What TaeKwonDo Has Taught Me

Here we are with Master Freddy Zuluaga of Lowell TaeKwonDo with our new brown belts (a couple of rankings below Black Belt). I have discovered many things about myself with my TKD involvement the last couple of years.

First of all, I do like to move it, move it. It's a great feeling to move my body. I love the endorphins surging through my body when I am exercising, dancing, hiking, kicking the bag at the dojang. I even enjoy the dull aches in my body the next day.

I have a good bit of kinesthetic intelligence and I am much stronger than I have given myself credit for.

I have lost 11 pounds. It's a great feeling to lose weight and feel light. I was wearing pants with 38" waist when I started TKD and now I am down to almost 34". I used to wear 32"s in college - so even that is not that far!

As in learning something new in particular and life in general, the days are long but the years are short (thanks to Gretchen Reuben of The Happiness Project for this poignant phrase). All you need to do is 3 hours a week and in two years you are miles ahead!

I have been spending time learning to use the nunchuk. You have to get used to the heft and the inertia of these pieces of wood that can do serious damage if you make a mistake. So what you need to do is just stay with the basics and do it over and over again. The same with all the different kicks. In fact I have come up with a rule of thumb: you have to do a physical action a 1000 times before you own it and it becomes second nature. In fact this is why kids have an edge over adults. They actually do things thousands of times without their internal critical, questioning dialog kicking in - Am I doing this right? Do i look fat in this? I am sure I look stupid! Oh no, that was a stupid way to kick! This has been another revalation for me.

Then there's the undeniable "dress up" aspect. Aseem knows all about this. He always wears his uniform for soccer practices. It is not required and he is often the only one in full regalia. But it is all about the "soccer-star" persona. He is "playing at" being a soccer star - and I don't mean it in a derogatory way. It is a human need to dress up. I feel the same way about putting on the TKD uniform. It becomes my martial artist persona. I am Bruce Lee and I am off to kick some evil butt.

Finally as Bobby McFerrin sings: Simple pleasures are the best! Kicking the bag is pure fun! It's the sheer brute force kicking and feeling the 200-pound bag rock - it's exhilarating. I got the power!