Having a clear understanding of your style’s and instructor’s roots is vital to understanding who you are as a martial artist. For example, having a deep understanding of a form’s history and creator can help you understand its purpose and characteristics. The same applies for your art in general. The history and tradition behind your martial art can not only give you a sense of pride, but also help you get to the heart of the art.
As an example, my martial arts lineage is as follows:
Hwang Kee (Founder of Soo Bahk Do)
Jae Chul Shin
Chuck Norris
Victor Martinov
Jeff Moonitz
Oliver Whitcomb
I attribute my lineage to Oliver Whitcomb, who issued me my Cho Dan in Soo Bahk Do. Prior to training with Master Oliver Whitcomb, I had received my Cho Dan in Tang Soo Do under Earlene Burk while I lived in Challis, Idaho. Del Low, who was her instructor was the one who issued me the rank. As far as Del Low’s instructor, I’m not sure. If anyone has information on this, that would be awesome!
Interesting, I just found a youtube clip for Yuk Ro Sa Dan Hyung, also known as Yang Pyun. This is the 4th form of 6 created by Soo Bahk Do founder, Hwang Kee. Korean subak (hand strike) is an ancient martial art that has been lost in time. One of the few remaining documents of this ancient style is found in the Moo Yei Do Bo Tong Ji, a 300 year old text on Korean martial arts, armed, unarmed, and horseback. Within the Kwan Bup (Fist Method) section, you read about Yuk Ro techniques, of which there are 6. Hwang Kee took these six movements and created a form that was based on the technique’s characteristics. Unfortunately, the text is written with Chinese characters, making it extremely difficult for scholars to translate. Even once translated, the documentation is very crude and does not give a clear explanation of techniques. Figures depict many, but not all of the movements, and unfortunately a still image does not do a physical technique justice. Though the true style of subak may be lost in time, it is through Founder Hwang Kee’s style that we can take a glimpse of what that style might have entailed.
We do know that the book has Chinese and even Japanese influence and that it comprises the Sorim (Shaolin-hard style) and Tae Kuk Kwon’s Nae Ga (Soft style). You’ll see variations of Shaolin long punch alongside Tai Chi movements in this form.
To get started in the right direction as I begin to have discussions on martial arts topics, I thought it would be good to give a brief history. I began training in the martial arts when I was 5. I did it with my dad in Logan, Utah studying Chung Do Kwan. This style was one of the 5 original schools, and together with the Moo Duk Kwan was probably the strongest school. It later unified with the other “kwans” and formed Tae Kwon Do. I didn’t get very far before my parents moved to Idaho. I found a Shorin-ryu school there where I trained for maybe a year. Shorin-ryu is an okinowan style probably most closely associated with the Chinese Shaolin style. The instructor quickly retired after a logging accident and I was able to find another instructor, Earlene Burk, who I trained with starting April 9, 1993, which I consider my birthday in the martial arts. This is when I began studying Tang Soo Do.
Tang Soo Do is a generic style of Korean karate that can trace its roots back to Hwang Kee’s style, the Moo Duk Kwan. Through the years, Tang Soo Do has evolved to be more of an American martial art with a plethora of organizations and variations, Chuck Norris, being one of the more known members.
After receiving my dan (black belt) and being issued dan #1025 (meaning I’m the 25th most senior member in that organization), discovered that a 4th degree Master-level instructor (called Sa Bom), was moving to Sun Valley, ID–only 2.5 hours away. He belonged to the parent organization, the US Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation. Understanding that he was the key to me furthering my knowledge of Tang Soo Do, I transferred schools and began learning under his guidance in the art of Soo Bahk Do. Soo Bahk Do is the parent style of Tang Soo Do and has a mission to try and uncover some of the ancient training methods of Korea. I retested for my 1st dan (dan #36364) in 1997 and currently hold a 3rd dan and am a kyo sa (certified instructor).
This category is dedicated principally to the further knowledge of Korean martial arts.
Alright, so my next post is technology based. I’ll get to some martial arts stuff soon I promise. Jimmy showed me this youtube video on these guys did a superb job at explaining the joys of Ruby on Rails development. Imagine setting up a database schema and throughout development you add a table here, or a column there. Your code and db schema evolve throughout the process. Then BAM, you need to revert your application code to a previous version. I’ve found it quite difficult to revert my db schema back to the same version. Well, Ruby on Rails has a nice module called migrations. Migrations are 100% Ruby code which can create your db schema for you. As you add tables, modify a column, or whatever you need to during the db schema lifecycle, migrations keep a record of every change you make and an easy way to revert at any time. Once migrations are set up, reverting is as easy as typing “rake db: migrate VERSION=10″.
Well, I was thinking that it was time to customize my own theme. So I went online and used the wuhan theme as the base and customized my own graphics. I’ve focused solely on writing technical blogs and hope to be able to begin writing some blogs that are more geared towards my martial arts background as well. I feel I have a lot to offer the blogging community in that realm as I have quite a bit of experience studying the Korean martial arts. Don’t worry, I will continue to blog about technology, especially Ruby on Rails development which Apriux seems to be focusing on lately. Let me know your thoughts and critiques on this new theme. The old one just didn’t seem all that eye-appealing like this one.
