A jegi (roughly pronounced "jay" like the bird and "gi" like the karate uniform) is a traditional Korean toy, similar to a shuttlecock. It's used to play a game called jegichagi (literally, "jegi kicking"). Legend has it that the game was developed from martial arts training. No one knows if that is actually true, but there's some evidence for it. Either way, there's no reason it can't be part of your training today.
Traditionally, the jegi was made with a 100 mun coin and hanji, handmade Korean paper.
Even though 100 mun might sound like a lot, this coin had so little value that in order to buy anything, you needed a lot of them. People would thread them onto strings like beads and tie off the ends, then they could drape the strings over their shoulders to carry them around. So even poor people had a lot of these coins lying around.
To make a jegi, the coin would be placed in the middle of a folded sheet of hanji paper. By poking a hole though the paper to match the hole in the coin, the paper could be torn into strips and pushed through the hole in the coin, resulting in a paper-wrapped coin with feathered paper strips coming out of the hole.
Making a Jegi
In the spirit of the people who played jegichagi so long ago, we're going to make them out of whatever materials that we have at hand. I like to use plastic bags, coins and string, but you do you. Like a Jedi's lightsaber, you will design your jegi to be one-of-a-kind, perfectly in tune with your connection to the Force, from only the purest Kyber crystals... wait, where was I? Oh, right, making a jegi.
If you don't have a cat but want a similar challenge level, you can toss your plastic bag into the air and cut your squares with a samurai sword before it lands.
1. Cut squares.
You want two squares of plastic, each about one square foot. For those who live in parts of the world that use a reasonable system of measurement, you get to make your squares 30 cm x 30 cm. You don't have to be exact, and in fact I encourage you to experiment with bigger or smaller squares and see what you like. Bigger squares means longer strips, and more air resistance, so the jegi will move more slowly through the air.
2. Pick your coin(s).
You can use any coin you like, or really any small object that has a little weight to it. You can also use multiple coins. The important thing is that you get the weight right. Too much weight, and your jegi will fall really fast and be difficult to use. Too little, and it won't move easily through the air and it will be difficult to kick it high. You can experiment to find your personal sweet spot.
I'm using a single penny. I like the weight it gives my jegi, and also we should get rid of pennies whenever we can. I should mention that this makes for a very light jegi, which will be difficult for traditional play but easier for martial arts training.
3. Fold everything.
There are easier ways to do this, but if your art is usually practiced barefoot, it's nice to have a little extra padding. If you want even more, you can wrap your coin in a tissue before following these steps.
a) Fold your squares in half and place the coin in the center.
b) Fold your coin into its own little strip along the folded edge.
c) Fold the strip a second time.
d) Roll it up.
4. Tie it off.
Take your string and tie the plastic down near the coin, so the coin is secure and can't slide out.
5. Cut the plastic into strips.
If you've been careful with your folding, it should be easy and quick to cut the plastic into strips, about 1 cm (half an inch for my fellow Americans) wide. If, like myself, you have the craft skills of a drunk toddler, you'll probably have to cut each strip individually. But success is a journey not a destination (or something) and eventually you will have a jegi.
Qapla'!
6. Feather out the strips.
You've got it! Even if you skip all this arts and crafts nonsense and just buy a jegi, you will have to do this step, which is to separate the strips from each other so that they can catch the air individually. Wait, you can just buy these things? And I'm here with my scissors and string like a sucker?
At this point, most humans would also identify this thing as a cat toy.
Let's Play!
So you have your own jegi! Now what do you do with it? Traditionally, jegichagi was played by kicking the jegi with the instep of the foot, trying to keep it from touching the ground, with the winner being the player who kicked it the most times before it finally fell.
I play it a little differently. My method is picking it up, kicking it once, chasing it to wherever it fell, and trying again while some old Korean guy starts laughing on the sidelines, proceeding to demonstrate how easy it is and offering some advice that is beyond my language skills to understand. Anyway.
Certainly you can play the traditional version of the game and use it to develop your hip muscles (or you can do that without the jegi).
There are also variations where you have to keep the jegi in the air using only a specific kick, or where you can't put your foot down between kicks, or where the jegi is kicked between players in a group. Have fun with it!
Let's Train!
If you're training barefoot, I recommend doing a few light practice kicks so you know how your jegi feels before you go nuts (or before handing off your jegi to a young student).
Pick a striking technique. Any punch or kick will work. Toss your jegi into the air and try to hit it with the technique you chose. Don't worry about where it lands, just try to make your hand or foot connect with the jegi. If this is your first time playing with a jegi, you will probably find this plenty challenging. Experiment with which techniques are easy and which are difficult.
Here are a few ideas, in order of difficulty:
Reverse punch
Front kick
Roundhouse kick
Side kick
Spin hook kick
I've never met a student who can reliably hit a jegi with all of those techniques. Even so, it's great for developing fast and accurate strikes.
Here are a couple of my younger students working their kicks on a jegi:
Lets Play AND Train!
Ever played a basketball game called Horse? You can modify the rules to play with a jegi.
One player issues a challenge. It can be anything from "I am going to punch it and not miss," to "I am going to kick it with a flying spinning roundhouse kick with my eyes closed and make it land perfectly balanced on your head while reciting Funakoshi's 19th precept in Klingon." The player then attempts whatever challenge they issued.
If they succeed, the jegi goes to the second player, who must attempt the same challenge.
If they fail, the second player does not have to attempt the challenge and instead creates their own challenge.
If you fail a challenge you didn't create, you get a letter. Your first letter is H, then O, then R, and so forth. Once you spell HORSE, you are out of the game. The last player in the game is the winner.
