A Kendo Experiment

I landed in Seoul, South Korea, on the 16th of last month after a week end competition in Hamilton, New Zealand. Two days ago, after more than a month without training, I started kendo again, but from now on, I call it kumdo.

New rythm, I used to practice 2 to 3 times a week and now I am switching to 5 times a week, monday to friday. I was lucky enough to find a dojang close to my house, barely 5 minutes walk. It changes a lot my my abiliy to go and practice as I used to have about 15 minutes drive before. It meant that for an hour practice, I was away for at 2 hours and often more. Now, for one hour practice, I can be away from home for about an hour and half, allowing me to do what I need to do at home in the evening and going to practice as well without fearing to go to bed too late, you know, I need my sleep.

At first, I came wondering how different practice would be, especially after I was told by a few people that it would be a huge change for me. Truly, I saw no difference at all. We warmed up, counting in Korean instead of Japanese, We did some suburi, then put our bogu on and practice some kihon and then finally had jigeiko. On the second day, we did some kata, the exact same as I always used to do in New Zealand. Again, I was told and saw on the internet some different katas practiced in Korea, but we did none of that.

The dojang seems to have many members but there are only a few at each practice. A few reasons for that at the top of my head: the dojo is open everyday from 6am to 10pm, people can come whenever they want during those times, Korea is now very cold so people might like to saty at home. Before my second practice, I have been given the code to the door downstairs in case I need to get in and no one is there. Finally, we have been discussing my new zekken. Once I receive it, the dojo manager said, I will become 'part of the family, please don't forget that'.

The hardest part to get over now, and it will take a lot of practice, is geting my distances sorted, mainly due to the way I use my back foot, meaning the wrong way. In New Zealand, we were learning to strike from as far as we were able to as to get the advantage on our opponent who won't be able, hopefully, to reach as far. Here it doesn't work, they have much closer distance which makes it difficult to get my own distance right, and when I think that I am at the right striking point and I go for it, I miss most of the time as my oponent just steps back and he's out of my reach. The 5 practices a week will be highly beneficial to my kumdo as I can focus a little bit everyday on my backfoot, my distance and all the rest that will come later.

They were very welcoming. I had the chance to practice once in a university here in Seoul but the contact was very difficult. I am a shy person and it is very difficult for me to go somewhere not knowing if I can express myself in a language I don't know to people I don't know. At that time, there was a clear barrier between the members of that dojang and me and I felt really sorry not to be able to express myself more. This time however, I was lucky enough to find quite a few people who speak English and I am myself learning Korean. We can easily communicate, exchange our thoughts and joke around a bit. Yesterday, while practicing hari (do cuts), a man came to see us and showed me what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I never saw this man before and bowed gratefuly for his advice. At the end of the practice, as I was taking my bogu off, he came back to see me and introduced himself, wearing a very kind smile, 'Hi, I am Cha Kyung-Ok and I am the head of Seoul Kumdo Federation'.

We went for the monthly gathering yesterday evening. There was about 20 people including the both president and vice-president of the Seoul Kumdo federation respectively 7th and 8th Dan. It was both very relaxed and very formal. One member made a short speech in which I kind of understood New Zealand which I supposed was a word about me and we all cheered. What followed was an amalgam of pouring, bowing, cheering, bowing, kumdo talks, laughs, more bowing, more cheering and a bit of hangover in the morning. Makoli (korean rice wine), I praise you, makoli, I curse you.

Things started off really well and I am looking forward every kumdo practice.