First Dan promotion!! I passed!!

[The Rose Knight]

As you probably know, I have been preparing for my first dan promotion in Kumdo/Kumbup. The day was Saturday, the 24th, and yes, I passed!

Here's how it went.

First, we showed up and warmed up a bit. At ten, Master Kim called all of the testees to line up. We meditated for a few minutes, then he called us to attention. We each had to read our essay aloud. After that, we were tested on kumdo terminology. Then the hard part began.

First, a warm-up of pyramids, which is ten jumping jacks, ten pushups, and ten situps, followed by nine of each, then eight, and so on, all the way down to one each. Then we had to do all of the hyung (kata or forms). We needed to not just do them, but to do them with our full energy and confidence and with strong kyup. And of course, correctly.

After that, we had to show Master Kim and Master Choi our Juk-do technique, from tenth through first kuep. After this, we had to one hundred each head, wrist, left waist and right waist attacks in a rapid step format. Four hundred of those with no break in between. Very demanding. After that, we were told to put on our hogu.

At this point, we had to spar four people each, five minute matches with no break in between. We each started with two of the kyu rank students. After that, a second dan student; Jae, and finally, Master Choi, who is seventh dan.

It was a grueling test. By the time I was on my match with Master Choi, I was pretty much out of energy, but that is the whole point. It was the most physically challenging event I have endured in years, and that includes tournaments. As you may know, I have a fencing background, but nothing in sport fencing even compares to this.

Each of us was fully worn out by the time we fought him, while he was fairly fresh and merely warmed up. Sort of like running a 10K, then going for twelve rounds against four different fresh boxers; the first two below your level, the next one above your level, and the last one is Sugaray Leonard back when he was in his prime.

After the test, Master Kim and Master Choi conferred, then announced who passed and who did not. There were only three of us and happilly, we all passed! There was a small ceremony and then we were done.

And that was just in time to go fencing with my son. Rest did not occur until much later. But when the day was done, I was very happy and very satisfied. This is a milestone for me, and a very happy one.

My thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement! You all rock!!

Daniel

[The Rose Knight]

As I mentioned above, we each had to write a one page essay and read it aloud to the class. I wanted to share this with you all here. Hope you like it.
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Kumdo: A way of life
Martial arts mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. To some, it is a way to simply fight. To others, it is exercise, and to still others, it is no more than a cinematic vision based more upon movies and television than anything else. When I first got into martial arts as a child and later as a young adult, that was how I saw it. A way to fight and all the cool cinematic stuff from movies and literature. At that time, the ninja craze was at its height. Since then, the martial arts have become much more than that.

I first came to this dojang when my son, Connor saw it and wanted to take the class. I had always been into swords and have experience in SCA fencing and heavy weapons fighting. In years past, I took karate, through the rec department as a child and later at Jhoon Rhee as an adult in the late eighties.

Connor's desire to try out kumdo brought me into the world of kumdo, an art I had always been interested in but never knew where to go for training. The class was a lot of fun and Master Kim and Master Choi proved to be excellent teachers. Master Kim was always encouraging with all of the students, and Master Choi was always fine tuning our technique and pushing us to get better and to give it our best.

At the beginning, and even up to sixth kuep, the first dan test seemed like it was far off in the distance. Now, two years later, the test is at hand. Sparring is a much different affair than it was at the beginning, and it has been a great thing to see Connor grow in his forms and technique. My older son, Patrick, thought the class was cool and wanted to join, as did my friend Robert.

Over the years, I have started many projects, from band projects to other musical projects. A lot of things that I had planed did not turn out the way I had wanted them to, and many things, for one reason or another, simply didn't turn out at all. But getting back into the martial arts, and getting into kumdo especially has been a change in that. In years past, I always perceived martial arts as a start at white belt, get blackbelt and you're done affair. But I have found that martial arts is a way of life. In following through with my kumdo and taking the blackbelt test, I find myself not at the end, but at the beginning. It has provided a much needed physical outlet, but it has also provided a way of looking at life outside of just kumdo.

The principles of kumdo are applicable in daily life as well. Kumdo teaches mental stamina and follow through. It teaches staying with something and putting in the best effort, even you aren't feeling your best or things are rough. Loyalty, honesty and integrity are a big part of kumdo. But the most descriptive word for kumdo is commitment. Without commitment, one cannot succeed in kumdo. Without commitment, one cannot succeed in anything. One must be committed to their family, to their marriage, to their job, and to their own selves and their beliefs. It is in this that the true art of kumdo is found. It is in this that kumdo truly is a way of life.
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Daniel

[ahmed61086]

Congrats!