About This Project (and introductions for some names you're going to hear a lot in this post)
Before I get into anything else, let me start with Buddy Rich. Depending who you ask, Buddy Rich was either the best drummer who ever lived, or one of the best on a very short list. What is less widely-known is that he was a black belt in Goju Ryu karate. If there was ever any authority in the world to talk about the overlap between drum set and martial arts, he would be it. He once said, "I'm the first guy in this business to take karate seriously as a way to stay in shape." And if he wasn't also the last, I have not been able to track that person down in time for this project.
But I'm pretty sure Buddy Rich is not doing interviews with martial arts bloggers these days. (Although if I managed to interview Zombie Buddy Rich, that would pretty much cement me among the most interesting martial arts bloggers, 'cause you can bet Zombie Bruce Lee would be next.) Fortunately, when you can't interview Buddy Rich, you can interview a Buddy Rich look-alike. I promise this is not quite as crazy as it sounds, so bear with me.
This project started one day when I was mindlessly surfing YouTube being extremely productive while just having YouTube on in the background. I saw a music video with a drummer doing cool stuff. Of course any professional musician making a music video is very likely to sound cool and even look cool, but what caught me off guard was that this guy moved cool. I was professionally intrigued. It was fascinating to watch the economy of movement, the fluidity and intent of his movements.
I had two takeaways from this experience. First (to borrow a phrase from Paul Wilson over at Karate Café) I basically have a "karate crush" on a drummer. That will definitely get me laughed out of some circles.
Laugh all you want, but first tell me you don't wish you
had this guy's fluidity.
Second, it occurred to me very abruptly that drummers and martial artists probably spend about an equal amount of time thinking about hitting things. I thought there must be quirks of biomechanics that are common between the two, and details or ideas that drummers and martial artists could learn from each other.
Drumming and martial arts have been part of the human condition for pretty much as long as there have been humans. There has never been any culture on Earth without music and drumming, and martial arts have been around since the first time a caveman punched another caveman in the face. These are two disciplines that are so intimately connected to who we are as human beings, that it seemed inevitable that there would be some overlap.
Going on that idea and not much else, I signed up for drumming lessons. Opening my school has meant that my "martial journeys" are going to have to be more metaphorical than literal. The sea is calling me, but I can't travel right now. I also took to heart the advice of some martial artists who I greatly respect, especially Master Do Ki Hyun when he said that a martial artist should "read a lot of books" about anything and everything because "the more knowledge you have, the better you can understand your martial art." He even learned two styles of dance to improve his taekyun. Sensei Kris Wilder expressed a similar sentiment when he harped on the importance of exploring outside of your field. He talked about how it can open doors for you, and how at worst it's just going to be an interesting dead end.
This is how Kai Andersen got a really weird student. I'm the last in the line of people who will ever be amazing drummers, but Kai has been more than patient with me. He has been teaching drum set for 15 years and playing since the 7th grade. He has been in bands since then, and still is. He plays just about any style of music, but might give you a dirty look if you mention country music. He also has a degree in journalism, and works for a radio station.
Is this photo in black and white, or are Kai and his drums just covered in that much ice? It's winter in Wisconsin, so you can never tell. Photo credit.
So that just leaves one last introduction—the drummer from the video that inspired this whole project. That was Casey Grillo, who is most famous for his work with Kamelot over the past 20 years, but he can and will play anything. He started touring at the age of 16 with Debra Dejean. He owns a custom drum head company and used to teach drumming. He's also apparently willing to be interviewed for martial arts blogs. I caught up with him when he came to Madison playing for Queensrÿche. Coincidentally, he also bears some physical resemblance to Buddy Rich, which will be important later.
Casey Grillo is almost as blurry in this picture as he is in the pictures I took
myself. Thanks Jon Freeman for rescuing my blog from my terrible
photography. Photo credit.
Turning off all the snark for just a moment, let me say thanks to all the people who helped make this project possible, but especially Kai Andersen, Casey Grillo, Bekah Simmons, Ruth Hansen, Iain Abernethy, and my students.
1. The Intangible Skills, Character Building, and the Pursuit of Excellence.
The first people I interviewed for this project were martial artists who had dabbled in drumming. When I asked them what they felt the overlap was, their answers tended to be along the lines of discipline and patience toward practice, the value of hard work and perseverance, and the like. Originally I hadn't intended to include any of these answers in this post, because to quote Mark Law's excellent judo book, Falling Hard, "We can declaim that self-discipline, initiative, confidence, and courage are all fostered by judo, while we neglect to remind ourselves that these are also the very qualities required to be a successful bank robber." Intangible skills like these are valuable in practically any pursuit, and can be pursued in practically any field. For this project I was more interested in gems that might not be learned elsewhere.
Drumming and martial arts are both harder when cats are involved.
But then again, so is everything. Also, yes, that is where I practice.
Who will trade his hi-hat for my boxes?
I changed my mind when I saw how much the drumming community emphasizes these things. I was a little worried asking an extremely accomplished drummer like Casey Grillo about what he is still learning. That wouldn't be an insult in the martial arts world, but what about drumming? My fears were unfounded and he (like everyone else) emphatically told me that no one ever is so good that they can't get better. My favorite example of this came from something Buddy Rich said at the age of 69, shortly before he died and long after he had first been heralded as "the world's greatest drummer." He said, "This is something that you have to become dedicated to it. ... It is something that you learn constantly. I'm still learning." There are a lot of martial artists (myself included!) who hope to be saying something similar at the age of 69.
In a similar vein, I listened to this list of lessons learned from interviewing hundreds of great drummers. It's worth your time even if you have no interest in drumming, but martial artists will find familiarity in items like "everything takes time" and "hard work and consistency are the differentiators," as will harping on ideas like the importance of being humble and having a great attitude.
