April 12, 2014
My Tae Kwon Do Journey So Far: What Tae Kwon Do Means to Me
Several years ago we had a table at the Indianola Farmer’s Market. The Lions Club had a table next to us serving breakfast burritos. There was a nice man who wore a straw hat working there, and one day he told me that he taught Tae Kwon Do at the Indianola Rec Center. “It’s something you could all do as a family,” he said, implying that it wouldn’t just be for our kids (who were a fixture at this market along with several other children). I thought that sounded like a wonderful idea, but unfortunately I had just enrolled my kids in dance and gymnastics for the upcoming year.
I’ve always been interested in martial arts but really didn’t understand what it was. I never met anyone who had done it for any length of time before I met my husband Chris, who had taken several years of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu when he was a teenager from a man named Ahn Nguyen. I’d watch martial arts movies with Chris, and to me it looked like a lot of synchronized flailing. He showed me a couple of the forms he’d learned and it looked like a dance routine. Today when we do demos or have a belt ceremony, I understand that this is how it looks to a lot of people, which is something my kids will never understand (and probably something Chris doesn’t fully understand, either).
A year after the Farmer’s Market conversation, Chris and I discussed that the gymnastics and dance thing was getting too expensive and too time consuming, with way too much sitting on my part since I was the one transporting the kids to and from these activities. Chris suggested enrolling in the Rec Center’s Tae Kwon Do class, all of us. I thought that sounded great since I was tired of being a bench warmer. At this point I’d forgotten about my earlier conversation with the Lions Club straw hat man, and I wasn’t even helping at the market anymore since I had taken a Saturday shift for work.
To wean the kids away from their old activities we watched some YouTube videos of Tae Kwon Do and went to visit a class. Mr. Netsch was teaching a colored belt class that, in comparison to what we have now, was small. My kids agreed it looked like a cool thing to do, so we all enrolled for that summer. (Chris enrolled in the session after us, after we were all yellow belts.) Chris quickly figured out Mr. Netsch was the nice man in the straw hat who sold breakfast burritos at the Farmer’s Market. The kids liked to play a Harry Potter game where they’d run around the Farmer’s Market with their friends, frequently yelling Expelliarmus! “You two have too much energy!” Mr. Netsch supposedly yelled at them. “Go practice Chon Ji!” Thus, our Tae Kwon Do journey began.
I had a lot of trouble at first and was upset by this because I liked it. There was something about combining the physical with the mental that threw me. I was used to being entirely cerebral on a daily basis, sitting at a computer engrossed in transcribing reports or editing them, with very little physical activity in a typical day. I got frustrated with myself, but Chris helped me with understanding that Chon Ji was actually as if you were fighting 4 people surrounding you, and eventually I got it. I went through a couple levels and didn’t think much was happening since I was still quite overweight, but I did enjoy the classes.
When I was an orange belt, I was swatting at a fly one day and actually hit it. Usually I would make a slow lunge and miss, and then it would buzz away from me, but this time I missed on the first try and had the energy and speed for a second shot at it before it flew away. I surprised myself and realized that my reflexes were getting better. I became a green belt and started to feel muscles reappear that had been dormant since I’d taken ballet as a girl. I very much enjoyed having an activity that my kids were also involved in, but one where I could also concentrate on myself for a change. I started to feel better and lost a little bit of weight, also developing what Chris and I refer to as “green belt hubris,” but then I got to go to an Art Night class which quickly dispelled any sense of superiority. I realized I had a long haul ahead of me, but I did enjoy the challenge of a new and more difficult class structure.
Then the strangest thing happened to me. After a lifetime of never having a broken bone and thinking that wasn’t anything I needed to worry about, I broke my hand when I was sparring. Ironically, Chris was the one who broke it! I blocked his kick with a poorly placed punch and broke the bone under my pinky finger (my right 5th metacarpal). I’m right handed. This posed a major problem since I typed for 8 to 9 hours a day for 3 days out of the work week, but fortunately my employer found alternate things for me to do. I quickly learned how to use a mouse with my left hand and how to type one-handed. After this incident I was out of Tae Kwon Do for several months, obviously. This might seem like an event that would be devastating since it directly affected my work, but Chris and I had been through enough individually and together at that point to know that things would work out, and they did. I worked very hard at healing and getting the function in my hand back, and after what seemed like an eternity I was pain free and back to full function.
After my hand healed and I made my way up to brown belt, I started having the opportunity to teach the lower belts, and this opened up something new to me that I hadn’t anticipated. I knew when we started Tae Kwon Do that I would get to see my kids learn and mature under the influence of this ancient fighting style, and I am very proud of them for what they have accomplished. Max is a temp black belt and Alex is testing for her temp black belt with me, and they are both far superior to me in terms of their physical capabilities. With learning this at such a young age, they will never know the physical limitations that most people have. I’m hopeful that mentally they also will have an understanding that exceeds most, but since they’re both teenagers right now I’m guessing it will take some time before that really becomes evident. Regardless, I am very, very proud of them. They have worked hard at this and it shows.
