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Mabuhay! I'm an Asian American writer (Back Kicks And Broken Promises, Abbott Press, 2012), martial artist and teacher who was born in The Philippines, raised in Hong Kong and ended up in New Jersey.

16 March, 2011

Tae Kwon Do and Me - Perfect Together

The title of this post is a paraphrase of the New Jersey promo ads that I used to see on TV and hear on the radio when I moved to America in 1985. I think it's fitting for describing my relationship with Tae Kwon Do since I started studying the Korean martial art a few months after landing at JFK and moving into our first New Jersey home in Montclair.

Tae Kwon Do seems to be taking the front seat in my life these days. I’m teaching two classes a week and I’ve been training more than usual. Up until a month or so ago, I was training here and there. I'd tried going to regular classes at a couple of schools but the irregularity of classes at one and the long drive to another belayed those intentions. For all intents and purposes, I'd retired. I still thought about them, wrote about them and advised others on them but my involvement in martial arts rarely involved me donning a dobok (uniform) and working up a sweat. Now that I'm teaching again, that special something of the martial arts has taken hold of me again and I hope it never lets go. Rather, I hope I don't let it go. That special thing is what I like to call "The It" - the thing that lets you perform when you're exhausted and have nothing left yet you're still able to kick with precision without effort. It's the thing that makes you do whatever it is you need to do without being aware you're doing it but you know you did it. I haven't been training regularly the last few years and maybe its because I've been a student for so long (almost 26 years) but in the short time I've been teaching, again with flags hanging on the walls and my own students in front of me, I feel the effects of The It. Other than my body's current inability to do some of the things I used to do - although with every training session I feel less restricted and returning to my old self - I feel like I never left. It's funny how that happens when you've done something for so long and when you love something so much. In some ways, I feel like I've come back home, as if I'm the best version of me I can be again.
I decided to enter the New Jersey State Tae Kwon Do Championships and come out of competition retirement, so to speak. I don’t foresee myself competing like I used to in the 1990s but a tournament here and there and, probably mostly in the Forms divisions and not the Sparring ones, will be fun. Besides, I only found out The States are this coming Sunday last Friday so it’s really going to be a hoot. My forms are good enough to enter but I don’t know about winning. I’m doing it for fun, really, and to get back into the Tae Kwon Do community and to get Bamboo Martial Arts back into public view. I’m hoping, too, to run into and say hi to a few old friends from the circuit. I know the tournament formats have changed and I've been in contact with the New Jersey State Tae Kwon Do Association president who's been generous enough to talk and email with me and to provide me with the newest rules changes. I don’t want to look like a clown not knowing what he’s supposed to be doing. I’ll admit I’m a little nervous though because I haven’t competed in more than ten years.  Actually, it's almost twenty! It'll be fun, though, and I'm looking forward to it. I'll post again when the event's over to let you know what happened.
But, for now, let me end by saying it's great to be back. Who says you can't go back where you came from? I've always said martial arts is responsible for making me who I am today. Well, I'm glad I'm back to it and I'm glad I'm still evolving.

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