Black Belt Essay

Memories of Taekwon-Do

I have been doing Taekwon-Do (TKD) for 12 years now. I spent my first 7 years in
Malaysia and the next 5 years in New Zealand. I am currently a 2nd Dan black belt. I
love Taekwon-Do, therefore I am going to tell you a small piece of my memories of
Taekwon-Do until now. 

Taekwon-Do syllabus and technical content are pretty much the same all over the world. 
The only difference is the delivery of the knowledge. Every country is slightly different
because of cultural and personal aspects. Some are better and some are worse than the
other. For me, I had the priveledge to experience the TKD knowledge of two different
countries - Malaysia and New Zealand. I would say that Malaysia provided me with a
good foundation towards TKD while New Zealand furthered my capabilities to a better
TKD practitioner. I would not have wanted it any other way because I would not turn out
what I am now. Malaysia’s standard in TKD is considered quite good in the world of
Taekwon-Do. She held the 1994 Taekwon-Do World Champs and won a lot of medals. 
New Zealand’s standard in TKD has also boomed up considering that ITFNZ is still very
new in the world of TKD. I am sure that NZ will be amongst the top countries in a few
years time. 

My first encounteer of Taekwon-Do started with my five elder siblings doing TKD in
1983, 2 of them whom some of you might already know. They are Lewis and Lisa Looi. 
I was 3, obviously too young to start learning TKD. Our neighbour, Miss Lim, was a 3rd
Dan black belt. She taught them at her club and extra time at our home. She would
sometimes come over to our house and teach them on our house lawn. All that time that
they were practicing on our house lawn, I would have to stay inside. I could only
observe through the window. I had to settle for that. I was very enchanted with the
beauty of TKD, plus the fact that I have always been a big fan of Bruce Lee. 
Taekwon-Do is the first martial art that I had encounteer with my own eyes, and
therefore it has always been my favourite martial art though I never lown down on any
other martial arts. 

When I turned 5, I was ready to start TKD because I thought if one of my elder sisters
could start at 5, I stood a big chance. My dreams were crushed. My parents thought that I
was too young to begin TKD because at that age, I would probably start a lot of fights in
the kindergarten. I did anyway. I was changed from kindergarten to kindergarten, a total
of 4. I realized that if I had started TKD earlier than my age, I would have turned out to
be a bad egg because of lack of maturity. If children start too young, they might misuse
the knowledge because they have not fully develop a common sense. On the other hand,
when children are old enough to think for themselves, learning martial art will help to
reduce aggresion within themselves. Self-control would take over from violence,
therefore promoting a more peaceful world. 

When I turned 8 years old, my parents decided that it was about time for me to take up
Taekwon-Do for self-defence purposes. I went to a nearby club to learn TKD. That
changed my entire life. I walked into the training area (dojang). Everyone was in white
uniform (dobok) with different colour belts around their waists. The black ones was
definitely the coolest. My parents talked to the instructor. He was called Master Khoo
Hock Guan, 5th Dan black belt then. He was my mentor then and still my mentor now. 
He is still very influential in the International Taekwon-Do of Malaysia. 

The first technique which I learnt was walking stance middle forearm punch, aside from
learning how to bow to the instructors and seniors. I could still remember how I threw
my shoulders very far forward when I punch. My other hand would be hanging
somewhere next to my leg. I was shown the proper ways to clench my fist and relax my
shoulders. It took me ages before I could start to come to terms with the movement. I
still think I could improve on it. It was thrill to go to training because I discovered new
things everytime I went to training. The excitement heightened when my instructor
taught me how to kick. That was when TKD became so interesting that I spent every
single free time of the day to play round with the kicks I learnt. 

At that stage, all my brother and sisters were already black belt. I was trailing far behind. 
Feeling belittled being the youngest and having the least knowledge in Taekwon-Do, I
trained very hard and diligently. Soon, I was a junior black belt at the age of 10 years old. 
I entered a lot of tournaments and seminars to improve my skills. When I start to beat
other kids my age in free-sparring, my instructor decided to put me into the adult’s
division. Of course, I was annoyed that he did that because this would mean that I would
not be winning as many medals as I used to. He explained to me that that was the best
way to be a better TKD practitioner, especially in free-sparring. I was struggling a lot but
soon, I began to improve a lot in my sparring style. I learnt how to adapt faster and read
the opponent’s mind through his movement. Although I was losing at tournaments, each
time I was getting closer to victory. Finally, I did. My instructor was utmost pleased. 
He told me, “I told you that you could do it”, when he presented the medal to me at the
prize-giving ceremony.

The education system of Malaysia then was very poor . As a result, four of eldest
siblings came to New Zealand for education. That put Taekwon-Do on hold for them
because they did not know of the existence of ITFNZ. Three of them, who were 1st Dan,
never recovered from the break from TKD and stopped until now. The other two, Lewis
and Lisa, are 2nd Dan black belt now. As for me, I resumed and reached 2nd Dan at 12
years old. The fun never ended.

