Jung SuWon Training: we are always testing....

See, that's the exciting thing about training at Jung SuWon: you might think testing only happens on certain days, when the nice program booklets are printed out, and we've had a lot of time to practice...and we usually find out weeks in advance, somtimes months, when such testings happen.

However, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim explained that those testings are but a formality, and while important, the real testing happens each and every day - through our attitude, how we deal with unexpected situations, and so on.

One time, and I believe I was merely an orange belt, we were doing a Martial Arts demonstration at a local school. Back at that time, we never praciced any routines for those demos. Grandmaster would call up students and have them perform things on the spot. I felt relatively "safe" since I was only an orange belt, and what could I show anyhow?

I couldn't have been more wrong. After some bong sparring, multiple partner sparring and breakings performed by our instructors, I found myself being called up with some other relative newbees.

From safe and smug, I was now in the spotlight, right in front of a nice cinderblock, which I was supposed to break. Everyone else in this group broke their boards or bricks just fine, except me. I couldn't focus, was scared, and just was nervous like never before.

So, you would think - this being a demo - Grandmaster would let me just get off the hook and go home, right?

Wrong!

Training at Jung SuWon isn't about performance, although that does have its place. It is about improving yourself, getting to know yourself, finding trust in yourself, and a whole lot more.

So instead of allowing me to give up, Grandmaster - after the offical part of the demo was over and some of the spectators had already left, called me back up to the cinderblock, and said, "well, since you cannot break this one cinderblock, seems to me you need a bigger challenge, and instantly another cinderblock was placed on top of the first one!

I went from fear to panic. There was no getting away from this! And of course, a bunch of curious bystanders gathered quickly around to see what was going on!

Now what!

Anyhow, Grandmaster whispered to me with her big, invincible smile, "I know you can do this! Now go do it!"

Next thing I knew, those cinderblocks broke under a cloud of dust!

Sometimes we need this extra push, and the extra love in our life. Even though we might be perfectly capable of doing something, if we don't believe we can do it, it won't happen. And it helps to have someone at our side, once in a while, to show us that yes, we CAN indeed do it!!!