The Same but Different

My wife, Ms. EMA, recently started back to Tae Kwon Do after a long absence.  She has previously been a 2nd Dan in Korea.  I will tell you from personal experience that she is very quick and her stance transitions are quite smooth.  It was not a night of my class so I volunteered to take our daughter, EMA jr., down to her class and cheer her on.  The Evil Martial Artist is supportive.  I had been to the school once before with her niece Hee Sun, while she was visiting us from Korea.  I think when I went before it was an off night.  The class was huge to say the least.

I have been training in the martial arts for a long time, but this was the biggest class I had ever seen.  There must have been about 50 students out there for an adult class.  I am sure there are bigger ones but I haven’t seen them in person.  In my American Kenpo classes the adult classes average 8 to 20.  When it gets to about 15 I think it is crowded.  I have a skewed perspective that is for sure.

The class format is in short militaristic.  I have taken Tang Soo Do in the past so I am familiar with the Korean martial arts format.  The students lined up in rows with two rows facing each other then they used targets and shields to work on their kicks.   I will say that Tae Kwon Do stylists have great kicks.  They are fast and powerful, it is nice to watch.  The Master made great use of space and seemed to accommodate the students he had with the space available.  He took a bit of drill sergeant approach to his students, which I think can be common in this type of training.  Negative reinforcement can have its benefits, having been in the Army I know it does work.   It is a bit different from where I train where rank doesn’t matter as much.  I think my school is more of a brotherhood/ sisterhood where my wife’s Tae Kwon Do school is more of a military-esque organization.  At my age I am not sure if I would respond well to belittling.  I like to think I have humility and I believe I do but perhaps this type of training is not my cup of tea.  I think I prefer the warmer atmosphere of my training hall. 

The results seem to be the same.  We train hard and so do they.  We have excellent martial artists and so do they.  I think the difference is that our Sensei gets out there with us and works with us more one on one.  But that is probably more a product of class size.

The class finished with out 40 minutes of sparring in smaller groups.  There were about 20 people on the mat at a time mixing it up.  I seem to remember this when I was at the school before.  It seems to be a large part of their training.  I think this can be valuable.  You develop the skills to avoid the shock of being hit and work on some speed and combinations, all useful stuff.  I think that should be tempered though.  Too much sparring can lead to bad habits, like pulling punches and not protecting areas that are illegal targets in competition (like the head for punches and the groin). 

Overall, it was different from my own training; however, I would say that they were a good school.  Would I ever train there, No.  I don’t think they would allow me to use my elbows and knees.  My favored techniques don’t fit in a Tae Kwon Do school.  The Evil Martial Artist likes joint locks, throws, and close in self defense, he can kick and throw long range punches but this is not his preference.  In short, I respect what they do at my wife’s Tae Kwon Do school but it is not really for me.  Ms. EMA also doesn’t really find Kenpo to her liking, she thinks it is too rough.  This is why we have so many martial arts in the world, not everyone is right for every person.