2. Broad Physical Skills and Technique Development
The physical overlap between drumming and martial arts seems to come down to who you ask--if it's a drummer who does martial arts or a martial artist who plays the drums.
Buddy Rich was dismissive of the idea that karate could influence drumming technique, because the movements require different muscles. Certainly that makes sense, in the same way that you wouldn't practice punching to improve your kicking. He did say, however, that martial arts training was good for his drumming by improving his overall health, stamina, energy, and his speed. Those are curious points because each item in that list resonates with something he was known for--his back problems and multiple heart attacks, the way he would end a performance being drenched in sweat, and the kind of speed that caused problems for the video technology of the day. He had the same problem as Bruce Lee, where he was just too fast to be recorded well. In Bruce Lee's case, they could slow him down and get a decent result. But a lot of video of Buddy Rich looks very choppy because the frame rate was just too slow to catch what he was doing.
Whoa, there are pictures of Buddy Rich in the public domain? Yay! Photo credit.
Casey Grillo had a similar take on physical activities and their overlap with drumming. He uses long distance running for conditioning "because for being able to play double bass fast for long periods of time, the running definitely helps." He also suggested that activities like kiteboarding can improve balance, which is also helpful to his playing.
At my level, I'm not very physically active when I'm drumming, so I don't think my martial arts experience has had that kind of impact on my playing. The only physical overlap that I have noticed was a fill that was giving me particular trouble. I was getting my hands tangled up together until I associated the fill with a tai chi movement that would get my hands out of each other's way. Then the fill straightened itself out.
Other martial artists who have taken up drumming mentioned similar experiences, saying that drumming was easier to learn because martial arts had already taught them coordination and some measure of limb independence. Kai said that this is consistent with what he's seen in his other students who train in martial arts.
The most fascinating thing about this to me is that anyone who was a martial artist first and a drummer second felt that their martial arts background helped them with their technique and nothing else. Then Buddy Rich, who is the only person in this case study who was a drummer first and a martial artist second, seemed to strongly believe the opposite. It's natural that when people learn a new skill, they take what they already know from elsewhere to help them with it. I wonder very much what Buddy Rich was like as a martial arts student. I'd love to be like a fly on the wall during one of his lessons and try to see how much his drumming influenced his martial arts training.
3. Martial Artists Use Rhythm. A Lot. (No, really a LOT.)
The notion of martial artists using rhythm is not a new one. We usually don't call it rhythm--we call it timing. But if it quacks like an eighth note...
Quacks like an 8th note! I'm HILARIOUS! Or something.
After starting with drums, I've started seeing exactly how prevalent rhythm is in everything we do. It's so much more than just when a technique should land. Every single movement, even just parts of a technique, has a rhythm to it.
One example that shocked me early on was while I was teaching a student who was struggling with a speed drill that every taekwondo practitioner will recognize--hopping in between roundhouse kicks.
This is a common way to build speed for sparring,
later replacing the hop with more advanced footwork.
For my struggling student, I did the normal process of breaking down the drill in different ways to try to find something that clicked for him, but nothing was getting through. The way his feet moved reminded me very much of how my sticks moved when I first tried to play a simple beat. This particular student had played the trumpet for years, so I was sure he could handle a slightly more nuanced rhythm lesson. I had him hop on one foot and count eighth notes (for those not musically inclined, this is usually done by saying "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and") and let his other foot only touch the ground on the "ands" and hit the target on the numbers. It wasn't a magic bullet, but it helped him a lot.
4. Managing Looseness and Tension
In my (granted, limited) experience, pretty much any drummer will tell you that it's important to stay loose and relaxed. But if you press them, a lot of them (including Casey and Kai) will admit that tension has a role to play, too, but they don't put a lot of thought into that tension. That mirrors the martial arts world fairly well, in that looseness has such an important role to play in movement and power generation, but so does tension. We don't usually emphasize tension, though, because tension is easy. It's developing that looseness that's hard.
Fortunately, I got some good advice on this. In drumming, getting that looseness seems to come down to four main pieces: warming up, mentality, breathing, and practice. (Sound familiar? I hope so.)
Warming Up - As far as I can tell, there's no standard way of warming up in the drumming world. Some people do stretches, others work rudiments as quickly as they can, others play simple patterns to a metronome, and so forth. Kai emphasizes the importance of being hydrated. Basically, it's as all-over-the-place as warm ups in the martial arts world. But practically everyone agrees that warming up is essential to playing well, by having that looseness and the fluidity and speed that comes with it.
Mentality - Kai especially had a lot of interesting things to say about "mentally getting into that space where you can stay relaxed." What martial artists might describe as focus or discipline, Kai described like this: "I think it's a serious conversation you have to have with yourself constantly. I always tell everybody ... you constantly have to keep yourself in check. Constantly remind yourself, because otherwise you get excited and just lose your technique. So I think a lot of that is having a real good internal dialogue with yourself pretty much constantly while you're practicing." If you're a martial artist and have never fallen into the trap of tensing up when you're nervous, concentrating, or even just losing your fluidity because you're focusing on something else, you are definitely in the minority. One common pitfall is clenching the jaw--something I've never done in martial arts, but I catch myself doing a lot as a drummer. Weird.
Breathing - Casey told me that some drummers have specific breathing techniques, but the people I talked to didn't. Still, they agreed that breathing was important for staying fluid. They didn't think about their breathing. The important thing is to make sure you're not holding your breath. Unfortunately, it's pretty common to start holding your breath when you're concentrating.
