So, my teacher is taking a look at some of the material I've posted so far. Hopefully, he'll point out any gross errors I've made so that I can correct them, and my thinking on the topic. This portion of my blog essentially acts as my "black belt plan" and TKD journal. I can keep things more or less organized with the hyperlinks, and the process of transcribing everything forces me to really think through it better than just reading my notebook over would allow.
The other day in class, I learned a bit more about how to use my shoulders when doing reinforced strike. That will necessitate a few updates to the strikes and punches page. It's actually a lot like I think of using my shoulders in high-rising block but out rather than up.
Thinking about that and all of the punching drills we've been doing in class, led me to wonder and reconsider how I was doing the punching moves in Pyong Ahn II. Those always felt strange and uncomfortable to me. I just never could pinpoint what, why, or how. When I asked, my teacher mentioned, for probably the thousandth time, about using our bodies and thinking about moving our shoulders, fast and forget about our hands. For whatever reason, that point finally made sense to me.
He also went over white belt kicks since he saw his wayward students backsliding. Since kicks are one area I am painfully aware of how much help, practice, and improvement I need, I was quite thankful for the remedial help. I've often thought about going to lower level classes for just that help, but mom-priorities have prohibited it. Anyway, the work we did helped me with my pivoting problem – I am always too late. Even better, despite his better judgment, he also went over front kicks in our forms. Well, those poor kicks are another thing that I haven't understood and just couldn't figure out. I've even asked questions about it a few times, but I couldn't quite pull it together in a way that didn't feel completely wrong. This time, my teacher broke it down, in an almost exaggerated manner and it finally clicked and felt right: kick, fast and strong; hold it; bend the knee; put it down to the floor; and slide into your stance. I never could figure out how to land and slide in a controlled way or how to kick without my leg all floppy. My leg is still a bit floppy but I understand it better. The exaggerated over-correction will help build the controlled power, and then I call pull back from the over-correction. AWESOME!
A few good taekwondo days.
