End of the Month Tournament Sparring #4

http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Patrica (Blue Fighter) vs. Jose (Red Fighter)
Winner: Patricia (Blue Fighter)

End of the Month Tournament Sparring #3

http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Eric (Red Figher) vs. Richard (Blue Fighter)
Winner: Richard (Blue Fighter)

End of the Month Tournament Sparring #2

http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Gino(Blue Fighter) Vs. Brandon (Red Fighter)
Winner by Split Decision: Brandon (Red Fighter)

End of the Month Tournament Sparring #1

http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Gabriel (Blue Fighter) vs. Brandon (Red Fighter)
Winner: Brandon (Red Fighter)

I finally figured it out!

I asked Master Bosse to watch my pattern “Ge-Baek” today, to see what I needed to work on. He said that I was de-connected from my pattern afterwards. He said that my techniques were good, but I looked like a robot. He explained that I needed to put my personality into my pattern. Comparing it to lasagna, Master Bosse said that it would be like someone just cooking up lasagna noodles and eating them plain. Not very exciting. Or, you could cook them and add a little butter, which would give it a little bit different flavor. Or you could add all kind of spices, changing the taste totally. It’s the same lasagna, only you have to put your own spin on it, your own personality into it. It’s the same with patterns. He said that my patterns had pretty good technique, but there was no Patricia in them. It was like a robot doing a pattern. Some people do their patterns a little bit slower. Others faster. Some people pause at different times. You put yourself into those patterns. If not, then it will be robotic. It could even be unexciting. The patterns are the same, but I have to make them different. He also suggested that I move my eyes a little more, instead of keeping them strait ahead all the time. I tried this. WOW! EUREKA! It’s completely different! I always watch my patterns and wonder what is wrong with them. Master Bosse has been telling me I looked like a robot, that I was too stiff, for pretty much forever. I just didn’t get it! It completely makes a difference. I also figured out that I need to not be nervous and get into my pattern, put myself in my own little white room of Ge-Baek, or Choong-Moo, or Dan-Gun, or whichever pattern I am doing. Master Bosse also compared it to teachers. You could have a teacher with the same tone of voice for the whole class, making it boring no matter how exciting what they are talking about should be, or you can have a teacher who moves his or her voice up and down, and move his/her eyes around, and body and arms, making you hang onto every word, never knowing what they’ll do next. Below is what I decided you need to have good patterns:

To Have Good Patterns:
Know the pattern
Have spirit
Have good technique and stances
Have good sine wave, power, and speed
Have smooth, flowing motion
Put yourself into your pattern

As soon as I tried putting myself into the pattern, I got a result. It made such a difference. I’ll imagine sparring, or doing a Ho Sin Sul. I’ll have perfect technique, smooth. Patricia will be in that pattern.
Thank you, Master Bosse!

To all of you Taekwon-Doins, tomorrow (Thursday) is the End of the Month Tournament. You can go if you’re from any of Master Bosse’s classes. See you there!

How Sweet Is That?

An obviously Taekwon-Do belt cake (Notice ‘Taekwon-Do’ Written in Korean- I wonder if the eater took ITF?)

We don’t eat our candy for Halloween. Instead, I build a huge candy house- this year it was a country farm nearby a stage, lake, and outdoor TKD do-jang! Here are some images of the Taekwon-Do guys- the girl doing the splits would not stand up to kick or punch, so I had to make other arrangements. And I had to give them belts that look brown because there wasn’t any other color that was good except yellow, and I forgot why I didn’t use that…
And I found a Taekwon-Do belt cake that looked cool, so I posted that too. This year, maybe I can make a Taekwon-Do cake!

I’ll have somebody kicking on it, maybe, drawn in frosting. Possible on top of marshmallow fondant. Maybe in front of the LVTKD logo! Yes…

What would you make a TKD cake look like?