Practice - Of course, a lot of it comes down to repetition. When movements are familiar, they are more efficient and comfortable. When I asked Casey about his fluidity, he told me it came from playing in a Top 40 band, four hours a night, six nights a week, 50 weeks a year, for 15 years. (Casey, if you're reading this, I don't say this very often to people who aren't martial artists, but you are way better at hitting things than I am. I guess this explains why.) Maybe take that thought and throw a few extra kicks today.
15 years x 50 week/year x 6 nights/week x 4 hours/night x 60 minutes/hour x maybe averaging 300 strokes per minute = Maybe I should be getting my own reps in instead of doing math. 300 kicks per minute, though? Photo credit.
5. Being Smarter About Overuse Injuries
One thing that the average martial artist could probably learn from the average drummer is a healthier attitude toward repetitive stress injuries. I'm not talking about the injuries that come from the punch you didn't quite evade or the breakfall that went badly—I'm talking about the joint pain that comes from repeated incorrect movement. This is something I've ranted about in the past, and I will scream it from the rooftops until the day I can't tie my belt anymore: your art should make you stronger, not weaker. There are times to be tough, but a repetitive stress injury is not one of them. I've seen students, usually testosterone-poisoned teenagers, respond to my caution toward injuries with "I ain't scared of nothin'!" To which I reply, "Well, try to develop a mild fear of doing permanent damage to your body." More often, though, students bear it silently and an instructor has to be very attentive to realize anything is wrong. I've seen students, usually older adults who learned their stances from someone else, respond to a correction with an awed, "I don't feel any pain at all when I do it this way!" To which I reply, "You're not supposed to! Your technique shouldn't injure YOU. It should injure the OTHER GUY."
Drummers don't seem to have this problem. If a drummer's back, hip, wrist, or whatever starts hurting, nobody seems to think the solution is to just toughen up and keep doing the same thing. I was told in a very early lesson that if something hurts, even if you're doing it "correctly," you need to change it. We could use more of this attitude in martial arts, where instructors sometimes rigidly adhere to stylistic details that are not healthy or safe for some body types.
6. Thinking Ahead to Optimize Solo Performance
Whenever I do an interview for Martial Journeys, there's no telling what's going to happen. I'm going to relate a somewhat personal story here. At one point Casey said that when he's playing he's thinking not about what he's doing but about what he's about to be doing. When he said that, I had a sudden flashback to when I was training seriously for forms (kata) competition.
Yep, that was me doing my thing.
I took silver at Nationals twice before I grudgingly had to accept that there was no gold at the end of this rainbow and I would never do any better. But back when I was training that seriously and at the top of my game, that's exactly how it was for me, too, all the time. Once a movement was done, it was completely inconsequential. Even when it was in progress, once I was committed to the movement, it was too late to change it, so it was a waste of mental processing power to think about it. I was always thinking at least one movement ahead of where I was.
I don't train that way anymore now that I'm not competing. My limited training time has to be optimized for my current situation and new goals. But remembering it so vividly in the middle of doing an interview was a gut punch. Getting all nostalgic would have been exceedingly unprofessional, so of course I just finished the interview. But if that hasn't haunted me for days weeks… anyway, I'll round out this bullet point by saying that thinking one step ahead is a good way to train for solo performance.
7. Larger Muscles vs. Smaller Muscles
One thing that absolutely floored me over the course of this project was something Casey Grillo said in his instructional DVD. (It's out of print, but my Google-fu is strong and I was able to buy a copy. Tracking that down was no small feat, probably my greatest accomplishment in drumming. But this story ends with Casey finding out I was looking for it and even agreeing to be interviewed, so I can't complain. Anyway, I digress.)
Here's the thing that shocked me in the DVD, where he's talking about playing fast double bass:
"Basically, the feet are floating, and you're using your ankles instead of your legs when you play double bass. What happens with most players is they ... use their whole legs and they are pounding back and forth. ... So what's happening with the floating feet technique is we're not using our leg, the full leg, we're using our ankle, and it's just basically moving back and forth, and it's making a really fast motion. ... This, for me, is the fastest way to play, and I don't get fatigued, ... And what you should do, you should play with this ... and see what muscles it's really working. If it's working your bigger muscles, you probably don't want that."
Wait what?
In martial arts, if you use your smaller muscles to power your movements, you are going to at least have a bad day, and maybe even some significant injuries. My first thought was that he must be conserving energy by moving less of his body. Of course you'll be less fatigued if you move only your feet and not your whole leg. But no, his whole leg moves when he plays. I can't say I understand exactly what he's doing, and I don't have enough bass drums to even try it, let alone learn it.
I can't show Casey's DVD because that's copyrighted
material, so thanks Ryan Alexander Bloom for making this video of similar movement publicly available.
So I ended up approaching this from a very academic direction. Preferring large muscles over small muscles was something that I thought was a universal principle not just in martial arts, but in body movement in general. But here I've seen a glaring exception to that rule, and I wondered if there are any similar exceptions in martial arts that I had overlooked. Maybe there's some weird joint lock or something where you're not displacing much of your own body or the other person's, and it is better to use smaller muscles to drive the technique? For the life of me I can't think of one. Even so, I don't think it was a waste of my time to really think about and analyze the muscles I'm using for various movements. In fact I'd say it's a valuable exercise for anyone to try.
8. Balance and the Importance of the Throne
So a drummer's seat is called a throne, like you're going to rule the world from the center of the universe or something. Martial arts instructors don't get to laugh at this, since we get paid to be called sir or ma'am and have people bow to us while we yell stuff at them.
