Update on Training and Life

    I have started a bunch of these posts with "it's been a while eh?" type messages and this post is not going to be different.  So...it's been a while eh?  

    Here's a quick update on where I stand in the TKD world both in my own training and other areas of my martial arts life.  

    Starting with moving further from my home TKD school and the birth of my daughter (At age 42) -- cascading through health issues, a promotion at work, and just the smallest of global pandemics; TKD took a back seat for me.  

    This shelving of TKD started shortly after I passed my test for 6th dan, which marks the end of physical testing in my organization.  For me to attain higher ranks from here - instead of learning and performing subject matter at a test -- my contribution to the arts would have to be measured.  With no real physical goal to work for, I became lost and after contributing to the arts for 25 years, I was burned out and just honestly needed a break.    I am not a belt chaser, but I loved the goals and working towards the next test was always a powerful motivator.   Though a little part of me was pained by this, I was mostly ok with TKD taking a back seat in my life.

    Instead of focusing on my own training, I've been focusing on teaching my wife how to teach our children TKD (by children I include my niece and nephew).  I can honestly say it is some of the most satisfying work as an instructor I have ever participated in.  My wife is a wonderful teacher, who gets better every class she teaches.  Her own unique experiences and passion have forged a terrific foundation of a great instructor.  She is a wonderful partner in this part of my journey, and though I have worked with some amazing teachers, I couldn't imagine working with anyone else for this.  We're passing our shared lineage, the way (in my opinion) all martial arts should be passed on.  

    Our kids are taking a very old, very slow approach to learning TKD.  They test only when they show the aptitude for the rank they are going for.  They impress me frequently with their own unique takes on the art and though I may not have been training so hard personally - my martial arts "cup" was contently full.  

    This is not an indictment on modern classroom TKD practices as I recognize it is different when you have a dedicated student teacher ratio of 4:1 or 4:2 and all of your students live at the dojang.  Though we normally train on Monday nights, we've had classes on a random day and at a random time -- because we can.  We've also skipped training -- because it is free and there's no schedule to advancement to consider.     

    My mental (at least in a martial arts sense) and my physical health have needed to improve for some time and  I had been slowly trying to get myself going again.  

    Taking it "slow"; high stances, low kicks, 30% power on everything I do.  It was so unsatisfying I fell into a rut of thinking "what's the point".  TKD felt necessary when I was younger, riskier and lived in an area with higher crime.  None of those things are my reality now.  Hockey is a much more fulfilling activity to me for physical exercise, but it has become clear it is not enough to attain the health I am chasing.

    Although I've managed to lose a lot of the weight I put on after surgery and the pandemic my health isn't where I want it to be.  I've had kidney stones and back sprains due to my diet and exercise habits and recently made some very strict changes to prevent those issues from coming back.  That being said I committed the worst sin possible when it comes to any activity you want to continue doing as your body ages -- I stopped doing the activity.  Although my mind is sharp as ever, my technique has suffered to the point I am frequently disgusted whenever I try to do martial arts.  As some of you might know, the mind remembers how to do things that the vessel is incapable of doing anymore.  Though I would rate my ego as "healthy" it is sadly not healthy enough to withstand my self criticism and deprecation.  I am my own worst critic, and I am often too brutal to myself. 

    I started taking omega-3 supplements after my mother in law suggested and commented on how good her joints felt.  I had tried omega-3s in my 30s and found the effects negligible.  I was astonished at how good my body felt almost immediately recently.  Aches and pains I have been suffering with for years were suddenly muted.  I've been feeling the pull of TKD and the normal feelings of pain from just walking through were missing.  

    So last night, I threw my self inhibitors off and just let it rip.  I stretched, I kicked hard, I kicked as high as I could, I stretched some more. I did forms and I kicked the crap out of BOB (the punching bag).  

    It was an astonishingly amazing feeling.  At first kicking high and hard was awful.  My body rejected it, my body control was atrocious.  I hung in there though, and focused my mind.  My arms stopped flailing on my high kicks, and I was trimming excess movements from my upper body techniques.  I showed myself that I could bring order out of chaos.  It felt good.  

