Amanda Takes Off...

"Master, I can’t do splits."

"Stretching?" I nod. He nods, too, "I know." Very matter-of-fact he is, but he doesn’t understand that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do them. "I know, it’s OK. Twenty-two over? Harder do splits. Harder stretch. 천천히, Amanda. 숨쉬기. Breathe."

Feeling very old with all 27 (Korean) years of my age, I slowly lower myself into standing splits, holding my breath. "숨쉬기, breathe." I exhale and my legs move on their own accord.

I lean forward, shifting my weight to my upper body, hands resting on the floor. I hurt. "아파요, 아파요."

"OK! Breathe!"

I breathe and I start laughing because I really want to cry. I somehow shift my weight enough to get out of the maneuver and immediately ache in my hips. "요기오, 아파요. How do I stretch it?"

He gets into a stretch I’ve done for years and tells me to join him, then forces me all the way down on my heels. Koreans can crouch anywhere, flat on their heels. I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve always done this stretch on the ball of my foot. I immediately fall onto my butt.

"다시," try again. I try several times with the same result. "다시, 한번도." This time I grip Master’s arms, and he gently bounces me up and down, counting to ten much too slowly. After switching sides, he lets me go and I pull my loose limbs close to my body, an unfurling leaf in reverse.

“You, home, practice,” he says.

I do, of course.

"관장님? 몸통 막기? 손에 있어요?" I hold my arm in a middle body block at two different places: behind my head as I was taught in America, and out to the side, my elbow bent 90 degrees, as I’d been taught for my recent poomse.

"Here, OK, America," he says, holding his hand close. "It’s OK." He demonstrates how I do my middle body block, knife hand block, and low front block differently than he does. We’ve briefly discussed this before, how there are different styles of doing things and how that doesn't make them wrong. "America, OK. My, OK. I not tell you change. Hard to change poomse you know."

Smart thinking. Had he told me I did everything wrong after coming from America knowing the first three tae guek (WTF) forms and the first three Cheonji (ITF) forms, I would have been put off.

But in the last four months I’ve spent more hours studying with him than I spent with American Master in 18 months. I will be testing for my black belt under him. I will forever be linked to Master, this studio, and Korea in a way that can’t be duplicated or erased, no matter whom I study under in the future. It’s time for me to make an effort to do it the Tongil way. "OK. 요기오. 통일. 통일 1단. 통일 막기. 촣어해요. 야슾해요." OK, here. Tongil. Tongil black belt. Tongil blocks. I like. I practice.

He grins and shows me how to change my body and knife hand blocks. We’ll start with thosee.

He lays it out for me in front of the class. This month, tae guek 8 jang test. Next month, tae gueks 1-4. January will be tae gueks 5-8. In February, it’s free sparring. In March, the big test. We’ll talk about picking up some Saturdays for more practice.

I close my eyes and inhale slowly. Are we seriously discussing the training plan leading up to my black belt test? Who am I, where am I, and how did this end up being the topic of conversation? I open my eyes. He’s looking at me with his amused look.

"Amanda? OK? You OK?"

I nod.