How (not) to hurt yourself

Last night’s training session had a lot of diversity, none of which contributed to my wellbeing. Quite the opposite actually, I’ve bruised pretty much everything from my lower shins up to my head…

Starting at the bottom, we first did an application of the hardan marki (lower block) against forward kicks. The aim was to evade and block the oncoming kick and trap it by using the folding motion of the block and then taking down the opponent with the opening motion. I found this to be a very interesting application, as it allowed a number of small variations, targeting different areas of the body to be attacked. Our instructor showed us a number of ways to really work the opponents trapped leg, with me as the guinea pig. Hence I’ve got some nice bruises on my shins and my quads are quite sore from an overenthusiastic elbow strike. But as they say, no pain, no gain…

Next up I got a bit more practice on my forward roll, which was working remarkably well. That is, if we ignore the inevitable bump on the head (it was quite a good one actually) on my first attempt.
Going on from this, my instructor thought it would be a good idea, if I learned the forward break fall at this stage as well. It’s not part of my grading requirements, but fits in nicely with the forward roll. So I struggled my way through that as well. It turns out that it’s actually a lot easier, with some external assistance providing you with the spinning force. I need to remember to keep my left leg straight though, when I roll over the right shoulder. I got that wrong a few times and when actually doing the break fall in earnest, this can lead to a world of trouble if done incorrectly.

Finally the low point of the session, as my instructor asked me to perform Do-san, the kata for my current belt rank. I really struggled remembering all the steps and made some serious errors, as I haven’t practiced the form for a few weeks. Taken that my instructor wants to grade us in a month’s time, I really have to put some time back to practice. The way it’s looking at the moment I’ll not only fail the grading, but will make a huge fool of myself as well. I should also revisit Chon-ji and Dan-gun, as I’ve become a bit rusty with these katas as well.

I’m rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

It’s been a while since my last entry, but I’ve been very busy and didn’t have much time to keep mu blog/log updated. So rather than backtracking all that I’ve done over the past few weeks, I’ll just pick up again from here.

Last night saw me doing one of my favourite pastimes: rolling around on the floor. Usually I do this in a very drunken state, but this time it had a purpose: how not to kill yourself doing a forward roll! It was the first time I’ve done this in a TKD environment, so a few bruises were to be expected.

The main points about the way we learn to do the forward roll are:
a) Keep close to, but not on the spine and cross it about half way through the roll. If you are too far to the side however you will hit your shoulder blade, which is quite uncomfortable. I found this out the hard way.
b) Keep your head tucked in, looking at your belt. Not doing this causes you to hit your head on the floor, which again is very uncomfortable. I found this out the hard way too.
c) And this is the really important one! Always push forward. This is a forward roll, not a downward roll. Not pushing forward enough causes you to fall on your shoulder, which will wind you and hurt a lot. This too I found out the really hard way, and the considerable bruises to my shoulders bare witness to this.

In the end though I did manage to get a few good ones in, but as they say practice makes perfect and I assume that I will have to bear a few more sessions of aching shoulders before I get this one right all the time.

After the rolling around, I did some practice on my kata for this belt level (Do-san). I need to ensure to keep my punches crisp and on a centreline and generally be a bit less sloppy.
Finally I joined in with the white belts to practice some lower blocks (hardan marki)