Roll Call

terrylamar

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Let's get this forum moving again. If you are comfortable, list your participation in Haidong Gumdo.

Organization: The World Haidong Gumdo Federation, The U.S.A. Haidong Gumdo Association, The Texas State Haidong Gumdo Association.

Teacher(s): Master Vasquez, Sr., McKinney, TX

Rank: I have entered the Master's Program, an accelerated program for Masters of other Styles. A White Belt, though I will be wearing a Black Belt and the uniform of a Master Instructor. Definately, comportmant of a White Belt, but with the attitude of a Black Belt Master!

Began training: 4/23/11. Pending acceptance by the World Haidong Gumdo Federation. I have been accepted by Master Vasquez, Sr. and Master Jeong-Woo, Kim The Chief of Education, Headquarters Head Master.

Interest: I have always had a passion for the sword, Japanese then Korean. I had an introduction to the Korean Sword, back in the 80's. It was thrown in with other training. Another, short lived opportunity in the 90's, unfortunately, the instructor moved just after I located him. And again, two and a half years ago, when I had my school. Unfortunately, I closed it down and now I have finally acted.
 

Namii

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Yep its a little slow in here,
Im a purple belt in Minnesota under Master Frankovich.
Started training Sept 2010
Loved swords my whole life. I took Kyukido when i was a kid, and I was always distracted by watching the advanced students practicing sword forms on the sidelines during our class. Just never did anything about it until I saw a flier in a gym about Gumdo classes. When I saw the word SWORD I knew I had to join. Now Im hooked. Love swords even more. The sword just feels "right" in my hand. And when I found out you could buy swords online.........you know what happened:boing1:
 
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terrylamar

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Yep its a little slow in here,
Im a purple belt in Minnesota under Master Frankovich.
Started training Sept 2010
Loved swords my whole life. I took Kyukido when i was a kid, and I was always distracted by watching the advanced students practicing sword forms on the sidelines during our class. Just never did anything about it until I saw a flier in a gym about Gumdo classes. When I saw the word SWORD I knew I had to join. Now Im hooked. Love swords even more. The sword just feels "right" in my hand. And when I found out you could buy swords online.........you know what happened:boing1:

What kind of sword did you buy and what led you to buy that sword. Where did you buy it from? I have looked at Martial Art Swords, are there other places to buy quality Korean swords.

Do you train with a real, sharpened sword in class at your level?
 

Namii

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I would love to get this one http://martialartswords.com/turtle-jingum-31 ...someday :)
http://www.sword-saint.com/sword-saint/index.php I have heard good things about the swords from that place but their website stinks.
http://www.swordnarmory.com/Munetoshi-Brand-Yuki-Sword-Collection-s/341.htm, there is what I call the poor man's Jingum. I just bought one of these for just something to play around with and showed it to Sabumnim. He liked it. I'm ok with it. The quality....welll..you get what you get when you pay only $150 for a sword.
Korean swords are kinda hard to find in the modern production sword market. I dont know the name of the forge the Federation Jingums come from. I read the name somewhere but cant remember it right now. I dont fully understand the whole federation jingum thing anyway. It has something to do with "if you want to participate in federation events you have to use a federation approved sword " something like that. Maybe someone can help me out here. I know 5 people testing to black this summer, i wonder if any of them will buy one. They do cost alot like the MAS swords. I've never seen one in person so I can't say anything about the quality. I do want a nice Korean sword but I dont want to blow a whole bunch of money on something I can't use in events, you know what I mean. So Ill worry about that when I get to that point in training. I have my other swords to keep me happy. I have several Hanwei katanas, Munetoshi Yuki, an old WW2 katana, and a cheapy Musashi, and a Hanwei wakizashi that is the blood thirsty one. The sword I was referring to in my earlier post was the Hanwei/Paul Chen Practical plus katana. I got it from Nihonzashi sword store in FL. online sale. Hanwei has a pretty good reputation and quality control and a wide variety of swords. They have a Korean one but its not like what we would train with in Gumdo. Sabumnim likes Hanwei too, his cutting sword is one of the Practicals. I really like that sword. Got lucky i think, because it feels like its an extension of my hand.
No, color belts don't practice with sharp swords in regular class. Not until black belt and even then I'm not sure how much. I think its going for 4th Dan is when you do your whole test (forms and everything) with a live blade.
Once in a great while we do cutting exercises. Out of the 7 months I've been training we have only done cutting with live blade once. It may be due to timing and such since winters here are long and crappy, and most of my class is children/teenagers. We have done some paper cutting with our mokgums/wood swords several times. During our summer demos we will probably do some more cutting as ive seen pictures from last summers demos where they were doing some cutting.
I was told by Sabumnim that generally its around purple belt when students can train with the kagum/blunt sword/iaito/whatever you wanna call it. But of course Sabumnim decides whether you are ready for that privilege. In my class there are 3 of us that train with them and we all started at green with ours. The other two use the $50 Musashi iaito from TrueSwords.com . I held their swords a couple times and they balance like crowbars. I have a friend who studies iaido and her sword is the Hanwei Nami iaito. So I bought that one for my training sword. I found it on Ebay, as it isn't in production anymore. I love training with that thing. ( hence my forum name :) ) its pretty light (not super light though- the blade is stainless steel),lively, feels and balances like a real sword. Its obviously blunt so I'm allowed to use this in class. The tip is a little on the sharp side and I like it since it forces me to learn proper sheathing technique. In the other dojangs in our area the $50 Musashi is pretty popular choice. He lets us use the Japanese iaito as they're far more easier to find and affordable.
Hope with the small novel I wrote, I answered your questions. I didnt know if you were asking about where I got my sharp sword or my training sword so I told about both. Feel free to ask more.
 

