About 3 and a half years ago I went with a group of about 80 Tang Soo Do students (and their families) on a 1 week trip to Korea and China. The trip was sponsored by Tae Kwon Do Times and ITF master Kim Chun Sik. I was a solid red belt at the time and only 14 years old. Red belt might seem like a high rank... until you're in a group comprised almost entirely of Dans (about 12 masters as well). There were only 4 or 5 Gups in the whole lot. Anyways, the following is my story about the trip overall, from a martial arts standpoint and a cultural standpoint. I'll start off by saying that we had the pleasure of training in 3 of Korea's martial arts Do Jangs during the carefully planned trip. We did a seminar with a Judo master, learned a complicated Bong Hyung I had never seen before or since, and learned some basic Korean swordfighting. Overall, it was very inspirational being able to see some Korean masters perform different demonstrations of Hyung and techniques. One thing I noticed immediately was that the training style in Korea is much more strict. Even the most traditional martial arts Do Jangs in America aren't as disciplined as the Korean's training. When they practiced Ho Sin Sool, their locks and chokes were flawless and almost full force. My Kyo Sa Nim wasn't able to eat his lunch one day due to being choked so hard by a Korean who was demonstrating a technique to him earlier. In the Judo school, the master demonstrated a plethora of various throws and flips on an extremely resilient student of his. He was throwing, tripping, and taking down his student with almost no regard to the pain he was receiving. The student would get up again and again, without even a cry of pain or whimper to the solid beating he was willingly receiving. It was more than a demonstration of technique. It gave me a role model to assert myself to be like. His discipline was great by American standards, yet to the native Koreans, it's nothing more than an everyday training exercise. One event stood out in my mind in terms of the politics of martial arts over there. We trained at a Tang Soo Do school for one of the seminars and the master there had a few of his Dan students present to help out. An off hand comment made by the Master (who Master Kim was translating for) stated that all of his students present were Dans. However, one of them was female and was wearing the red-trimmed dobak and belt. One of the female students we had then asked specifically what rank the Koran woman was. The Master replied, after the translation, that she was a 2nd Dan. The American woman then asked why she was wearing a red belt while all the males had midnight blue. The Master then proceeded to give a long answer in Korean which we couldn't understand. It was perhaps 15 seconds long. Master Kim then smiled and cleverly stated, "the red makes her more beautiful". Everyone had a little laugh at his clever explanation, but it was obvious what the real reason was. The American woman then proceeded to give a slight glare to Master Kim, but let it go. This stood out to me that even in the martial arts their cultural beliefs are resonating. Even though politically, women are gaining many freedoms over there, culturally they're still regarded as lesser. In regard to food we were taken to many different restaurants. All of them had traditional Korean dishes of many varieties. Most of the time we were served things and we didn't even know what we were eating. There were various meats and vegetables as well as some exotic types of soups you would never see in the US. In addition, rice was noticably the only dish served with almost every meal. My Kyo Sa Nim, his family, and I actually decided to go independant of the planned touring one afternoon and decided to go shopping. We also ate lunch at the only McDonald's in Seoul (at the time, I believe). The burgers were actually much better than here in the US and the McDonalds was 3 stories high. It was still fast food, but it was actually very good fast food . On another note, we were even served Peking Duck by a master chef during the Chinese portion of the trip. I ate it and it was a mix between turkey and chicken, except a little tougher. It's probably the most exotic food I've ever eaten. The first four days of the trip were spent in Korea, while the latter three were spent in China. Our time in Korea contained more training than tourism, whereas our time in China was pure sightseeing and shopping. We went to the Great Wall on our second to last day of the trip. I managed to get split up from the main group and ended up with a master that was on our tour. We were talking about some various things for a little while before a massive duststorm overtook our area. The air had kind-of a brownish fog to it and it was extremely windy. I was luckily in my Do Bok at the time so I had the wonderful idea of having the master take a picture of me doing a Tang Soo Do technique on the Great Wall during such a dramatic event. He agreed and 2 pictures turned out very well of me doing a Choon Dan Soo Do Mahk Kee in Back Stance (middle double knife-hand block). I have the pictures on a CD if anyone is curious. That was the single event that stuck out most in my mind, of the China portion of the trip. The trip occured in early July of 2001 and was Master Kim's last big trip there (he had done a few in the past similar to this one). Tae Kwon Do times published an article about the trip in their January 2002 issue http://www.taekwondotimes.com/125jan02.html . Sadly I was never able to get a copy of the magazine. I most likely was in quite a few of the larger pictures. I may back order it from the company someday. If anyone is curious about anything else about my trip or wants to see some pictures, just say so and I'll see about perhaps uploading some of my old pictures. I'm now a grown 1st Dan and would love to go back again, with the new understanding of martial arts and maturity I have now. Even though the trip happened over 3 years ago, I felt my story was still relevant. I was just waiting for a Tang Soo Do forum to put it on A couple of interesting facts about South Korea: -1/3 of the population has the last name of Kim, and all consider each other relatives. -Over 80% of the entire population of South Korea is centered in their capital of Seoul.
