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Yidan thoughts
Posted On: 06/19/2008 07:15:42
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This is a blog that I posted on Myspace shortly before my kumdo Yidan test.
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Three years ago, I began taking Kumdo with Grandmaster Kim and Master Choi. Initially, the goal was a vague, ‘get good and get my blackbelt’, as if the blackbelt was the end goal. By the time I tested for blackbelt, I knew just how much of a beginner I still was.
Having learned the basics, I’ve learned that it is much harder to master the basics than it is to simply learn them. When I began the class, I had this notion that as you progressed in kumdo, you learned all sorts of special moves and secret sword techniques, the sort of thing that popular culture and martial arts movies promote. But in reality, mastering the basics is what makes you good.
In focusing on fine tuning the basics, it becomes very clear just how far a student has to go after earning their blackbelt. Most people who have little or no experience in the martial arts see the blackbelt as a sign of mastery, but in reality, it really is just a beginning. Second degree is a milestone along the way, but there is still much to learn and much to do.
When I challenged Il dan, I wrote for my essay then that Kumdo is not just an athletic sport or martial art to practice, but a way of life. Whether or not we realize it, most of our lives we are taught that there is a beginning and an end to each thing we learn. We are taught that once we get this degree, or that certification, we have completed our learning of that subject and move on to doing something else, usually working in whatever field we prepared for. But in continuing to practice kumdo beyond the Il dan level, I have learned that in no area are we ever truly finished learning. In no area do we ever reach a point where we cannot fine tune and improve.
Applying that lesson to daily life makes one a bit less egotistical about their’ own position and progress. It causes you to stop measuring your progress by comparing yourself to the people around you and to measure it instead by how much you have improved you skills and how much you yourself have learned. It makes you strive to be better than you are, rather than simply not as bad as someone else. As I prepare to challenge Yi dan, it is this lesson that I have reflected upon most, for it is amongst the most important truths that one can learn in the martial arts.
Tags: Yidan Second Dan 2nd Dan Kumdo
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