Snark aside, the way drummers talk about the throne often reminds me of tai chi. The throne is a drummer's connection to the ground, and it's the source of the drummer's balance. Drummer and biomechanics expert Brandon Green says, "Really we should be building our drum set entirely around the drum throne." Casey Grillo hauls his throne all over the world because he won't use any throne other than his own. He also devotes an entire chapter of his DVD to the importance of the throne and how it contributes to very nuanced balance work--such that just moving one arm to a drum on the opposite side of the body can shift the drummer's weight enough to disrupt the balance and pedal work.
You can only train in tai chi for so long before you hear some variation of this blurb from the Tai Chi Classics:
"Tai chi is rooted in the feet, powered in the legs, directed in the hips and expressed in the hands."
In both drumming and martial arts, the untrained eye focuses on the extremity that's doing the hitting. We see a hand doing some intricate work with a drum stick the way people see us twisting our hands around to create a joint lock. What the hands are doing is important, but that movement all starts closer to the core. It's the rest of the body being in the right position that makes that intricate hand work possible. And that body positioning comes from being properly balanced, and the balance comes from being properly rooted to the ground.
9. Using Rhythm to Manipulate an Opponent
Some pretty standard Lesson 1 stuff for learning to play drums.
Some of these are more difficult than others. With my limited musical background (a handful of instruments I played for 1-2 years each as a kid) it was very strange to me that playing the exact same beat but delaying a bass drum hit by a fraction of a second could make such a huge difference in the difficulty. Moreover I learned from Kai that this wasn't just a quirk of my experience, and in fact the ones that were hard for me are hard for most beginners.
I absolutely loved what Casey had to say about this phenomenon (after a quick detour to encourage me just because I mentioned that something was difficult--class act). Basically, he explained that rhythms are more difficult when you put things in between other things. "You're filling in gaps. ... There are these subdivisions." He was pointing to some 8th notes and 16th notes in my lesson book. "And you can divide it way more than that. You can have 32nd notes, 64th notes, basically you have 64 notes in a measure, it's pretty stinking fast. And you can take some away. Like these 8th rests, you can put a little rest in between those, a little bitty gap." Essentially, the difficulty comes from the speed and/or complexity that comes from subdividing and inserting something in between those subdivisions.
This reminded me greatly of something I heard from Ruth Hansen, a martial artist who has dabbled in drumming. She recalled her first tournament sparring experience like this: "She came at me throwing continuous rear leg roundhouse kicks. It was my first tournament, so in the moment I didn't know what to do. Later it was obvious; strike between the rhythm of her kicks. I couldn't, at the time, because I was standing wrong, my feet too far apart to change up my own rhythm."
I like this example because it is simple, but advanced tournament fighters use the same principle. If you can land your scoring technique while your opponent is in the middle of a transition, they are especially vulnerable. This inevitably involves sneaking your technique in between whatever movements your opponent is doing.
So, the way you make a rhythm difficult for a drummer is the same way you make things difficult for your opponent--by getting in between.
10. Establishing and Breaking Rhythm
Taking this idea one step further, it's easier to score your points if you are the one who sets up your opponent's rhythm.
I happened across this fascinating quote by drummer and author John Lamb:
"You should define rhythm according to how the brain and the body changes when you listen to rhythm. And to make a long story short it's actually pretty straightforward and really well studied in the field of music therapy. ... Basically when we listen to rhythm, when we listen to music, our brain synchronizes to the music ... [it's] a bit of a simplification, but we start to think in time with the music. And so rhythm isn't a thing that we have. There's no metronome in the brain that keeps perfect time. Instead, it's something that we're in. It is something that is by definition shared."
This is extremely useful information to competition fighters. If you can synchronize your opponent's brain to your rhythm, how much easier would it be to get your points? A lot.
Bill "Superfoot" Wallace had a very effective way of doing this. It's not a terribly unique strategy, but he was uniquely good at it. (If you go to his seminar, he'll break it down in all the gritty detail, but for our purposes I'll just give you the broad strokes.)
First he would skip in and throw some kick, not intending to score and intentionally coming up short. Then he'd immediately fall back to a comfortable sparring distance.
He would then skip in and throw the exact same kick again, but this time a little deeper so that his opponent would have to move. This is enough to establish the pattern. His opponent is now in this rhythm: watch the skip, watch the kick, evade; watch the skip, watch the kick, evade.
On the third time, he would spring the trap. He would skip in and kick according to the established rhythm, but it would be a different kick. If his opponent was expecting a roundhouse kick to the right side of the head, he might evade by shifting to the left with his hand up on the right side of his face. But if the attack is now a hook kick coming to the left side of his head, his evasion will do him no good and he'll eat the kick.
There are a lot of good fighters who do this, or some variation of it. As a general rule of thumb, if someone reacts the same way twice, there is a very high probability that they will do it a third time. Build your rhythm with your opponent, and once they are in your rhythm, you know what they will do and when they will do it. Hit them where and when they are vulnerable. Easier said than done, of course, but this is the principle of how it works.
11. Another Take on Forms/Patterns/Kata
People practice forms in a lot of different ways for a variety of purposes. Some take it seriously strictly as a self defense textbook, others focus on performing for competition, and some enjoy it just as a solo workout. Others use it as a connection to the great martial artists of the past, in a way that Sensei Iain Abernethy explains far more eloquently than I can:
"When we read a good poem, or listen to a good piece of music, we can connect with the thoughts and emotions of the people who produced those works. It's more than letters on a page or vibrations through the air. Good art can profoundly connect two human beings in a shared experience. Kata is similar. When we move in the way the past masters moved, when we connect with them through their work; we gain the opportunity to feel what they felt and think what they thought. We are walking in the footsteps of the past masters when practicing and studying their kata. It's much deeper than just mimicked motion."