    I stopped after about 30 minutes,  because experience has taught me that over doing anything your first time back is always bad.  I could have done more, I could have done a lot more.  I'm playing almost as much hockey now in my 40s as I did in my late 20s and in general feel really good from a "wind" perspective.  I was concerned with how I would feel when I woke up.  

    Although not surprising, I'm sore.  Particularly in my back which is most concerning.  I hope to use this information to modify my training.  I'm not going back to low kicks high stances and 30% power - but I'll be content at a slightly modified 75% training.  It felt "right" and it felt "good" for the first time in a very, very long time.  I'm honestly excited at the prospect of training again.  I haven't successfully trained on my own in a long time but I miss the mental relief I'd have after a great forms session.  

    So if you actually read this far, I thank you.  These are my guideposts that I go back and look over sometimes.  Sometimes with pride, sometimes with cringe.  Since people seem to care what I think I'll keep sharing.  

    I plan to write at least one more post soon, as I have become aware that I will be receiving an award that will warrant more words.  I'm hoping though, that I'm on the precipice of rediscovering my training, and forging ahead to martial arts as a middle aged adult.  

 Maybe one day I'll finish that book on forms I've been writing for so long.  

  

Light Touch Sparring in Tae Kwon Do

This weekend, I taught a seminar on light touch sparring at our annual Black Belt Extravaganza.  The Extravaganza as we usually call it, is a gathering of the black belts of our federation in the Pennsylvania area to train together and develop comradery.  It was a wonderful experience filled with learning and connection with my peers from around the CTF.  

Since the overall reaction I received was positive on my seminar, I thought I would share my notes on the seminar here, so that people who attended could better understand my mindset on the drills we practiced that day.  I quipped that I could have spoken about light touch sparring for the duration of my allotted time of the seminar, so this post is me kind of making good on that comment.  

Before I go any further though, I have to apologize to my wife who was instrumental in helping me shape this seminar.  I meant to make it a point to mention her during the seminar, but since I wanted to surprise her I didn't practice what I was going to say when I practiced the seminar with her.  As the old adage goes: how you prepare is how you will perform and I completely forgot to mention her.  Her guidance on what to include, and what not to include was extremely valuable to me as I put these concepts in motion.  If people hated the seminar, it would have been because of my execution but if they liked it, it surely was because of her insight and guidance on content.  Thank you LK, you are well on your way to master level.   

The Seminar: The Lost Art of Light Sparring

I titled my seminar "The Lost Art of Light Sparring" but I think a better term would have been "Sparring's Missing Link - Light Sparring".  A 10,000 foot overview of our rationale for this seminar would be how to bridge gaps between no contact sparring and standard classroom sparring.  If I could see it realized it would be the standard way to introduce beginners to standard free sparring, and would be a place where good fighters "go to the lab" to develop new skills.  As I hope you will see and experience, it provides ample opportunity for new people to get acclimated to kicks and punches "touching" them without causing lasting injury.  It also provides fighters to work on things that aren't ready for prime time yet in standard or higher sparring environments. 

Origins

The story behind this lesson starts approximately 480 years ago, around the year 2002.  I had just returned to the greater Philadelphia area from college and was back teaching at my Tae Kwon Do school of origin.  I was reminiscing with a great mentor of mine about the training I did while away at college (a different school in the same federation).  We decided spur of the moment to drive up there for the night and take a class there together.  While warming up my mentor had me spar with him, but when I came at him how I would in a standard sparring match, he stopped me, and showed me what would eventually become the genesis of this seminar.  

I didn't know it that night, but this drill (and the time chatting, traveling and training together) was his final gift to me.  He retired from Tae Kwon Do after that very class.  I would see him one more time after this, several years later as one of his good friends was testing for 3rd dan herself at our school.  This seminar was a bittersweet reminder of my time training in the early 00s.  