Daniel Sullivan

Grandmaster
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Let's get this forum moving again. If you are comfortable, list your participation in Haidong Gumdo.

Organization: The World Haidong Gumdo Federation, The U.S.A. Haidong Gumdo Association, The Texas State Haidong Gumdo Association.

Teacher(s): Master Vasquez, Sr., McKinney, TX

Rank: I have entered the Master's Program, an accelerated program for Masters of other Styles. A White Belt, though I will be wearing a Black Belt and the uniform of a Master Instructor. Definately, comportmant of a White Belt, but with the attitude of a Black Belt Master!

Began training: 4/23/11. Pending acceptance by the World Haidong Gumdo Federation. I have been accepted by Master Vasquez, Sr. and Master Jeong-Woo, Kim The Chief of Education, Headquarters Head Master.

Interest: I have always had a passion for the sword, Japanese then Korean. I had an introduction to the Korean Sword, back in the 80's. It was thrown in with other training. Another, short lived opportunity in the 90's, unfortunately, the instructor moved just after I located him. And again, two and a half years ago, when I had my school. Unfortunately, I closed it down and now I have finally acted.
Not an HDGD practitioner, though I do know a good bit about it. I'm answering your roll call mainly because I'm joyful that there are posts in the Korean sword section.

I practice kumdo that has the kendo sparring element and kum-beop (forms, partnered sword forms with the mokdo, and a touch of drawing and cutting tachniques). The GM at my school, GM Kim, and my primary instructor, Master Choi, are both longtime kendo practitioners, so the sparring is quite intense. Been training with them for about eight years now.

Daniel
 
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terrylamar

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Terry,

How has HDGD been going?

Daniel

I am entering the Masters Program. What this means is that I have absolutely no experience. My application has to make its way to Korea for final approval. There is no doubt I will be approved, but I have to wait on formalities.

In the meantime I have access to the e-Learning portal and the Texas Masters meet regularly. The next is in a couple of weeks. This will be my first true training session.

I am in the process of opening another school. I quit my job and am looking for a location.

I suspect it will be pretty intense in the coming months.

We will be training this month and every month. We have a Texas tournament coming soon. The tournament in Salt Lake City is in July and Master Kim from World Headquarters will be back in Texas in September.
 

Namii

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Cool, I bet you cant wait for your training to begin. I wish you success in training and opening your new school
 

cdunn

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Trained from May 2006 to about mid 2010; my Instructor was Master Oien. Between my arthritis and the pressure to perform, the art ceased to be enjoyable, so I stopped actively training. The poor financial situation that my fiancee and I are in did not particularly help.

While I never tested beyond 1st dan, my understanding is that under the current curriculum standards, I technically have all the requisite training to test directly to 3rd dan.

The Federation stricture on blades exists because of the wall hanger market - Because of weapon laws in Korea, the rat-tail wall-hanger blade is functionally illegal. However, when the Federation started to expand rapidly overseas, many (especially American) students started to bring cheap, poorly made blades to tournaments and other cutting events, where they broke them. I believe there were injuries, but I can't confirm that. For injury liability purposes, then, the Federation banned all swords except those they could approve and distribute.

I have cut with several different Dragon model swords from the federation. It is a beautiful weapon, and they seem to be getting better at making them as the time passes.
 

