Soar TSD Training, Week of 16 Dec.

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. Take it slow and deliberate; then build your speed. 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 Weekly Challenge

Let’s keep it simple this week. 50 pushups and 10 minutes of planks every day.

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!

Report on how your workouts are going in the comments below. What are you doing? Let’s encourage one another.

Meditation for the Week

Humility: Charles Spurgeon said, “Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self. It is not humility for a man to think less of himself than he ought, though it might rather puzzle him to do that.” There is humility in recognizing the gifts and talents God has innately placed in you and developed in you. Humility is to use the gifts and talents God has given you in service to others and for the glory of God. The psalmist wrote, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground” (Psalm 147:5-6). Jesus said in Matthew 20:28, “…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Go exercise the gifts and talents God gave you for the benefit of others and to bring glory to God in heaven. The Lord will lift you up.

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.
4. Maintain regular and constant practice.
5. Practice basic techniques all the time.
6. Regularly spaced practice sessions.
8. Do not be overly ambitious.
Push yourself to greater heights, but know when far enough is far enough. Listen to you body and rest when necessary. Set your goals and step to them bit by bit.
9. Frequently inspect your own achievements.
10. Always follow a routine and training 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

8. Deception is not real. 

Within the hyungs, and arguably within most other martial systems’ forms, deception is not a tactical principle encompassed in the strategy. The hyungs were developed for individuals to defend themselves when an assailant attacks. A practitioner should never depend on deception in the midst of real violence. The deception exists before the physical confrontation knowing the martial artist has the ability to incapacitate the opponent yet de-escalates the interaction to avoid the fight altogether. In other words, if you are not there, you cannot get hit. Violence never happens in a vacuum. Each combatant has had a role in the escalation to real violence. If the battle has become unavoidable, move to the next principle.