United States
News:
West Coast:
Teuk Gong Team Monthly Dinner
After a day of Tae Soo Do and Hwa Rang Do testing, from Orange Belts
through Tae Soo Do Black Belts, the West Coast Hwa Rang Do Academy’s
Teuk Gong Team reconvened at the home of Reynaldo and Daniela Macias
to share their monthly repast. Grandmaster Lee presided over the gathering,
which included Sabumnin Bret Spoehr from Florida, as well as some
of the current black belt candidates, and all of the Special Forces,
new and veteran, who’s responsibilities include assisting in
Tae Soo Do classes to ensure the continued proper growth and development
of our students.
The atmosphere was light, with newly minted TGT members and veterans
piling plate after plate of delicacies on the dining room table, ready
to break bread once again and filling in the familial cracks that
inevitably develop from extended absences. It is a constant refreshment
to become and remain “family”, looking out for one another
as Grandmaster reminds us that’s what families do.
The concept of family, though, that permeates our dinners and that
supports the goals of Hwa Rang Do at the West Coast and across the
world, is one that promotes interference and interruption. Far from
the Western notion of individuals within the family being solely a
support system in times of turbulence, the Teuk Gong Team embraces
and embodies a more Eastern (duh!) concept which places the good of
the individual squarely in the middle of the family’s collective
lap, which means everyone has a right and a responsibility to get
involved.
For higher ranked students, it means correcting and teaching our
whobae (younger brothers and sisters) before they are in trouble,
whether they are looking down as they do their basics, forgetting
to bow in to black sashes when they arrive, or getting to TGT dinners
after Grandmaster! As always, conversation flowed between what is
going on in our lives outside of the dojang, how we can bring the
principles of Hwa Rang Do with us as we walk everyday through the
world, and what we need to work on as brothers and sisters, as special
forces, as teachers, as students, as Hwarang - both on the mat and
off.
This month’s dinner was one more step, moved us that much closer,
to truly being family!
Hwarangdo Forever!
Reynaldo Macias – TGT Member/Kwanchang Chronicles Editor
Midwest:
Grandmaster Taejoon Lee Conducts Seminars in Minneapolis, MN
Every year we welcome Grandmaster
Taejoon Lee to Minneapolis, and on March 7th & 8th of 2009 the
only difference was the sheer size of the welcome! Our six sessions
were packed fifty people per seminar as Grandmaster Lee gave us detailed
instruction in grappling, stand-up fighting, and weapons.
The first day was all grappling, all the time. Hardly
a moment went by when the class wasn’t rolling on the ground
trying to duplicate what was just shown to us with effortless grace.
The first day was geared towards basic position work, and began with
the most thorough tutorial on working from side mount that I’ve
ever received in the seven years I’ve been training in Hwa Rang
Do.
The initial work focused on attaining and maintaining the side mount
position, with careful emphasis placed on positioning and weight distribution.
This allowed beginners, who may have not had such a thorough grounding
in the fundamentals of the position, to become somewhat comfortable
with the basic purpose and method: head and torso control with the
arms, knees tucked in and spread wide for balance and leverage.
From there, we were led rapidly through how to attain
and escape from side mount, so that when you find yourself in that
position in both offense and defense, you know where you’re
going. Working from the defensive, we learned several sweeps, reversals,
and even a few direct submissions from what I had always perceived
as a “no-win” situation. The entire group was impressed
with the options available for the defender especially to avoid the
“trapped under someone heavy” syndrome, and we learned
the keys to successfully engaging and working to attain a more advantaged
position.
Of course, side mount is an advantage, and Grandmaster
Lee, assisted by Kyo Sa Nim Billie Buss, demonstrated repeatedly how
to make the defender deeply regret being placed in that position.
Working for arm bars, neck cranks, and ever shifting position controls,
beginners and advanced students alike all found something to learn
or refine. The pace was faster and more intense this year than ever
before, with a few moments of fast paced instruction followed by the
command “Try!” where we’d all try and duplicate
what our instructors made look so easy. It wasn’t. It never
is.
The second seminar gave the guard the same treatment,
first working through achieving the guard, and basic escapes and reversals.
After working the basics of breaking guard and achieving a side mount,
the class put into application what we’d just learned the previous
session, escaping side mount to reacquire guard.
From there, the submission work began, working basic
arm bars and the not-so-basic triangles. We also were exposed to sweeps
and reversals to move from guard to mount. Other than the basic arm
bar work that always serves as the basis for our ground movement from
that position, we then moved on to defending against being “stacked,”
including some very tumbling-intensive takedown work. Again the pace
was just right to make the workout extremely exhausting but covering
a staggering amount of material. The two hours seemed to fly by, and
yet it was clear that we’d only scratched the surface.
After working the ground for four hours, it was
time to stand up and go to ground…repeatedly! The subject of
the final seminar for Saturday was pickups and takedowns, and beginner
and advanced students alike got a chance to practice their explosive
entries, as well as falling technique. We covered shooting in to acquire
inside and outside leg pickups, plus briefly covering double-leg pickups.