Drummers don't do kata per se. It would be very unusual for a drummer to try to completely copy another drummer's movement, right down to their look and mannerisms. But wouldn't it be interesting if somebody tried it? If a skilled drummer tried to copy a great drummer of the past as perfectly as possible, to "move in the way the past masters moved" and connect with that past artist in a way that martial artists sometimes do but drummers usually don't? Wouldn't it be cool if I could interview someone who did that? I'm just kidding, I totally did. Here's Casey Grillo auditioning to play Buddy Rich in a movie.
What Casey Grillo is doing here seems very kata-like.
Casey wasn't doing this as a learning exercise, but he ended up learning nonetheless. The experience caused permanent changes to his drumming. "That was my first time ever playing traditional grip." He still mostly uses matched grip, but now he has another tool in his toolbox, and it comes out sometimes. But there was a more sweeping change to his playing as well. "Also I tilted my snare like Buddy to try to make it more authentic like him, and that was the first time I ever did that. ... That's the way I do it now. I just did it for the video, but after I did it I thought, 'Wow, this kind of makes sense.' It just stayed like that. I started tilting everything else now, too. ... It's more comfortable. I can be more on top of the kit instead of leaning back."
Seems like there's something to be said for "walking in the footsteps of the past masters."
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This series will be continued with Drumming-Inspired Martial Arts Training: Martial Arts and Drumming Part III.
Training in Korea has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me, but it took a long time of learning the hard way in order to get to this point. This post is the resource I wish I had before I went to Korea the first time. I hope someone finds it valuable.
That time I photobombed Grandmaster Park on the front page of Taekwondo Times.
Figure out how you are going to get there.
Depending on your country of origin, the visa rules will be different. For Americans, you can visit for 90 days with only a passport. This is an expensive trip, so having a job waiting for you can help immensely. If you are a native English speaker with a 4-year degree, you might be able to get a job teaching English. If you do, your choices are 1-year contracts or 1-month camps. There is nothing in between. Keep in mind, though, that work visas can be tedious to obtain and the rules are always changing. In some countries (including America) it can take several months to prepare all of the documents. It's not necessary to arrange your job through a recruiter, but it can be very helpful to do so the first time.
I introduced these guys to roleplaying games, riddles, mythology and fables, and I guess I taught them some English, too.
Figure out where you are going to stay.
If you are traveling to Korea on a work visa, your employer will arrange your lodging. For tourists, your options are hotels, goshiwons and homestays. For a short visit, hotels will do just fine, but for longer stays they can be prohibitively expensive. Goshiwons are miniature dorm rooms. They are uncomfortable for very long-term stays, but if you are in Korea for only a month or so, this is a very cheap and serviceable way to go. Homestays involve living with a family who can be a great resource for helping you make the most of your trip.
Know what you want to study.
Before my first trip to Korea, I was told there was a taekwondo school on every street corner and it would be easy to find a place to train. While this was a slight exaggeration, there were indeed about a dozen schools within walking distance of where I lived. However, I would not say that it was easy to find a place to train.
The schools that can be found on every street corner tend to cater to children. While they will eagerly accept an adult student, it is likely to be a much more modern experience than you might expect. It may be difficult to find one with an instructor who speaks English. I trained at one of these schools for a year, and while I absolutely love the people I trained with, I can't recommend this option. Modern taekwondo is a very prolific art--it is available all over the world. If this is what you want to train, you are likely to get more from the experience at home, where you fluently share a language with your instructor.
The person in this picture who speaks the least English is my instructor. The person in this picture who speaks the least Korean is me.
For adults who are serious about modern taekwondo, the best instruction is available through universities. Taekwondo is the national sport of Korea and it is offered at many higher education schools, often as a major and sometimes in English. Like any college or university back home, expect to go through an admissions process and enroll in the school like any other student.
If you are training in an art other than taekwondo, a university will likely not be an option and you should expect it to be a little harder to find a school. For obscure arts, simply finding a school and signing up is the best, and perhaps the only, way to go.
Taekyun is one of those arts that is harder to find.
Traditional taekwondo is hard to find. You will probably need to have a connection before you arrive in Korea. In my case, I made my first connection by knowing my lineage and style's history. When my Korean language skills grew to the point that I could surf the Internet in Korean a little bit, I found the correct Korean spelling of Park Chull Hee, who founded the style I learned in America. I found a website that mentioned his name and had a map. I couldn't understand anything else on the page and the automatic translators were no help, but I recognized the area in the map. The next weekend, I took a few hours for a trip to that area and discovered a taekyun school. It was closed. But by pure luck, there was someone in the office who could help me. Long story short, I now train at that taekyun school every chance I get, and they introduced me to Grandmaster Park, who I also train with every chance I get. Every traditional martial arts connection I've made in Korea has come from them.
Which brings me to...
Have a contact ahead of time.
Having a contact within your martial art is a huge help for making sure you get to study what you want to study. Your time in Korea is a finite resource, and you don't want to spend it bumbling around trying to meet the right people. Preparation is key.
It's also valuable to have a connection for day-to-day issues. If you don't have an employer or at least a friend in Korea, you probably want to stay at a major hotel where the staff speaks English. Any number of issues can come up when you're travelling, and having someone who can help you is invaluable.
Don't neglect your language skills.
Especially if you are staying in Seoul, you can get by using only English. Don't.
Your instructor probably will not speak a lot of English. Those who can must still conduct their classes in Korean, translating for you only when time permits. The more you understand, the more you will get out of your training. Try asking your instructor for some vocabulary words that will help you understand the class. Most will appreciate the effort.
Even if you are lucky enough to find an instructor who is fluent in English, I would recommend putting some serious time into learning Korean. At the very least, learn the Korean alphabet before you arrive. It's easy and extremely valuable. Many of the signs are in English if you can just understand the letters.
