Foundations

I have been studying Soo Bahk Do for two years as of the end of this month, but I am frequently struck by how crucial the foundations of our training, the moments during our white belt phase, truly are.

As a white belt we are frequently struggling just to keep up. Our bodies aren't used to the rigorous training yet. Our muscles are unprepared to keep low, hold that pose, move smoothly, lead with the hip. We miss the opportunity, by just trying to look like those senior to us, to do things at our own speed so that we can learn to do them correctly.

The habits we form during our early months of training often stay with us, for better or worse, as we progress.

I have struggled with my training over the past 10 months due to back pain and several related injuries. As far as I thought I had come in my training, my body was giving me clear signals that something was wrong.

Am I getting too old? Is true commitment to Soo Bahk Do only for young people? I knew this couldn't be the case, but my bones and muscles were trying to convince me.

Proper body mechanics are often the cure for many chronic joint pains. I have been told this by so many, yet when I am in class and trying to keep up, where does this knowledge go? I seem to leave it in the dressing room, tucked in my shoes with my socks. Only when I feel outright pain do I try to correct my posture or focus on using my core muscles, and so on.

Last night I worked with Sa Bom Nim on my newest form, Chil Sung Il Ro Hyung, going through the movements, trying to remember whether my foot is positioned opened or closed, whether I am inhaling or exhaling, trying to figure out where my right hand should be during the second movement. Master Choi stopped me at one point, and directed my attention to my back leg. I was in Chun Gul Jaseh, but my rear knee was bent. The first position we learn as white belts, and there was the evidence that my foundation was poorly laid, or that absence due to my injury had chipped away at it.

My rear foot was not planted firmly on the ground; the outside edge was lifting, and therefore my knee was bending. My knee was bending, therefore my hips were tilting. My hips were tilting and therefore, as I listened to my body I became aware, my back was hurting and I was leaning forward slightly.

By not minding my foot, a simple thing to do and something I'd promised myself only recently I would commit myself to, I was sabotaging my all-too-recent return to the Dojang after my injury.

Sa Bom Nim drove home that my back needed my foot's cooperation. My foot needed my mind to focus and be aware.

"Give awareness and purpose to every movement."

I have memorized the song of the Sip Sam Seh in preparation to recite it for some Gup Shim Sa down the road. I thought to 'save' it for a 'big' test, such as for my Il Gup exam. It is beyond memorization, it comes to mind often during the day, and especially when I listen to my instructors in the Dojang. I recite it in the shower, sometimes in the car. I try to find a rhythm and cadence to it in the English that I feel must exist in the Korean, though I have never heard it read aloud.

These fundamental aspects of our art.. The foundations I need to work on so that my more recent techniques can function.. there they are! They're in the Song of the Sip Sam Seh. This poem is like a cheat sheet, and for some reason we wait until we are told that we can no longer recite the 8 Key Concepts during a test to look for something else to study.

There is no task so small that it does not warrant your best effort.

I'm paraphrasing a Samurai movie I recently watched, but this concept struck a cord with me. How often do we skimp on effort because we are 'saving' it for something important? Master Choi says "Every day is a test." Every moment is a test. We often speak of judging people by their actions, but when presented with the smallest task we often do not yearn to excel at it. To take pride in the small things, to do them well because we can.

Small things, like planting my foot firmly to tax the muscles that I need to strengthen. To punch strong, even though I have no physical target. If I am training to develop muscle strength and memory, what else is more important than moving correctly, every time?