BTW, the test sounds extremely unorthadox compared to how people test in teh KKA and the AUSKF.

Usually they test with doing the first 5 kata(bon) then Bonguk kumbop. After that you go into bogu and and have to do Kirikaishi(yung yuk) about twice, maybe a few techniqus, then two 2 minutes bouts. This way the test is showing how well you can do your techniques and Kata, and not how long you can do them. But, it sounds like your test test others good things as well. Like fighting spirit and endurance too.
Sounds realy tough.

Keep working hard. Peace.

[johnkichu]

Big Dan,

Congratulations! You should feel proud of your accomplishment. You had energy to go fencing afterward???

[June]

Congrats. Yeah that testing process sounds over the top and hard. Glad you got your dan.

[cesarekim]

Congratulations on the test. It really sounds like the old-style tkd tests of the late 70's... Supposedly, you had to be in top shape to pass and beat the juniors. If you didn't get mauled too bad from your peers and your seniors you passed.

I would hate to have to take a test like that. I'm a softy who's very content with just two daeryun and bon. It was bad enough when I had to do yungyuk and then two daeryun in a row...

I hope you had the chance to get a couple of cold ones after all this...

Did you get any of this on film? I'm particularly curious about the last couple of matches...

Congratulations again. It sounds like you REALLY earned your dan...

[The Rose Knight]

I just figured everyone's test was like this. I know that Master Choi has said that he and Master Kim are old school. I guess he wasn't kidding!

I don't own a real video camera, unfortunately, and my son, bless his heart, tried to use the video portion of my digital camera, but he didn't work it right. So in the end, I have no film.

Yes, I had four Gatorades afterwards and then took my son fencing. I was pretty lifeless by that point. It was a nice cool down though.

Once again, my thanks to all of you for all of your encouragement since I have joined. KF really is like a family!

Daniel

[June]

Gatorade? I always thought "cold ones" refered to beer? I guess I was taught in the old school way where after the teachers beat your ass, you all go drink afterwards and learn where you need to improve and listen to stories.

[cesarekim]

Those are the cold ones I was thinking of. Truth be told, I remember some of my sunbae would slip me one after practice with everyone else and I was about 14. My father didn't mind as I was only getting about a half pint after sweating for a two-hour session but mom always was leery about the fact that we would come back from practice with smelly clothes and armor and beer on our breath. There is no drinking age over here so it wasn't even illegal but she would check that I was all right for school the next day...

[The Rose Knight]

Gatorade? I always thought "cold ones" refered to beer? I guess I was taught in the old school way where after the teachers beat your ass, you all go drink afterwards and learn where you need to improve and listen to stories.

True, but I rarely drink alcohol anymore:) When I do, it is usually wine or a mixed drink. I was never a big beer guy, though a Killian's Irish Red is nice once in a while.

Daniel

[June]

I had a good experience where I invited a few people from our dojo over to my house for some sahm-gyup sahl and choo-mooluk, soju and beer after a good practice. It only ended up being 2 of my buddies, 1 7th dan sensei, 1 5 dan sensei, and 1 4 dan sensei...it was pretty sweet. The 5 dan sensei drank every drop of liquor in my house!

I felt like I learned so much in that one night and heard so many crazy Kendo stories. The 5 dan sensei is Korean and the other guys were Japanese. Nothing like a little Korean BBQ and soju/beer/wine to get all relaxed after a crazy work out. One of the most memorable evenings in a long time.

I will now apologize for hijacking this thread.

[johnkichu]

I had the opportunity of watching one of the Greater North Eastern Kendo Federation (GNEKF) dan tests this past weekend. It included Chodan to San-dan (3rd).

Compared to what I saw at our dojang (US Hwarangkwan), this was very sedate - kendo no kata (bon), kirekashi (yun gyuk), and a couple rounds of keiko. You had at most 10 minutes in front of the panel of judges. At US Hwarangkwan, it's bon, bon guk gum bup, chosen se bup, yun gyuk & basic drills (kihon), then about 20-40 rounds of sparring (keiko), at 2 mintues each. You have to spar each other, any other non-testing yudanja there to "haze" you, and then of course, the head sensei. The last test included about 20 students testing, and took over 3 hours - and they were wiped out at the end. But a couple of observations are in order here, before we compare and write off the kendo shimsha as child's play.