I had a year break from Taekwon-Do in 1996 because of family reasons. When I came to
New Zealand in 1997 for education, Lisa looked up TKD in New Zealand on the Internet
and found a nearby TKD club - Mt. Albert branch. Lisa and I decided to check it out. 
That was when everything took off again. I am glad I took the opportunity to resume
TKD. The instructor, Mr Andrew Niven, helped us to get back in shape. He was kind
enough to help us with the patterns and refresh our memories. After a struggling 6
months, we were back to our old forms. In return, we helped to teach his other students
at the club.

I still remember from my old instructor, Master Khoo, to always recognize of your
potentials and capabilities. He always tells me to try new things. When I returned to
Malaysia every now and then, I would visit his club or my old club. He still tells me that
I have a long way to go to be at my peak. It does help a little having a big family where
all your siblings does the same martial arts. It is like having the power of a collection. I
feel an extra inch of strength because of that. Family support is a little different from
support from a friend. Having the dream to be on your best will also help you to perform
better.

When I am in the ring, I enter this trans where I completely have a world of my own. I
am in total control of everything. It is like I decide what will happen next. It is between
you and the opponent standing in front of you. Nothing else matter. Nobody should ever
be a threat no matter how big or how strong they are. There is always a way around that
person. There is a saying that someone once told me, “If you cut a person, he will bleed. 
There is always a weakness in us.” You should feel that you can do better than the other
person because it encourages yourself to do better. This will provoke an inner strength in
your body to perform well under pressure. Fear of losing a fight, on the other hand, is the
worst thing in free-sparring. It is as if you are putting an obstacle in front of you before
you even start to do something. Winning is good. I mean who does not like to win. It is
only a human nature. But, scared of losing will get you nowhere in the world of TKD. 

Before I continue any further, I would like to say that I am not a qualified person or a
professional to be saying this. I am just giving an opinion. I still have a lot to learn. To
be good at free-sparring, you have to be willing to take risk and try things out. This
means that you should always try something new but not totally diverging from the basic. 
Something new includes the timing and the order of execution of punches and kicks. 
That is how you get better. You have to try it out to see if it works for you. If the
technique or combination does not work for you, then at the least you know that it does
not work for you. The good thing is that you try it out and that is all that matters. But, if
the technique does work, well, you have a secret weapon handy when you are in trouble
in the ring. You have to bear this in mind as well “everyone is different”. It might work
on someone but not everyone. So, the only way you can get better is through experiences
(meaning done the combinations yourself) and learning from observations (meaning
seeing the combinations done from other people’s or your very own) . A very good way
is to watch free-sparring videos and see how people execute their timing of their
combinations. 

The longer years you are at something, the wiser you are at it. Later, you will discover
that the basics are the techniques that assure victory. Most of you will disagree to this
statement but time will tell. Flashy moves are difinitely very entertaining but they are
quite useless in TKD because they requires too much time to execute. If you can use the
flashy moves to your own benefits, I say go for it. Use it once in a while. Don’t use it all
the time because it will backfire on you. Be unpredictable!

Some people always ask me how I counter such and such moves. Well, to those people, I
say that it is up to that person. I can only give ideas that work for me. The thing that
people often confuse with is that free-sparring is actually very flexible, not like
Mathematics. There is no one correct answer ie. there is no one way out of a move. You
choose what you want to counter the move with. Some counter the move with another
kick, some side-step the move and counter with a fist and some might even dodge the
move and then do nothing. It is all up the personal preferences of the person. 

The really good thing about Taekwon-Do is that I can spend the entire day staring at a
blank wall but my mind will travel into a world where I can be in a ring sparring with
someone really good to where I can be doing some incredible stunts which I do not think I
have done or can do in reality. If you sometimes daydream about TKD, it is really
healthy. It can broaden your mental side or inner perspective about TKD. You
occasionally need to just sit down and have a little imagination about what you want to do
when you are in a ring with someone, especially someone who is better than you are. You
can do whatever you want in your imagination eg. countering his moves, giving him a
good reverse turning kick on the head, making some good flying punches directly on the
target and etc. The things you see in your imagination are what you want to achieve when
you are in the actual ring with the person in reality. 

The highest achievement in Taekwon-Do for me was getting into the New Zealand team
who went to 1999 Taekwon-Do World Champs in Argentina. Although I did not perform
my very best, I could learn from my mistakes and hope to do better in the next world
championship. I have to admit that the trip to Argentina was not a waste. It opened my
eyes as to where I stood in the world standard. Now, at least I know how I should train
and what world standard is by looking at world champions. Being there at the
competition really gave me a kick in the head as to how high I should reach to be one of
the best in the world. It gave a target to aim for. I could only do better.