I often say that I don't speak Korean, but that isn't completely true. I'm not conversational, but I can make myself understood even in some unusual situations. "My friend is drunk and lost" is not exactly covered in Level 1 textbooks, but being able to convey that to a security guard who spoke no English turned out to be a useful skill to have.
But besides the usefulness of being able to communicate, the biggest reason to work hard on learning Korean is the doors it will open for you. Even when I have said completely wrong things, even accidentally offensive things, the people I spoke to recognized that I was making a genuine effort with the language and culture. Being a foreigner who is willing to do that sets you apart from the tourists and straight-out-of-college expats who are just looking to have fun in a foreign country. That kind of dedication is rare, and almost always appreciated.
Korean is not an easy language for native English speakers to learn, but there are a number of free resources. I particularly like Talk To Me in Korean.
Be respectful of the culture.
Never forget that you are a guest in this country. This should go without saying, but sadly I've seen westerners behave in ways that made me cringe just being near them. I've heard those same people complain of how mean and unfriendly Koreans are. That has never been my experience.
I've found Koreans to be very kind and polite people. They are incredibly helpful and forgiving of people who can't speak the language in a way no visitor to the United States could expect. Once I was lost on the outskirts of Seoul. I asked for directions in a convenience store, and the worker called her English-speaking daughter to help me understand what she was telling me. They walked me to the bus stop and asked a man there to help me get on the right bus. That man asked a passenger to help me get off at the right stop. It became a community project to help the lost foreigner get to the right place. I can't imagine that happening back home.
And I managed to get where I was going before dark.
Making just a little effort with the culture will go a long way. Being rude will get you nowhere. Don't be that guy.
Take notes.
Especially for a short trip, you have a finite amount of time in Korea, so you want to get as much out of your training time as possible. On my first stay in Korea, after my class with Grandmaster Park, I would write everything I could remember in a notebook during the bus ride home. When I got home, I would type it in my martial arts journal. This was great not only for creating a reference resource, but also for the process of recalling everything I was taught.
I still use my journal to record technical details, but videos are also incredibly helpful. Take videos if and only if your instructor is comfortable with it. Your instructor might allow you to make a video but ask you to keep it private. I have a dozen or so such videos that no one besides myself has ever seen, or ever will. My instructors are trusting me to use it purely as my own reference and not as a representation of them or their style.
There are plenty of cafes where you can write notes after class. This one has a travel theme and some really good cappuccino.
Also be prepared for the likelihood that you will not have space to practice between classes. Especially if you are in Seoul, space is at a premium and your options will be limited. If you can't practice on your own, it becomes especially important to take notes and review them before the next class.
Be patient.
It's tempting to think you need to cram in everything as quickly as possible, and you are right. You need to make the most of your time. But understand that on your first trip, your instructor doesn't really know you. Cultivating that relationship takes time.
I've made several trips to Korea to train in taekyun, and each time I was greeted more warmly. The first time, I was treated like a customer with a genuine interest in martial arts. They gave me a fast and interesting introduction to taekyun. Most foreigners don't make it back for a second trip, so when I did, they treated me like a dedicated student and started outlining some long-term plans for me to continue my taekyun training. Upon my third arrival, I was greeted with hugs and the attitude that since I was a regular now, I had better improve my skills considerably.
It's not fair to expect this kind of thing to develop overnight. Most instructors in any country will respond to dedication, and Korea is no different. Are you a serious martial artist, or a tourist who trains in martial arts? It can be hard to tell the difference, so take the time and prove it. You prove it by never missing a class, by training even when you are tired and jet-lagged, by diligently reviewing, and by keeping up the practice when you're not in Korea. Serious martial artists know the drill--that's just how they operate. Be patient and your instructor will see it.
Drink in moderation.
Drinking is part of the culture in Korea, but don't go overboard. You're here to train, not get wasted. Besides the negative impact that alcohol has on your physical performance, you've only got so much time in Korea. Do you really want to spend it drunk and hung over?
A Buddha statue surrounded by "ten thousand Buddhas" at Kuknyeong Temple, hidden away in the mountains. You will never get there drunk.
Enjoy the adventure.
Sometimes people ask me for advice about teaching English in Korea. I always tell them that if they're looking for an adventure, they're going to have a wonderful experience that they'll remember their whole lives, but if they're looking for a job they're going to be miserable. Traveling or living in any foreign country will have its quirks and annoyances, and the longer you stay the more chance they have to get under your skin. Nobody goes to Seoul for the crowded subway ride. They tolerate the crowded subway ride for the adventure at the other end.
If you try to live like you do back home, with a western diet and western habits, it's difficult if not impossible. Even if you do manage, it will be expensive and frustrating. Eat your kimchi, try the thing that still looks like it did when it was alive, hang your wet clothes instead of trying to find a dryer, and always remember that what happens in a noraebang stays in a noraebang.
Things you can only do in Korea: photo op at the Kimchi Museum.
This is a country with thousands of years of history and countless stories to tell. Seoul exists firmly in the past and in the future--I've never seen any other place where you can be so completely surrounded by the height of technology and the modern world, but turn a corner and see something that has been there for hundreds of years or more. You can't spend every minute training, so take some time to experience the culture.
Master Do Kihyun is the President of the Kyulyun Taekyun Association and a published author on taekyun. He has trained in martial arts for over 40 years including taekwondo, kung fu, kendo, karate, aikido, hapkido, and others. He started taekyun in 1982 and has trained in it continuously ever since. He has a masters degree in Sports and Leisure and is working toward his PhD. He now teaches taekyun in Seoul, Korea, at a small school where people (including myself) come from all over the world to train. Despite his impressive resume, he insists that his most noteworthy accomplishment is having achieved confidence, happiness, and peace of mind through martial arts. I sat down with Master Do to discuss taekyun and his experiences in the martial arts.