Even with the disparity in physical intensity, I personally believe it's harder to pass the kendo test, from what I can see. At the US Hwarangkwan test, you just have to last - it's a test of physical will, more of a brute force test, if you will. The GNEKF test was more of a true test of skills. You better do even simple things such as kirekashi perfectly. During keiko, they looked for opponent & distance management, as well as technique & spirit. Swinging & missing, or hitting with the wrong part of the shinai were really looked down upon, and I saw people failing on this. Also bad were attacking when there were no opening (or without creating an opening - seme). And you better initiate the attack at some point - purely reacting counted against you. And during the kata portion - I was shocked by the little details they looked for. You better return to exactly where you started, for instance.

Some may call all this obsession with details silly, but I was very impressed. I'm sure many of the kendoka there could have passed US Hwarangkwan test. I'm not sure how many of the kumdo-in from US Hwarangkwng could have passed GNEKF test.

[cesarekim]

John,
I've done both types of exams and from what I can see they test different things. The kendo-style test is usually administered with over a hundred people present. You have, in the best of cases, 2 2-minute sessions to prove you can walk the walk. If you get past that, you get to try your hand at bon and then get to defend your written test if it was absolute cr*p. The attention to detail is there but I think it's more of a question of too many people challenging a grade to do it the other way. One key point in these types of exams is get your points and keep them. You cannot afford to get hits by chance but rather you have to show intent (at least from 2-dan up).

The General Mayhem test you mention really tests whether you can survive with your head up and your spirit unbroken through the silliness. You will not be able to look for proper strikes and stuff when there are 20 people doing over 20 bouts. What you will be able to identify is the slackers who weren't there for practice. These things are often in house and are also used to identify potential instructors.

I think there are positive points to both types of test. The former forces you to try to demonstrate the quality of the last years of practice in at most 240 seconds. Bad luck with your opponent or exam freeze will really cost you here. The latter looks at a seriously extended number of bouts. The luck of the draw will affect this type of exam a lot less. It is also true that your true skill comes out when your arms are heavy as lead and every hit you create feels like you have to do a 10 click run. The downside to this type of exam is that it really isn't possible to do it with more than 30-40 people.

In Korea these days, shimsa is done kendo-style. IMO, this is really more of an indication of the number of people challenging rather than the superiority of one method over the other....

[johnkichu]

Ceasare,

The test I witness was not large, and they took their time - two people at a time. I should clarify - the test was not for all of GNEKF - it was for one of the larger schools in GNEKF.

And you are right - you weren't tested for details at our dojang. You could have totally sucked in forms and would have passed (one guy did - he clearly didn't know them all, and what he did know, he was very bad at). I am 100% sure I can pass the kumdo chodan test. I'm not sure if I can pass the GNEKF test.

At any rate, I thought the comparison between the kendo test and the kumdo test was amusing - the stereotypical difference between Koreans and Japanese, in a microcosm.

[cesarekim]

Quality over quantity or bean counter vs. engineer? ;)

Let me thank Daniel for a great thread and apologize for the hijack I am about to do....

I was just at a 1-geup through 2-dan shimsa on Sunday. There were about 100 people challenging. There was one grading panel of 5 seniors (5-7 dan). 1 geup and 1 dan were doing yungguyk, daeryun and finally bon, if they passed the first part. 2 dan just had to do daeryun and then bon if they passed the daeryun. One of my guys was in the last group testing and he basically sat there through 85 yungyuk and about 190 daeryun. He started his challenge at about 16:30, 3.5 hours after testing began and it lasted for exactly 2 minutes and 15 seconds. He failed.

This guy has bad knees and Norton's Syndrome and has a hard time standing still. He was so stiff after waiting so long that his first daeryun was horrible. His opponent sucked big time as well and my guy just descended to his opponent's level because he was having such a hard time moving. In the second match, he did score two good muhri but he was trying too hard and botched a lot of hits. An old exam rule is that one bad technique negates a good one. He was at about -20...

All this to give you an example of a guy who would do well in a general mayhem type exam. He usually settles down after about the 4th or 5th daeryun as he releases some of his tension. On the other hand, I can usually perform well (or at least at the top of my "form") for the length of a match or a daeryun but will fizzle out mentally if I have to go on for 30-40 minutes. The only time this is not true is when I'm in a march of death with godanja where I NEED to stay alert. The question is, which is the more significant meter of your capabilities? I can do daeryun for 2 hours but I get bored unless there are a lot of people who are better than me. The guy from my dojang will keep going for two hours and give it his all, actually improving as he releases some tension. Which is better? Physical stamina is a non-issue for me as I can actually go for 2 hours at the same basic level of energy if needed. I'll just pay for it the next day....