Excellent account! I definitely enjoyed reading it. I'm planning to go to Korea one day as well I find it interesting that the techniques were performed full force. My instructor always does it full force -- ow.
Haha, Master Kim was always known for being tactful and clever . I had done a couple other training seminars with him here in the states as well and he certainly has a sense of humor. I'll see about uploading some photos and linking you guys tonight. EDIT I was able to upload some photos. Here they are with their descriptions. -Master Kim consoles the group after arriving at the international airport in Seoul -Knuckle pushups in the gravel... Authentic Korean training attachmentid=3646&stc=1 -The Koreans demonstrate shinai sparring -Two opposing sides prepare for a full out battle... No holds barred and to the death -The Koreans break it up before things get out of control
Great post and really interesting to read your views on South Korea from a really great sounding trip. It sounds like a great time and it really seems like you learned a lot in a very short time! What a grand experience! Great pics too! I do want to be picky though and comment on the "facts" though... (no criticism or meanness intended by the way) “A dozen family names predominate, especially Kim, Park, Lee, Kang, and Cho. But Kims from the city of Pusan in the south are not the Kims from Seoul and all the Kims know exactly which group they belong to.” http://www.pbs.org/hiddenkorea/culture.htm Many Korean share the same family name (especially Park, Kim, and Lee) but although the names may be the same in Hangeul (Korean writing system), they may vary greatly in their Chinese character (making them completely different names). Koreans who share the same name and chinese characetr furtther ask what "clan" they are... usually refering to a village area where the "founder" of the family established himself. So two people named "Lee", with the same chinese character may not be related, one may be an "Ansan Lee" and one may be a "Hong Song" Lee... different clans. A lot of people live in Seoul, but a great deal live throughout the country as well and in the other big cities like Pusan, Taejeon, Taegoo, Kwangjoo, and etc.
Master C.S. Kim is my inspiration in Tang Soo Do. Yes he is a Korean businessman and I am sure as a businessman he may be difficult to deal with, but as an instructor and a martial artist - he is just awesome. It sounds like an awesome trip!! I am stil confused about the weapons I see Tang Soo Do practitioners weilding. Tang Soo Do has always been an empty handed art. I wonder if people's fascinations with swords has brought this about?
Thomas, interesting points. I based the 1/3 kim fact off of what a tour guide said when I was over there and the 80% figure was based off of a web site a saw about a year ago. Andy Cap, in regards to the weapons, we actually only trained in Tang Soo Do at one school. All of the other places had different Korean styles. The sword school was the "Official Korean Kumdo Association", similar to Japanese schools which teach a very similar swordfighting art... Kendo I believe. However, the staff form that was taught to us was taught by, I believe, a Tang Soo Do practitioner. Staff seems to be the most common weapon in use at Tang Soo Do schools, based on what I've seen and heard. We actually practiced at a school of almost every prominent Korean style except for Tae Kwon Do.
It sounds like an awesome trip. We have done some staff work as well in the past. I have just heard and seen a lot of weapons stuff in regards to Tang Soo Do over the past few months and then the majority of your pics had weapons - lol.
Haha, well I have many more pics. The problem is that they're too big to attach to this site and I haven't found another site that would host them for remote linking.
