Amanda Takes Off...

Tonight's taekwondo class was nice. It was only an hour long because the middle school students have some big test and nobody is there this week. We're preparing for a tournament, so Master took me and another student aside to work on our forms.

I love working with Master one-on-one or in small groups on forms. I also like it when he watches me across the room and corrects me, even though I try not to let it show. I like the attention, and whenever I do forms with him, I really feel them.

He told us some "rules" and many finer points. He would speak to my younger studiomate, then look at me and say, "OK?" And the wonderful thing is I understood. Yeah, part of it is cause I've heard it before, part of it was body language, but much of it was just that I understood.

At one point he was helping me with Koryeo. The junbi (ready) stance for this form is different and I'm having a hard time with it. Still.

"Amanda..." he said.

"힘 필요해요?" I need power?

"네." Yes. He bends my fingers and says "tree." I know I am supposed to think that I am pushing a big, powerful log away.

"수 힘? 산 힘? 나무 힘?"

He cocked his head at me and switched to English, "What?"

"음...힘 어떻게요?" Um, power how? "수 힘?" Water power? I shake my hips as I imagine water power moves. "산 힘?" Mountain power, I hold my shoulders and torso like a mountain. "나무 힘?" Wood power, I move my body like wood.

A slow grin spreads across his face. "Ahhh! 나무 힘!"

And so I try to move like wood.

And after doing the form just once with Master's correction, pressure, power, I am dripping in sweat.

Ahhh, glorious.

(Good Man just told me that I should've used another word for water—물— and the possessive marker. 물의 힘, 산의 힘, 나무의 힘. I suppose if I was going to use "su" for water, I should've used "mok" for wood since they're both from Chinese.)