Kihap and Chumbi Seogi in Matchoe Kyorugi

In my last two posts I wrote a little more indepth about"Chumbi Seogi" and "Kihap" as well as their role in Taekwondo. This time I wanted to shed some light over the role of Chumbi Seogi and Kihap in Matchoe Kyorugi (in our Dojang at least).

When you do one, two, three step sparring you do a lot of Kihap, as well as Chumbi Seogi. Even though it is considered an external hard excercise it does contain a lot of inner soft training as well. The Kihap and Chumbi Seogi as Ki excersises have been dealt with (albeit shortly) in my last two previous posts so I will not repeat myself to much in this one as both Kihap and Chumbi Seogi does have a few extra roles in Matchoe Kyorugi.

Kihap, "Taekwondo`s spirited shout"

Beginner students are the best! They ask great questions and sometimes I find myself learning more about Taekwondo teaching it than studying it. Last week I was asked about information on the "Kihap" that we frequently do during training. Apparently he had googled "Kihap" to learn more about the subject but google had turned out to be very silent about the matter for some reason. There were a few simple wiki answers and yahoo answers and an occasional thread on a discussion forum but there was very little indepth writing about Kihap, its place in Taekwondo etc. This topic fits in nicely here on the blog as last post I discussed Chumbi Seogi as a Kigong (excercise to practise Ki).

A Discussion on "Chumbi Seogi/Ready Stance"

 

As an instructor I usually teach beginners first the "attention stance" or "Charyot Seogi", then the bow, followed by "Chumbi Seogi" (ready stance) followed by Juchum Seogi (horse stance) and low block (Arae Makki). Other teachers teach in a different order, but I feel this order shows of much of Traditional Taekwondo Philosophy. But I am digressing (allready!) and to get us back on track; the point is that Chumbi Seogi or ready stance is one of the first things beginners learn in Traditional Taekwondo Dojang no matter wich "style" of Taekwondo you belong to. The instruction varies from "Copy my movement and look serious" instruction, to a more detailed one where the instructors shows the student all the movement details (how wide the stance is, where the toes point, the weight ratio of each leg, etc etc) and if he is lucky (the student that is) he is also taught to breathe along the movements. Unfortunatly this is where it starts and stops for most Taekwondoin, they perfect the movement but it is somehow "shallow" and it is only done because of "Tradition". Note this article discusses "Gibon Chumbi Seogi" from now on refered to as Chumbi Seogi. Below you will see a clip from how Kukkiwon wanted it performed in 1995. Today the hands are opened completly and then made into fists as they come to the solar plexus. 97% the same as this clip demonstrates:-) Look at 0:11 seconds into the clip.

2012 retrospect plus what would you like to read in 2013?

Happy new year everyone. I trust you all had a nice celebration and that we are all happy that the world did not end just before Christmas??:-)

Before I start looking back at 2012 I think it is prudent to look forward and ask: What would you like to read about in 2013? Is there anything you think would make a great blog post theme? Would you like more "how to?" posts? more history? more Kyorugi? more applications from the forms? Or something completly else like philosophy? Ki? Taegeuk? Meditation? If you are following my blog and you have an opionion or ideas please submit a comment:-) (You do not have to give any names if you do not want to)

The new year is finally upon us and I thought it would be great to just write a little about how the blog did in 2012.