Soar TSD Training, Week of 4 Nov

Tang Soo! Here is your workout plan for the week in conjunction with what we are training in class.

Hyungs (forms) are the textbooks of the art of Tang Soo Do. Concentrate your efforts on learning the nuances, the balance points, the turns, the heights of the defenses and attacks, and where the proper places are to breathe within your hyungs. Remain aware of your stomach and control those muscles. If the stance is a Hu Kul Jah Se, be sure the feet are facing the correct directions and your weight is settled in the back leg. If you are required to punch, be sure it’s at the correct height. Sang Dan Kong Kyuck is at the nose (Ko); Choong Dan Kong Kyuck is at the solar plexus (Myung Chi). Outside of class, complete each of your forms at least five times. Practice them slowly to understand where you generate power (Hint: it starts in your stances).

The Soar Challenge

I give you the same challenge as last week because it was hard. Complete 50 push-ups, 50 Sit-ups, and 50 Burpees every day this week. You may break this challenge up into as many sets as you need throughout the day. However, these are in addition to your workout – not in place of. Go for it!

Your DAREBEE additions this week will be Sherlock and The Takedown. Sherlock places a heavy emphasis on the legs – the foundation. This is great for Hyung week. The Takedown works on explosive agility. The full Takedown is 7 rounds changing the kick on each round. Round one is Side Kicks, Round two is Front Kicks, Etc. (see the PDF). Do one three times this week and the other twice this week – your choice. Report on how your workouts are going in the comments below. Let’s encourage one another.

Meditation for the Week

Concentration – Concentration is a lot of attention, thought, and focus directed to an activity or subject. This week’s meditation is concentration. In Tang Soo Do, it takes a great deal of concentration or focus to practice consistently, to try your best on every technique, and to receive correction. To be an expert in Tang Soo Do, you have to be able to concentrate keeping constant awareness of every tiny muscle in your body. The godly life also takes consistent concentration so that your life will glorify God. Deuteronomy 6 tells us how we practice this type of concentration.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6:4–7)

Attitude Requirements to Master Tang Soo Do

1. Purpose of training should be the enhancement of mental and physical betterment.
2. Serious Approach.
3. All out effort.
This is not just working hard for the sake of working hard. You must use your brain. Give all you effort in a smart way. Do the job, chore, or task completely and correctly. This is about character.
4. Maintain regular and constant practice.
5. Practice basic techniques all the time.
6. Regularly spaced practice sessions.
7. Always listen to and follow the directions of instructors or seniors.
8. Do not be overly ambitious.
9. Frequently inspect your own achievements.
10. Always follow a routine and truing schedule.
11. Repeatedly practice all techniques already learned.
12. When you learn new techniques, learn thoroughly the theory and philosophy as well.
13. When you begin to feel idle, try to overcome this.
14. Cleanliness is required after training. Keep yourself and your surroundings clean.

13 Hyung Interpretation Principles

3. Strike to disrupt; disrupt to strike. In a fight, the attacker is rarely going to stand in place like a punching bag or leave his arm dangling in mid-air to allow the practitioner unopposed application of his martial prowess. The martial artist needs to strike to disrupt the opponent’s balance and center of gravity or disrupt the balance to deliver a solid strike. In his life’s work, The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi said, “whether fighting an enemy armed or unarmed, keep him on the defensive. Chase the enemy with your body and your spirit. This is excellent strategy. …By constantly creating difficulties for the enemy, you will force him to deal with more than one thing, giving you the advantage.” The Yu Dan Ja must develop the ability to simultaneously attack the feet, ankles, knees, head, wrists and/or elbows just to disrupt the opponent so as to strike the vital core of the body. To accomplish this principle, the practitioner has a necessity to understand how the component parts of the hyung work and how they might be combined simultaneously and in sequence. Practicing a hyung one hundred times in order to perform the shape of it is insufficient to gain the depth of understanding this principle and the previous one requires.