Brown Belts

On Monday, Gemma and I promoted to Brown Belt. We also received our staffs and our wooden swords. Next year is going to be an awesome Kuk Sool year!

I'd like to wish an enormous thank you to our instructors and fellow students for helping us along this journey.





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2012 Kuk Sool Won UK Tournament

Last weekend we competed in the 2012 Kuk Sool Won UK Tournament, held in Liverpool.

A few of us travelled up together by minibus on the Friday and had a great time. Of particular note was JIKJN's soggy squashed cheese and chutney sandwiches which he shared around.

The Friday evening was the tournament for KSNs and higher so we went along to watch. Gemma and I volunteered to be time/score keepers and had a wonderful time helping out and getting to chat with a few Masters and high rank judges. We even shared some sausage rolls! Haha.

We were incredibly nervous on the Saturday, but did very well. Everyone who entered from Halesworth and Lowestoft schools came away with a medal for everything they entered which is a great achievement. The competition was even tougher than it had been at the European tournament earlier this year, but we had trained hard and received the medals to prove it. Gemma won copper for her techniques (Ahn Sohn Mohk Soo 4, Maek Chi Ki 12 and Maek Cha Ki 11), silver for her Joong Geup Hyung and gold for sparring. I got gold for both my techniques (Ahn Sohn Mohk Soo 4, Maek Chi Ki 14 and Maek Cha Ki 6) and for Joong Geup Hyung. I didn't spar because I was nervous of injuring my collar bone. I've already damaged it once since breaking it. I need to let it heal properly.

We had an awesome weekend spending time with the Masters, meeting old friends and making new ones, and taking part in something we love.

Kuk Sool!





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SNAP!!! part 2

A few weeks after I broke my collar bone we had a Black Belt Club class. I had been healing really well and had a lot more movement back in my arm and shoulder so I participated. I didn't want to miss out as the class was going to be focused on Yoga, meditation and some advanced kicks - all some of my favourite aspects of the martial art!

It was excellent! My collar bone was fine all through the Yoga exercises and the kicks including some quite difficult ones like the jump splits kick and multiple spin kicks... until I attempted a jump double front snap kick. I wrenched my shoulder and had to sit out of the final meditation in agonising pain.

I didn't bother going back to A&E as I had an appointment on the Wednesday any way so decided to wait until then. It was far more painful than the original break, but I soldiered through. On Wednesday, an X-ray showed that I had thankfully not re-broken it and that it was still healing well, albeit at an odd angle. The doctor said the pain was most likely torn tissue or muscle damage and prescribed rest.

Except the following Friday was my grading for brown stripe...

I took part with my arm in the sling, but gave it everything I had. I dropped my stances extra low, focused even more than usual and tried my absolute best - anything to compensate for my lost appendage. I passed and received an extra congratulation from KJN Martin who told me it was "an awesome grading" and that I showed "true fighting spirit". Even if everything was done one-armed, that one arm was spot on!

...

It has been a few weeks since then. My collar is getting better gradually, but I am still in quite a bit of pain and it is very sore. I'm still taking part at Kuk Sool, but I am taking it a little easier. We have the Tournament in Liverpool at the end of November, so I need to be ready for that.

Jung shin!





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SNAP!!!

Gemma and I took our first ever Kuk Sool class on Saturday. It coincided with the end of the 2012 London Olympics and since it was to be a 'fun' class, we themed it accordingly. We spent a few weeks putting the plan together with SBN Jon, wrote down the order of events and even bought some toy medals to give out to all who participated.

Classes during the school summer holidays tend to have less people attend as they may have gone away or just want to enjoy the nice weather, so we were shocked and delighted that so many people came.

We started by having everyone jog around, jumping and touching the floor on cue. Then we introduced some 'hurdles' down one length for them to jump over. Next we split the class into four groups and allocated each to a corner with a specific exercise - Sit up 'rowing', push up 'breaststroke swimming', legs in the air 'cycling', and kick pad 'weight lifting'.

After each team had done every exercise, we divided into adults and children to play long jump. Adults don't usually get to play games so it was great to see them have fun with it... until I decided to have a go. I cleared the longest jump to tie with SBN Dave, but when I landed I dropped into a rolling break fall, slipped and heard a very loud crack.

I had to abandon the class and head straight to A&E with my newly broken collar bone where I spent the next few hours waiting to be seen.

So, with my arm in a sling, I'll be unable to train for the next several weeks. I just hope that I'll be mobile enough to at least participate in the upcoming grading in September. I would hate to get left behind. Especially as I know all I need for the grading already.

Gemma continued with the class and done a fantastic job! After the long jump, they returned to their four teams to do a series of relay races, then paired up to tackle a piggyback assault course. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we had a very positive reaction to the class.

I have learned an important rule of teaching - Do not take part in you own class. I just wish I knew that before hand. Hahaha! Jung shin!





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2012 European Tournament Montage

Gem has done one of her 'famous' montages of some of the footage we got from the tournament:

I think she did a great job and really captured how much fun we have on the day with all the silly faces and smiles.





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Another Life

A good friend of mine asked Gem if she would be interested in acting in a short film he was putting together. After months of work and lots of practice, here is Gem's acting début - Another Life:

I am SO very proud of her. She done an absolutely incredible job and stood shoulder to shoulder with the other actors who have much more experience than her.

Please visit the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/AnotherLife.FanPage) 'like' it, show your friends, and generally support it in every way you can and hopefully we may be lucky enough to see it get some funding and maybe become it's own series. Here's hoping.





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Half way!

Last night, Gem and I received our red belts and started to learn our next set of techniques - Maek Cha Ki and our next form - Goh Geup Hyung. I love it already!

We are half way along our journey to Black belt now.





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