Concept

As stated earlier, the idea here is to bridge the gap between no contact free sparring and standard classroom free sparring.  I wanted to do that for two primary reasons.  First, I wanted something that was more dynamic than static sparring drills, and second I wanted an exercise that allowed me to spar at a level where I did not revert to the things I am already instinctively good at to survive the matches.  It is our belief that by bringing the level of potential contact down that we can find a space to spar in where the fight or flight reflex doesn't even think of kicking in.  This allows for cognitive thought during sparring, something you often aren't afforded in standard classroom or harder levels of sparring.  

I was always told there were two ways to get better at fighting.  

1. The path of pain - spar, get your butt kicked, and evolve over time.  
2. The path of boredom - do thousands of repetitions, develop new, effective strategies to instinctively revert to in higher stress sparring.  

Our goal was to present a 3rd method of getting better at sparring.  A high intensity but minimal contact method of fighting that allows for in the moment feedback with your partner.  The lack of strong contact minimizes punishment for mistakes and doesn't immediately negatively reinforce risk taking.  

Light sparring would not replace any kind of other sparring, it simply outlines a new drill for consideration.  

Benefits of Light Sparring

The benefits of light sparring are plentiful but fall under 3 tenants.  

• Escape fight or flight
• By allowing students to take a risk on new techniques and combinations, a comfort level can be established with new techniques and combinations that will allow them to be integrated in harder sparring faster.  
• Collaboration
• Since both fighters aren't doing their best to try to "win" real, constructive feedback can be presented during the match.  
• Trust
• Since the level of contact is minimal, age, size, gender and rank mismatches should be irrelevant.  Sparring is a dynamic exercise and an instructor always has to know their student base and should take caution to ensure the rules are being followed.  
• With trust comes experimentation and the possibility of elevating ones skills, or in-the-moment raising up of a less skilled fighter.  
• Since contact is minimal, non standard sparring techniques (low kicks, sweeps, clinches) can be added creating a truly dynamic exercise.  

Drills

• Shoulder tap
• Have partners facing each other.  One turns their back to the other.  The person behind taps the other on the shoulder (similar to the prank where you get someone to try to look the wrong way).  
• This tap is the level of contact your punches and kicks should have. 
• This tap symbolizes the trust we have.  While no one likely smashed someone in the shoulder with their "tap" so should they not smash someone with punches and kicks in the coming drills.  The trust we had in this non serious drill should extend into the actual matches.
  
• Very short drill set - 3 minutes max - 1 time each person. 
  
• First matches
• The first matches were with a comfortable partner, from their own school, or a partner they knew (if possible).  
• demonstrated expectations in terms of contact by instructor and instructor's co author.
  
• Rules the same as standard classroom sparring
• 3x1 minute matches, explaining 1 benefit (above) after each match as to allow fighters to recoup.   
• 10-12 minutes
  
• Second Matches
• Switching to partners not comfortable / familiar with.  
• Allows to see the benefits in action.
• 3x1 minute matches - random information about things I saw that I liked and why I personally liked the drills in between each match to allow recuperation.  
• 5-7 minutes
  
• Third Matches
• Introduction of the concept that with minimal contact, and abundance of trust and collaboration; things outside of standard sparring were now fair game.  
• 2x1 - "clinch" sparring - Students hold on to each other and fight in extreme close quarters fighting
• 1x1 match - low kicks only - calling out that in regular classroom sparring we never kick low, but in most of our self defense lessons we talk of only kicking low.  This gave the students valuable practice time feeling out low kicks.  (An entire seminar could be taught here by someone more experienced in this than me).  
• 5-7 minutes
  
• Fourth and final matches
• All things combined, students can spar standard, can clinch during sparring, or decide to clinch the entire time, and can kick low
• 3x1 minute matches.  
• Ample time to recover after each.  

I finished with closing remarks about this seminar, like the gift it was to me, is now a gift to the CTF.  Although I do not plan to retire at this time, my hope is that the people in attendance build on my ideas like I built on my mentor's.