 I’ve been doing Taekwondo for about two and a half years and during that time, I’ve had some unexpected successes and it has become much more than something to do on a Wednesday night to me; but my God, have I had some spectacular downfalls! The phrase ‘Bridget Jones in a dobok’ has been used on more than one occasion when I’ve done the Taekwondo equivalent of sliding down a fireman’ S.P.L. with my backside in the air. We read so many articles by infinity-dan experts who tell us the best way to success and glory but very rarely have I seen them tell us what to do when things don’t go according to plan. We are all human, even the superhero experts, as sometime at the beginning of their careers they must have stood at the back of a class in a pair of trackie bottoms and flapped their arms and legs around in an attempt to copy the expert at the front of the class. It takes years of practice to repeatedly perform at that high level and what you don’t see whilst they are athletically punching and kicking themselves to perfection in a pattern or making mincemeat of their opponent in sparring is that, for every time they’ve made that technique work in a competition, in training they have missed, fallen over and stomped their foot in frustration.
Pattern Debacle
I had a recent brush with disaster a few weeks ago in a competition in Hereford. I was really looking forward to trying out Joong Gun after having a lot of success with Yul Gok. I practised, tweaked and fussed over every last finger movement and what did I do when the referee called Si Jack? I turned right, Right, RIGHT!!! I’ve done this pattern in a grading and countless times in class, how could I have been so stupid? There wasn’t any particular reason why I did this, I just did. Up until the split second I made that mistake, I was fully confident in my ability to do that pattern but for some inexplicable reason, I turned the wrong way. When the penny dropped, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me and when I sat down, I buried my head in my knees ostrich style in an attempt to hide myself.
What did my team mates say? I thought it would be “Lesley you idiot, you should have won that” but no, it was more like, “Don’t worry, we’ve all done it” and “Forget it Les, it really is not that important and we still think you’re fab”. Their first action wasn’t to admonish me for screwing up but to comfort me because they knew what had just happened would crush me. What I was really dreading was my instructor’s reaction, but when he came over he was sympathetic and reassuring and for the rest of the blue belt competition, he was glued to my side in an act of solidarity.
Importance of Team Mates
One of the lessons I learnt that day was the importance of good team mates and club cohesion. These are the people who pick you up at some ungodly hour to go to a competition or grading, cheer you on when you are beating a rival but who also give you a pep talk when you are feeling down. This also goes for your instructor. At our club never once has anyone been admonished for having a bad day at a competition, they are just glad you took the effort to turn up, after all, it takes a lot of courage to walk onto the competition area in the first place, particularly if you are a yellow stripe about to spar for the first time. You also want to avoid the instructor who brags about his or her personal achievements; chances are they aren’t actually that good. In my case it took some time to realise exactly how good my instructor is at Taekwondo and it was ages until I cottoned on that he was a British squad member. When you are one of the best possible practitioners in Taekwondo in the world, you have no reason to brag. In the world of martial arts, modesty is a virtue and nobody likes a smarty pants. Indeed, any good instructor will always be able to tell you a story themselves of how they’ve messed up in a competition or a grading.
What Do You Do About It?
When you do feel like you are reaching a trough in your training or you feel you just aren’t getting anywhere, look to the tenets. ‘Perseverance and ‘Indomitable Spirit’ deal with just this situation. A real martial artist is made, not born and part of the journey to black belt and beyond involves; in my opinion, losing and sometimes failing but remaining persistent. If you don’t fail, how can you truly enjoy the successes? However, that doesn’t mean that we can take failing as a habit, but we can learn an awful lot from our mistakes as they expose to us our weakness, which is another area for us to work on (or in my case, remembering the difference between left and right!). We can always do better and, as our own site’s creator says, “ For me, training is about perfection whether it be a new pattern, or sparring technique.” There is always another goal to reach, a new hurdle to get over and other competition to do better in.”
Oh, and I got my own back in the team sparring, I won all my fights and we got gold. As my team mate said, ‘you were like a blond kung fu fairy!”
Right, I’m off to try and incorporate a reverse turning hooking kick into my sparring.
What could possibly go wrong?
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