Grandmaster Lee was careful to explain that when done with a resisting
opponent, one should not believe that it will go smoothly and easily
– in fact, these would be difficult and require great persistence
to successfully apply. Not only would you have to surprise your opponent,
but you’d have to chase and work them around the floor a while
before you took them to ground.
Moving on to working the upper body, we practiced
both working from the clinch as well as from a distance, using the
“arm drag” technique to pull your partner off balance,
and then moving in for a really devious sliding takedown that when
done properly, seemed to almost always put the aggressor into a great
position to achieve rear mount. That day, and in following classes,
I personally both used and observed this one work – and if you
weren’t at seminar that day, well, you’re at a disadvantage
now. Let that be a lesson to us all – if you’re not training,
someone else is.
As is traditional, after the seminars were over
for the day and the students retired to various corners of the dojang
to either write down or videotape all that they had learned that day,
we went off to Majors for the post-seminar banquet. And of course,
after the banquet, we returned to the dojang for an evening of revelry
with Grandmaster Lee as the honored guest. We had a chance to catch
up with him and the other instructors and interact about HRD, training,
and the upcoming Hwa Rang Do 50th Anniversary celebration in 2010.
Plan for it now, because you won’t want to miss!
Bright and early the next morning (much earlier
for those who partied the night away at the dojang), we returned to
the packed training hall for the morning session on kick-punch fighting.
Once again, the session started appropriate for white belts, and moved
rapidly through enough advanced material that senior students were
challenged as well. The fundamentals of distance, timing, speed, and
angle were emphasized, as well as strategic selection of what moves
work best as offensive and defensive counters.
After lunch, we began the first of two seminars
on weapon fighting with two hours of kumtoogi, HRD sword training.
With an ever-increasing number of Midwest students having kumdo armor,
there were plenty of armored students to go around as targets and
partners for the beginners. The basic strikes were reviewed and practiced,
and the beginning students without armor got to work both precision
wrist, belly, head, and leg strike combinations, as well as speed
work. After an exhausting set of instructional drills, the advanced
students with armor got to engage in contact drills as well as matching.
It was a wonderful seminar that touched on all aspects of kumtoogi,
from basic striking techniques to advanced matching.
The final seminar of the day was something many had not experienced
ever, as we were introduced to one of the facets of bongtoogi (stick
fighting): Ssang Jung Bong, or double mid-stick. With each student
grasping a two-foot length of rattan in each hand, we were introduced
first to the basic striking techniques. The goal of stick fighting
is to strike vulnerable joints and bones, and we then practices the
correct motions to keep the sticks in play while ensuring you are
protecting yourself from counterstrikes. These combinations got more
and more advanced, with spinning double strikes (user beware! If you
get tagged in the back of the head because you’re slow…it’s
your own fault!) and leg strikes taught by the end of the day. Once
again, the pace was fast and furious, with a concept introduced, demonstrated
a few times, and then the fifty or so students in the room paired
off to practice. Following the demonstration period, the students
with armor paired off and did three or four matches of double-stick
matching with full armor. An excellent time (and a few bruises…we
still have plenty of practice to do) was had by all, and it was a
great way to finish off the day.
Once again, in two days we were exposed to a huge
amount of material, and with full attendance and a packed house in
the Minneapolis Academy, we made Grandmaster Lee feel appreciated
and welcomed, which he always is! Those attending these seminars were
treated to a tremendous amount of material that they will be able
to take home and use in their training.
International
News
European
Union:
Czech Republic:
International Hwa Rang Do & Tae Soo Do Seminar in Prague, Czech
Republic
At the end of March (28 & 29) the International
HRD and TSD Seminar took place in Prague, Czech Republic, an attempt
by the Italian HRD/TSD family led by Instructor Marco Mattiuci, to
aid in creating a stonger foundation of the HRD club in the Czech
Republic.
The goal was to standardize all of the Hwa Rang
Do / Tae So Do Curricuoum in the EU, the daunting responsibilty which
Grandmaster Taejoon Lee had bestowed upon Kyosa Marco Mattiucci. Then
the rest of the time, they held an open seminar to create greater
awareness to the public and to further motivate the existing students.
What was surprising was the number of Italian students
who volunteered to participate in this endeavor. A total of 15 Italians:
5 HRD students and 10 TSD students, instructors included went to Prague
together to support the Czech Hwa Rang Do Club! This was a big honor
for all of us here in the Czech Republic! Kyosanim Mattiucci later
told me that his students were also very honored to have been able
to participate in this event.
The Italian team arrived in Prague on Friday, the
27th of March at approximately 10 p.m. by two minibuses, weathering
over 1500 kilometers through sereral countries, mountain ranges, and
trecherous winding roads. We prepared for the teams accomodations
and after helping them get settled in, we all gathered in the living
room of the hostel with the all the Italian and Czech students. We
started with introductions and soon after, we all felt at home as
though we were connecting with our long lost cousins. We talked until
almost 1am and finally retired to our beds, trying to give them some
rest from their over 16 hrs journey, driving straight through from
Rome to Prague.
