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I had the
opportunity to visit Seoul, Korea for 8 days this summer (1999).
I stayed with a friend of mine from college who chose to spend
his summer teaching English to junior high age kids at a private
school in Seoul. I
thought it would be a great opportunity to see a completely different
part of the world and train in the country where Soo Bahk Do
originated.
On
my second day in Seoul I set off on the subway to find the Korean Soo
Bahk Do Headquarters. The
subway system in the world’s 5th most populous city was
easy to get around on. The
problems came when you tried to look for addresses of places.
They do not number buildings in the same order as we are used
to in America. After
asking about 4 different people where the Do Jang was, I was lucky
enough to find a guy who led me to the studio on foot.
I was lucky he did this because I was running around in
circles.
When
I arrived at the Do Jang I was greeted by Sa Bom Yang and Mister Lee.
Master Yang runs the Korean headquarters and was very happy to
see another person from Kenyon’s visit Headquarters.
Mister Lee is also a Cho-Dan and helps out with running the Do
Jang. The Osborne twins
had visited earlier that year and trained 5 hours a day for 10
straight days. I think
Master Yang was disappointed that I would only be training for a few
days at only one class.
When
I arrived at Headquarters there was still a lot of time before class
started so Master Yang offered to take me to the Song Moo Sa where
they manufacture the popular Pine Tree Do Boks.
The people at the Song Moo Sa were extremely nice and gave us
snacks and cold tea while they customized some Do Boks for me.
They were also very happy to get rids of some size 7’s that
have been there forever. (There are not many Koreans who are
6’3”.) We had some
KFC for lunch and then it was back to the Do Jang.
The
weather in Seoul was 95 degrees with 90% humidity when I trained. The
Korean Soo Bahk Do practitioners are EXTREMELY flexible regardless of
their rank and spend a lot of time before, during and after class
doing stretching exercises. Master
Yang put me through the most strenuous stretching exercises I have
ever experienced. I was drenched in sweat after the first 10 minutes
and I was not even done stretching.
Class was small in numbers but they did the same things we do
at Kenyon’s. They were
very interested in watching me do my Hyung and I got to demonstrate
most of them at least once.
I
trained the next day as well and they took me out to a restaurant that
another Soo Bahk Do practitioner owned.
I took many pictures and exchanged some addresses and thanked
them for all that they had done in making my visit a memorable one.
It was definitely one of the best experiences that I have had
in my 7 years of training.
Click
here to see pictures from Mark's trip
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