I didn’t realize that my pride would go beyond my own kids, however. I’ve been lucky so far to see several young people and a few adults coming up through the ranks, and it is a wonderful thing to see a person grow in this environment. Any amount of time spent in a class like this is good and will teach you things you didn’t otherwise know, but to see people mature into the different belt levels is very special and I feel lucky to be a part of it.
I’m also glad to be helping people learn how to defend themselves. I’ve lived in several different places in my lifetime and have been in situations I did not want to be a part of, so I am happy to know that at this point I can defend myself or help someone else if they need it. I’m also happy to be helping other people to learn these things because the world is an indifferent place, and you need to be prepared in case things turn sour. The way things are progressing in our society I think more and more people will encounter violence in some form or another during their lifetime. I don’t think you can ever be fully prepared for such things, and it will probably catch you off guard or come at you when you’re most likely not in the best frame of mind, but the more you know the better off you’ll be. First and foremost, the reason I am in Tae Kwon Do is to learn how to fight. That is the reason I joined and the base I work from, but obviously there are other benefits. I’m much healthier. The physical demands of Tae Kwon Do help me with other things in my life, like doing farm chores, because otherwise as I age I might not be able to keep up with everything. I’ve gone down 2 pant sizes and look forward to shrinking down a couple more in the future. I’m much more comfortable with myself, too. I used to dwell on past things. I was angry about them, but I’ve noticed that the further I get involved in this, the less I think about those things anymore. They have gone from being uppermost in my mind to being very much in the background. I’m happy for what I have now, which is what is important.
I enjoy working with the people involved and am grateful for the opportunity to learn this art form. If it weren’t for other people who were driven to share what they know, I would not be learning this, and I need to thank many, many people for being able to get to this level. In the Indianola branch, which is where it all began for me, I thank Master Samuelson, Mr. Netsch, Mr. Anderson, and Ms. Kingsbury for their dedication and patience. I’m sure I wasn’t the easiest student to deal with when I began (and probably still am not), but they all diligently worked with me and helped me to get to this point. It’s comforting to have a strong base of support and knowledge to draw from. I want to extend special thanks to Master Samuelson, because in spite of not feeling well he has been making an extra effort to come to our recent classes as we get ready to test for temp black. That means a lot to the four of us testing this session.
I also need to thank all of the other masters in the school, because at some point or another they have all helped me, either to learn something new or to refine something already learned. Master Clinton and Master Gonzalez come to mind first because they usually teach the Friday night classes, where I have learned a tremendous amount. They teach difficult classes, but they make them instructional and fun. I have also learned from other masters, whether it is in a class or working individually on a self defense technique, board break, or a proper kick, so besides grateful thanks to Masters Clinton and Gonzalez, I humbly thank Master Deaton, Master Hammer, Master McBroom, both Masters Maxwell, Master Williams, and Master Ferguson for their assistance and knowledge.
I want to offer an overall thanks to all of the other black belts in our school as well. These are people of exceptional caliber who freely offer their assistance and encouragement. I have rarely encountered such a nice group of people anywhere else in my life, and I am grateful to be part of this school.
I also want to thank Mr. Kinseth. I briefly attended his Martial Spirit class but despite this, it helped me tremendously with learning about movement and the physical properties of martial arts. Time became an issue for me, but I hope to be able to return to his instruction at some point in the future.
I want to thank my husband for his patience and help. Doing this as a family has been helpful, because if one of us feels like slacking usually the others will pull them along to class. (And no, the one being a slacker is not always me.) Chris has spent time helping me through the more mental aspects of this art form. As I stated earlier, I had a very difficult time getting the movements down in the beginning forms and with all of the board breaks, and he very patiently worked with me on these at home. I thank my kids too, because both Alex and Max (a.k.a. Mr. Lerch) have taught me new forms, one steps, or self defense movements, or they simply worked with me to try to remember them. I need to do things repeatedly for them to stick, and all of my family members have helped me go through things time and again.
Lastly, I thank Master Heintz and Grand Master Jung. Without them, there would be no place for me to learn all this. I’m grateful to them for the beginnings of this school, and for starting a learning path for all of us.
This is something I know I will be doing as long as I am able. I’m looking forward to what the future brings and welcome new challenges, both physical and mental. I always wanted to train at something and have a regular exercise regimen, but nothing I tried seemed to work out. Tae Kwon Do feels like the right fit for me in many different ways, and I’m glad I found my way to it.
