Figured no one would believe this without visual evidence. Husband and I shelled out the bucks the other night and joined a do jong -- that's a training hall for martial arts, if you couldn't guess from the picture. Tang Soo Do is our art, Moo Duk Kwan is our style. Moo means "stop conflict," and apparently the goal is "one hit, one kill," take your opponent down as efficiently as possible.
Earlier this summer we heard a presentation on the differences between historical and theatrical swordplay. Historically, the sword was not used for a lot of parrying and fancy footwork, but again, one hit one kill (clearly, this would remove a lot of the drama that goes into movie swordfighting).
Enough of that tangent for now though. We've attended two Tang Soo Do lessons. It reminds me a lot of the ballet lessons I took as a child, in that they both require a lot of balance and grace, neither of which come particularly easily to me. There was a lot to ballet intellectually that I just didn't "get" at the time either, which, in retrospect, I now understand (especially spotting), but would no longer attempt.
The master of our do jong also teaches yoga, so we gave that a try tonight. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I'm not sure I'd say I liked it. But, if everyone else was concentrating as hard as I was, then I know none of them saw how awkward I was in some of those poses.
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