I, Instructor Martin Srnka, a 1st Degree Hwa Rang
Do Black Sash (Jokyo Nim), in charge of the Czech Club was formerly
the President of the Czech National Tae Kwon Do Association. And,
I shared with the Italian team some of the reasons for choosing Hwa
Rang Do over any other martial arts in the Czech Republic, having
been disillusiuoned by the WTF. Then Kyosanim Mattiucci shared his
reasons for being a Hwarang and his goals for the EU. He continued
by asking all the students, I have sacrificed everything I have for
Hwa Rang Do – what are you willing to sacrifice Ins. Mattiucci
spoke with such passion and conviction, he touched everyone’s
hearts and inspired all of us to conitnue to strive for betterment
in all that we do. It was very hard to end such a warm bonding experience,
but we all had to get up early in the morning for training and although
I knew Ins. Mattiucci would have rather continued than to sleep, I
knew they needed the rest.
The seminar was divided into two parts – one
for the public and the other for our family. Kyosanim (KSN) Mattiucci
started the public seminar with a short introduction at 9 am. The
first session started with our classic warm up, followed by falling
techniques (Nak Bop) – TSD students on mats, HRD students on
the wooden floor. Each nakbop technique was followed by various kicking
techniques. Then, we practiced the long forms (Hyungs). The Hwarang
In and Uei Hyung had small differences, which KSN Mattiucci clarified
with exact explanation for the differences that were embraced by all
with pleasure. We repeated the hyungs many times in ordrer to memorize
all the new movements. Then SSang Jyel Bong (twin sticks with string)
Hyung followed.
After a 1.5 hour lunch break which was well deserved, we continued
by studying Gotoogi (grappling), starting with a special warm up on
the mats and followed with basic throws and some submission techniques
on the ground. This was a very enlightening session for all the Czech
students and enjoyed by us all.
When the public seminar sessions were finished we moved to our Prague
dojang for the last part of Saturday’s program – promotional
examination. The Czech students have been preparing for the tests
for a long time, having been four years since our last examination,
which was in Denmark. The exams started with a very difficult written
test, but all of the Czech students passed and was allowed to continue
on their physical test. With the tremendous encouragement and support
of all the Czech and Italian students, all of the testing students
successfully passed their perspective belt tests and are now permitted
to advance in their training. The entire exam lasted a grueling 5
hours as KSN Mattiucci picked apart and corrected every little mistake.
After the examination, everyone was relieved that they all passed.
Now, it was time to celebrate. We headed to a local favorite restaurant
and enjoyed a fabulous meal, sharing stories of new and old. It was
a great chance to bond and get to know everyone individually. It was
a great time had by all. We celebrated until after midnight, then
headed back to the hostel for a well-deserved rest.
Sunday at 9:30 am, we started our last day together. After the dynamic
warm-ups, we practiced on some drills to strengthen our body, but
also our individual spirit as well as our collective spirit. They
were the common pushups, jump kicks, etc., but once taken to extremes
it can be a spiritual experience. These drills were very inspirational
for us all, as it showed us another way to gain unity and solidarity.
As Grandmaster Taejoon Lee says, “The group is only as strong
as it’s weakest member.
After the intense drills, which made us feel stronger as a group,
but took a heavy toll on our body. Once again, the only way to continue
was not to rely on the body, but to rely on the spirit, which can
only be tested when the body feels as though it cannot go any further.
We relentlessly reviewed our hoshinsul – self defense joint-manipulation
techniques over and over and over again.
Oh how quickly time flies when you are doing something you love
with a group of people who love each other. The many hours of planning,
the countless emails back and forth, the long arduous journey, and
the intensive training was all coming to a close. It was time for
the Italian family to return back home. KSN Mattiucci ordered us to
make a semi-circle and asked everyone to comment on his or her experience
over the weekend. Everyone had very moving, warm, and positive remarks
about the weekend experience. We were all very touched by the comments
and became very sad to have to say “good bye” to such
a wonderful group of people that we can call our family. But there
is a long way to Italy (we know that very well because we went there
to take part at the summer seminar with Master Lee last year) so the
only thing we could do was to say big „THANK YOU“ to the
Kyo Sa Nim Mattiuci, to all the Jo Kyo Nims and to all the students
as well for everything they gave us.
We have no big experience with preparation of such an event, because
it was the first time after a long period we have the opportunity
to prepare one for our Hwa Rang Do brothers from abroad. However our
teamwork helped us to clear all the obstacles and we can say now that
we haven’t fail in our host role and that we received from our
brothers and sister more than we expected. All of us are looking forward
to seeing all of them as soon as possible.
Hwarang Forever!
Jokyo Nim Martin Srnka
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