dinner. We went to a nice local Chinese restaurant because there really isn't a decent Korean restaurant anywhere in this town.

I had a insane amount of fun this whole time, and it was a great break from schoolwork. I kind of wish we could do this every week.

 

[arnisador]

Thanks for posting the review!

 

[Zepp]

Heh, thanks for the pity-post arnisador.

Well, I did say it wouldn't interest many people.

 

[white belt]

Zepp,

What you experienced IS important! While the memories are fresh, write them in a quality journal. An experience like that becomes more special with time. Your grandkids and future students may miss out if you don't. What seems common now may not be later. I heard a guy recently on a talk show admit that he once walked out on a Doors concert because he "never heard of them before" and he "didn't think they would ever get anywhere". Perspective can be a funny thing, huh?

My best to you,
white belt

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by Zepp
Heh, thanks for the pity-post arnisador.

Heh! Well, I think we should encourage people to post reviews like this! The database is searchable, after all.

 

[RCastillo]

Originally posted by Zepp
I would have posted this sooner, but I've been swamped with schoolwork until just now. I'll warn you in advance, this is a long post that probably won't interest anyone who doesn't practice Chung Do Kwan TKD.

This last Saturday, the much beloved Grandmaster Duk Sung Son, of the World Tae Kwon Do Association flew out from his headquarters in New York for a special workout/get-together here at UC Santa Barbara. Besides our usually class of 20 or so, several instructors brought up students from their respective schools to join us, some from as far away as Colorado. I think we had a class size of about 40-something.

This was my second time seeing/being lead by Mr. Son, the first time being at summer camp in New York where I tested for 1st dan. He's quite a guy. A former head of the Chung Do Kwan in Seoul, he came to the US in 1962 (one of several teachers who broke away from the KTA), founded the WTA, and still leads classes just about every day of the week even though he's nearing 81. He also barely speaks English (though he seems to understand it pretty well), but he can still get the idea across pretty well whenever he wants to correct you in something (and he can be such a cranky perfectionist too).

The workout followed the usual format, with some small changes. The Grandmaster prefers to use basics mostly for a warm-up, spending more time on forms and sparring. At larger sessions like this one, I guess 2 on 1 sparring is typical. For some reason, we do 2 on 1 before 1 on 1. And for some horrible reason, I end sparring 2 on 1 against 2 1st dans from my own class, one of whom is twice my size! After that, I was almost too tired to spar with any of the colored belts. Fortunately, I gained my second wind in time to spar with some of our more distinguished (higher ranking) guests from out of town.

Lastly, the Grandmaster tested many of the lower belts present for their next belt rank. No dan tests though. It's too bad that we ran out of time for board breaks. I was hoping to show off in front of Mr. Son.

Afterwards, we all went our separate ways temporarily to clean up and get ready for dinner. We went to a nice local Chinese restaurant because there really isn't a decent Korean restaurant anywhere in this town.

I had a insane amount of fun this whole time, and it was a great break from schoolwork. I kind of wish we could do this every week.

What? No work on self defense? :asian:

 

[Zepp]

Originally posted by RCastillo
What? No work on self defense? :asian:

Heh, what do you think sparring is?

I guess I forgot to mention that after we sparred ourselves into exhaustion, we started doing three-step drills.

Let's see sparring, drills- what would you have us add? (Ok, grappling, but it is TKD.)