the power of martial arts: truth...

No matter how strong we believe in something, reality has a habit of hitting over the head with the truth. This is a good thing. Too often we get overconfidence believing that we are too good, conversely believing we are not good enough. When you understand the truth about yourself, it gives you the freedom to taken on any challenge by knowing your true strengths and weaknesses.

Training at Jung SuWon, I have continually face these truths. When I was challenged to break my first board, I was scared. I know what it feels in having my knuckles rapped. Even though I have seen others break boards with their bare hands, there is something about the pain of hitting something with all you strength and not having it break. I created a bunch of scenarios of failing. My best chance of not getting hurt was to break it on the first try. I did not hold back. The board was the only thing present in my mind at that moment. With a loud Ki-Up, my fist smashed through the board. It barely register that I hit the board. It was broken and I was unhurt. The truth was that I could break a board unhurt.

Unfortunately the human mind does not make it easy to repeat a task. During my next testing I was again ask to break a board. Now because of the apparent ease in which the first board broke, I made the mistake that breaking boards is easy. All the focus and preparation I performed on my first break was gone. I was focus on two or three moves down my testing. The time came to make the strike. BAM! It did not break. I could feel pain throb in my hand. I just whacked my hand against a piece of hard wood. The truth sunk in, painfully. I knew I could break the board. I requested to try again. This time it was my complete focus. With my brain telling be that what I was about to do was going to hurt, made the next move even more difficult. If you burn you hand in a fire, why would be put your hand in it again? I know I can break this board. But I also know that I need to put my body, mind, and spirit into making it happen. With a loud Ki-Up, I struck and broke the board.

In the first case, I did not believe I could really do it. Yet using the tools I was taught by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, I was able to break the board with ease. Because it broke so easy, I became over-confident, not using the tools I had learned. In each case I learn more about the truth of who I am and what I am capable to do.

Training at Jung SuWon is a search for the truth; to continually refine those boundaries and expand them out beyond the Dojang.