"The Only Thing You Have To Fear is Fear Itself"

They say the only thing you have to fear is fear itself. I wish that was the only thing I feared! You see, breaking boards with side kicks, jumping front kicks, and flying side kicks normally aren’t too hard for me. But when I do reverse hook kicks and reverse turning kicks, I stop at the last second and don’t break the board. It’s because at the last second, I get afraid of the board. I don’t go all the way through; I barely even kick hard! I don’t feel scared at first, but when I spin, my foot just stops. I wish I could stop this, I wish I could get over my fear. I remember when it used to be like this for me when I did jumping high over the head front kicks. But I wasn’t as afraid, I was extremely FRUSTERATED. But when I got to the Christmas Demo, when I looked at that board, I felt nervous. Very nervous. But soon, it wasn’t regular nervousness. It became excitment, confidence, exhilleration. All on top of the nervousness, as if the nervousness only empowered these – I guess I’d say brave- feelings. I’d say that this would be’getting into the zone.’ I barely even remember breaking the board on the first try. After that, I felt like a champion!
http://www.youtube.com/get_playerAbove is a video of that moment. I was a blue belt, at 12 years old. If only I could do that with reverse turning kicks. It isn’t too difficult to preform these kicks, it’s just I get freaked out. This is harder for me that a jumping high over the head front kick ever was! This is more than frusterating; I know that at the moment I should be braking the board, I feel fear instead of my heel flying through the board. And now, when I go to kick, I automatically assume I’m going to get scared at the last second and do bad, so I don’t even try hard enough, accidentally!

This is a question: how did you overcome your board breaking fears/chokes/lack of power? Did you ever have any problems with certain breaks?

If you could please answer this question, I would be very thankful.

Because the only thing that you should have to fear is fear itself, and if I can get rid of this silly reverse turning kick and hook kick fear, then I’ll be one step closer to getting to that point.

Thanks!

Jumping Long Distance and Early Red and Black Belt Class

In my basement I Jumped Really far on a bean bag. and master bosse let me do the red and black belt class even if I am a red stripe. And could somebody post on this blog?

Grand Master Tran – President of the ITF- is missing

Above: Grand Master Tran

The ITF president is missing! Below was copied from the ITF website:

Grand Master Trân was in Port-au-Prince on business when the earthquake struck Haiti last Tuesday. He was staying at the Montana Hotel (room 306). Grand Master Trân was seen going to his room 10 minutes before the earthquake. “My husband is trapped in the rubbles of the Montana Hotel and our family is still awaiting news from the rescue teams”, Mrs My Nguyen Tran, his wife, said this morning.

Dr. Janel Gauthier, former Chair of the ITF Ethics and Discipline Committee and close friend of the Tran family, stated: “Taekwon-do practitioners all over the world are hoping that Grand Master Tran will be found alive and well very soon. Their thoughts and their hearts go to his family. Many Taekwon-do Masters, Instructors and practitioners from the Americas are deploying tremendous energy and using all possible channels and tools of communication to get vital information to the multi-national professional rescue teams to locate Grand Master Tran in the rubble of the Montana Hotel. Others are rounding health and sanitation stations in Haiti and neighbouring countries in case Grand Master Tran has been evacuated without identification”.

“I thank all of those who are working the medias and the web, searching for information or spreading information on my father and his possible location”, said Grand Master Tran’s daughter Joliette.

Grand Master Tran is the father of Joliette (6th degree black belt), Cécilia and Nicolas (4th degree black belt).

For further information:

Master Willem Jacob Bos,
ITF Secretary General
E-mail: itfadmhq@fastwebnet.it
Phone : + 39 06 45443165

Notice anything different…?

The blog layout is different! That’s right, we have a blog with a columm on either side of the posts! Wow! I have always dreamed of a template like this…. ahhh…

I found this at blogcrowds.com, it’s free, no download required, and fantastic!
Don’t worry, posters, everything is still the same to do. It’s just… better!

Today was the Red and Black Belt Class! Gino got to come- even if he is a red stripe and not a red belt! He behaved very well and did a great job! Yay, Gino! We got our new schedules for the Red and Black Belt Class for 2010 today. I posted it here, you can find it by clicking on the Red and Black Belt Class image on the left side of this screen. Also, I added a translator to our blog- that way, readers can translate comments and posts to their languages. (I got a few comments in Chinese, and I got the idea)