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Harder (Scarier) Than That Waist Twisting Thing
01/08/07
Harder (Scarier) Than That Waist Twisting Thing
"Amanda, handstand? You can do it."
I stared at TempMaster.
My irrational fear of breaking my foot while doing a jumping double roundhouse kick has been turned into a rational fear of breaking it while doing a handstand.
When I was six years old, I taught myself to cartwheel by pulling a bunch of pillows and blankets onto our living room floor. Three years later, I was doing a cartwheel when a girl walked in front of me. I twisted to avoid hitting her and landed on my foot wrong. I broke the long bone leading to my pinky toe and fractured the middle toe bone. I had to wear a wooden shoe around for months. (And this was shortly after I got glasses. I don't remember being teased for being the four-eyed wooden-footed girl though...)
Since then I have not once attempted any sort of headstand, handstand, or cartwheel. The closest I've come to voluntarily going heels over head was when I went bungee jumping in Costa Rica.
So when he expected me to do this without any support, I just stared at him. I said, "I broke my foot doing this when I was nine. This scares me."
Eventually I ended up kicking my feet up against a wall, with Sabumnim holding on to my legs for support.
The boys at my studio may do funky headstands and risk breaking their necks for fun, but I'm glad it's not part of our normal routine.
4 comments
Glad to know you are going to still be in Korea when we visit in July. Right now it looks like there will be about 5 blue wave members coming over.
Don't stress about Double Round House! (do they still call is "Duh-pul cha gi?) Think about it like running in place. Not a lot of height needed. :-)
gw
I am sure handstands are good for you, showing balance, agility, and strength, but the idea of being heels over head after breaking my foot that way just terrifies me.
I checked out your resume, you've been to Korea several times. Do you speak much Korean?
In 91, when I attended Yonsei, I took some language classes, but they interfered with my Taekwondo during the second half of the year so I gave them up. Still, by the time I left Korea I did OK, certainly not fluent, but I could travel and get around.
Unfortunately I have forgotten quite a bit, so in preperation for my trip this summer I have some Korean language CDs on order.
Good Luck with your double! By "running in place" I just meant you don't need a lot of vertical height. I am sure you will get it!
gw
I'm studying using the Sogang textbooks. They tend to go more slowly than the Yonsei courses, but their aim seems different. I've been told Yonsei is more for business Korean, the Sogang books are big on conversation. They use the -yo form and there is a lot of picture support. I am normally an auditory learner, but for some reason, in Korea, I am much more visual.
This TempMaster told me I needed to study Korean more. I just smiled. I work 40 hrs a week, I go to taekwondo 10 hrs a week, and I am doing one lesson a week on my own. I can NOT formally study Korean at a university without giving up taekwondo and I refuse to give up taekwondo.
If I did give up taekwondo in favor of studying at a university, my Korean would get better, but I'd lose the people I actually practice with. Interestingly, I made 70 flashcards for my next lesson, and I already knew 20% of them FROM taekwondo. And these weren't body part words, they were things like "next week," "that's OK/no problem," "college," and "to end."
I could NOT learn Korean just from immersion in taekwondo, but man does it help!
I'm working on the double roundhouse. I have been working on it for a while. You know how instructors have their favorite kicks? Well Master's favorite kicks are all about roundhouse (돌려차기). My American kwanjangnim's favorite was a jumping front kick. When I started learning Pal Jang, Master was surprised that I understood the first jumping front kick so easily.
Honestly, I have no idea what I'm calling the double roundhouse is really called. I'm learning more and more by LISTENING but when I first started here, it was all about watching. (See note above about being a visual learner here...) I usually look like I'm paying attention in class because I'm watching and listening very intently at the same time.
About a month ago I finally made a slew of flashcards of taekwondo terms (so many times the terms are Romanized, and that doesn't help me!). I've got most of them memorized, but some of the differences in kicks I'm still not sure of because people may call them different things. Heck, some of the words I got (from the Kukkiwon texts), Master said, "No, we don't use," or even, "I don't know what that is."
According to my Kukkiwon textbook, 두발(당성)차기 (dubal chagi) uses two feet alternating and "the first kick is in the disguise or aims at a lower part, and the later kick must kick the target acurately and higher."
The jumping double roundhouses I'm talking about are often at the same height, though this TempMaster likes to do one higher than the other. I may be talking about what Master calls 나래차기 (wings jump).
I have no idea.
I'll ask Master, though.
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