I had finished the last form, koryo, the test had taken more than 90 minutes of non-stop hard sweat drenched martial arts activities, which included white belt thru black belt hyungs, self defense, advanced breaking techniques, kicking combinations, and free sparring multiple opponents at one time. Sweat poured from my body, and I was exhausted, but I felt good, I was in excellent shape, and, my reflexes were sharp, kicks were high, and jump kicks explosive back then, confidence, self esteem, and self discipline were high traits in my character, it was 1988, that was then, but this is now.
Remembering back to those days, at the height of my Tae Kwon Do career, I was a blackbelt instructor, running a branch school with almost 30 students at it's peak ranging from ages of 6-50 yrs old. I was responsible for teaching classes, student belt tests, tournaments, and Tae Kwon do demonstrations. I taught 2-3 classes a day, 6 days per week, while attending and managing college classes during the morning and day. I worked out with weights, I ran, I did stuff, and was exceptionally active and physically fit.
A few years later, I had joined another school that was run by a kickboxer, and decided to have a go at 'full contact kickboxing' (this was back in the early 90's, UFC and MMA had not really caught on mainstream yet). After a few full contact fights, and 'getting my bell rung' once or twice, I'd decided it was probably a really good idea, for me to finish college, and start a career in engineering. I still trained though, instructed sometimes, and was still very active until an ACL tear in my right knee, in my late twenties. Some years later, I got married, and my life changed drastically with my new wife, and step son.
I still was very active, played sports, and lifted weights, and ran now and then, but I had stopped my martial arts practice, for whatever reasons. Turn the clock forward almost 20 years, to August 2011, I walked back into my instructors dojang with my wife, and two of my children aged 8 and 9. When I greeted my instructor, he had a look of utter amazement on his face. He looked the same, with only slightly more gray hairs than I'd remembered. We soon enrolled the kids into a three month trial yellow belt program. As a benefit of this, he said that as long as two people were in the school and paid for, the other family members could train for free ! His school had always focused on the family, and also on children. Now, was I even more thankful for this. A poster for the school yearly tournament was put neatly on the bulletin board. Amazed, I ask my instructor, "Sir, are you still having the school tournament at the local college in October every year?" he only smiled slightly sarcastically and said, "I have not changed anything in 30 years !" That actually made a lot of sense to me, why change a formula for success ?
The first class, my kids took, my wife and I both showed up, and watched from the back row in the spectators chair. But when, I had entered the dojang, and Master Song with both of my kids in their uniforms, and me in my street clothes, Master Song looked at me, and merely said with a slightly accusing tone, "So, Roger, where is your uniform ?" I stopped cold in my tracks, I said slightly taken aback, "Well, you know I am older now, and I was thinking, maybe I should just start over with a white belt with my kids", with a slight frown, and a shake of his head, Master Song simply said, "No, no, Roger, just bring your old black belt, you will relearn everything quick now", I was practicing martial arts again, almost 20 years later, after I had stopped, and I felt privileged and simply elated to be practicing again, and working out with my kids, was just icing on the cake.
It would not be long, and I would be relearning everything, helping the other black belts with teaching duties, and being an assistant coach again, executing my forms, combination kicking, free sparring, breaking boards and bricks and the entire Tae Kwon Do nine yards.
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