Namii

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cdunn- Thats good to hear they're a decent sword and improving:) I hope one of our BB's gets one so I can see it in person. Or maybe Ill get to see one at the PanAm tournament next month (next month already? wow.)
Yes with the new curriculum overhaul I could test for 1 dan right now. But we are waiting so we can get everything all figured out. I like the new focus drills that they added in too.
 

Daniel Sullivan

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I am entering the Masters Program. What this means is that I have absolutely no experience. My application has to make its way to Korea for final approval. There is no doubt I will be approved, but I have to wait on formalities.
If your character is what it seems to be, they will be very happy to have you!

Practice basic cutting and proper posture a lot. HDGD is, from what I have seen, a lot more dynamic than most JSA that I have seen. If I recall correctly, you have a TKD background in addition to HKD, so that should help you with some of the low stances. But if your cuts and basic postures are not good, everything else will suffer. The vast majority of my regular practice is basic drawing, cutting, and sheathing. Its very repetitive, and once the coolness factor of having a sword wears off, its a lot like Daniel Laruso doing 'wax on & wax off, sand deck, paint fence, and paint house.' And its what you need to be doing. I am sure that your seniors will tell you the same thing.

In the meantime I have access to the e-Learning portal and the Texas Masters meet regularly. The next is in a couple of weeks. This will be my first true training session.
You and I being veterans from several CHKD threads, I know that I don't have to tell you that there are people who will absolutely frown upon, look down their noses at, and/or be openly derisive towards this method of training.

While I do not consider it ideal, I do feel that it has value and I understand the realities of daily life. I know that you're in it to enrich your experience and to continue learning, so as far as I am concerned, I'm pleased as punch that you're stepping into the world of KSA.

Just make sure to get as much direct feedback and correction as you can when you are training in person with your seniors.

In a lot of ways, sword arts are less complex than taekwondo and hapkido. But they also have subtleties that are peculiar to sword arts and that are not found in unarmed mudo, such as TKD and HKD. It may seem kind of weird, but I have learned first hand that it actually takes a lot longer to master the sword than it does to get good in TKD and HKD. There are things that I am still finding that I can improve upon in my technique and I have been training with swords of some kind since my late teens and in KSA since 2004. As you know, I also have a TKD & HKD background, so I am familiar with the skill sets of all three.

All that I can say is, welcome to the fold. If you're ever in the area, let me know. It would be great to train with another KSA-ist.

I am in the process of opening another school. I quit my job and am looking for a location.
I suspect it will be pretty intense in the coming months.

We will be training this month and every month. We have a Texas tournament coming soon. The tournament in Salt Lake City is in July and Master Kim from World Headquarters will be back in Texas in September.
That is fantastic!! I wish you the best on the new location and on full time teaching.

Where is your school?

Daniel
 
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terrylamar

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Thanks, Daniel.

I liken training with the sword, to training with the rifle in Marine Corps Boot Camp. You do everything with it, sleep, eat, exercise, tear it apart and spend long hours dry firing with it long before you actually get to shoot it on the range. It becomes a hated enemy, a necessary evil before it becomes your best friend.

Learning the sword will be like this. In my introductory lesson when I signed up, I felt like such a clutz. It didn't long to get me winded and tired. Movements were different and different muscles were used. I paid for it the next day in muscle soreness. All the techniques, though at the basic level, were overwhelming. I walked away with a little understanding of what was to come, but with nothing that would allow me to practice on my own. I am thinking I would rather curb my enthusiasm in wanting to get on with my training and wait for formal instruction, so as to not learn any (more) bad habits with the sword.

Much like Presidential Candidates, I am announcing that I am preparing to announce that I am opening a school. This is my plan and I am in the process of finding a suitable location. I have a limited budget, though far greater than last time. As they say, what is the three most important things in opening a business, location, location, location, I am taking my time. I will be in the Austin, TX area.

I will be teaching Taekwondo, Combat Hapkido and Haidong Gumdo, when my instructors believe me to be qualified. I have a few other ideas on keeping the school busy and enrolling students in other than just Martial Arts, for example a Fitness Bootcamp. This is a fulltime venture for me. I need a base of paying students to live the lavish lifestyle in which I desire to become accustomed!

Once opened, anyone from these boards will have a place to train when they are in the Austin area. Maybe I can encourage them to teach a class or two so I can sit back and take it easy. :)
 

Namii

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I still love training with the sword as much as I did on Day 1. I remember how so sore I was. Using muscles I didnt even know could get sore. I do the practicing drawing and re sheathing while standing in front of the tv. I cant sit still so might as well do something useful with that energy right?
The klutziness will soon fade away :)
thanks for the future invitation :) Hope all goes well in the adventure of opening a new school
 

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