This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 of the interview is here.
Martial Journeys: What prompted you to switch from training in taekwondo to taekyun?
Master Do: I read in taekwondo books that taekwondo came from taekyun, so I wanted to know what taekyun is. I wasn't serious, I was just curious. Fortunately, Master Song lived near my University. I found him and I started to learn taekyun in 1982.
Martial Journeys: How did you find him? Did he run a school?
Master Do: No, I found his address by luck. I read about him in a magazine in a shop. The magazine mentioned the general area where he lived, but not the exact address. So I went there and asked around at the village, "Do you know Master Song?"
Song Deokgi (left) was depicted in taekwondo magazines
well before 1982.
Martial Journeys: Master Song is very famous in taekyun circles. What was it like to train with him?
Master Do: I was happy to learn a new style of martial art. When I visited my master for the first time, I imagined that since taekyun is an old style martial art, taekyun's movement must be very slow and very graceful with deep stances. But my teacher taught me that taekyun doesn't have that kind of technique. When I saw what he showed me, I thought, "What is this?!" I was very surprised the first time. I was very happy to learn something so different. Also, he never said, "practice taekyun." He would just say, "play taekyun," or "enjoy taekyun." Having fun was important. I love that. Also since he was born in 1893, he could tell me what Korea was like 100 years ago. I often asked about the Joseon Dynasty, and he told me many things about that time.
A postcard depicting life in the Joseon Dynasty. Thanks to koreanet for making the
image available for reuse.
Martial Journeys: What was the most difficult thing about switching to taekyun?
Master Do: Taekwondo is a very tense martial art with strong, hard movements. I practiced taekwondo for a long time before starting taekyun, so my body was very tense. My taekyun master taught me soft movements. He would tell me, "You're too tense. Relax."
Martial Journeys: Have you ever learned something outside of martial arts that helped you improve at martial arts?
Master Do: I lived in America from August of 1985 to May of 1988. When I came back to Korea, my teacher, Master Song, had died. At that time I had many questions because when I was in America I would demonstrate taekyun, and Americans often asked me, "Why do you move like that?" I didn't know. I was just doing it the way my teacher taught me. I said when I got back to my country I would ask my teacher, but I was too late. My challenge when I came back to Korea was figuring out how I could understand my movement. I tried to find movement very similar to taekyun so I learned Korean mask dance. I also wanted to have beautiful hand techniques so I learned Korean traditional dance. Mask dance is very dynamic and powerful and Korean dance is beautiful. I gained the confidence to perform a very beautiful martial art. I can do very beautiful forms because I learned so much Korean mask dance and Korean traditional dance. I adapted Korean traditional dance form to Korean martial arts. My teacher didn't teach me these aesthetic details, but I still want to improve my forms' beauty, and I did it through Korean traditional dance.
Martial Journeys: What's the most important thing you've learned in martial arts?
Master Do: I've developed a sound body and sound mind through martial arts. If you have those things you will be happy. That's my entire purpose. If you watch me, I am always very happy and always smiling. I'm always thinking about how I can be happy. Why do I practice? I want to be healthy and happy. It's that simple. I don't have a complicated philosophy.
Martial Journeys: What advice do you have for someone who wants to be good at martial arts?
Master Do: Two things. First, practice very hard. Very hard. Second, you have to study and read a lot of books. Read martial arts books, philosophical books, art books--anything. The more knowledge you have, the better you can understand your martial art. So practice very hard and read.
I forgot to ask if reading blogs counts.
Martial Journeys: How has taekyun changed over time? How is it different today than in the past?
Master Do: Taekyun hasn't changed very much, but there are some differences because of two things. First, people are taller today than they were in the past. Second, today we have too much information. We're exposed to other styles of martial arts, so we can introduce various kicks and hand techniques that weren't originally part of taekyun. This is happening all the time with other styles. For example, even though similar kicks existed before, taekwondo invented the spin hook kick around 1970. Now everybody uses it--Japanese martial artists, Chinese martial artists, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan... Everyone can use it because we've seen it in movies and on the Internet. In taekyun competition, young students incorporate other techniques to their fighting. The rules allow it, so taekyun changes as fighters mix in techniques. It goes both ways. Taekwondo has incorporated some kicking techniques from taekyun.
Martial Journeys: What do you think taekyun will be like in the future?
Master Do: Taekyun techniques are very good, but other martial arts' techniques are just as good, so specific techniques are not important. I just want to give to the other martial arts the philosophy of practicing for the sake of a sound body and a happy mind. We practice taekyun not for fighting, but to be happy. But if I want to be happy, I need the people around me to be happy. So when I practice martial arts, I want everyone to enjoy themselves and be happy, to achieve a sound body and ultimately a happy community. Technique is not important. Any style is okay--just choose for yourself which one you like. You asked me why I switched from taekwondo to taekyun. It's just because I love these techniques! I was happy, so I switched. No special reason, no high-level philosophy, just pursuing happiness.
Master Do Kihyun is the President of the Kyulyun Taekyun Association and a published author on taekyun. He has trained in martial arts for over 40 years including taekwondo, kung fu, kendo, karate, aikido, hapkido, and others. He started taekyun in 1982 and has trained in it continuously ever since. He has a masters degree in Sports and Leisure and is working toward his PhD. He now teaches taekyun in Seoul, Korea, at a small school where people (including myself) come from all over the world to train. Despite his impressive resume, he insists that his most noteworthy accomplishment is having achieved confidence, happiness, and peace of mind through martial arts. I sat down with Master Do to discuss taekyun and his experiences in the martial arts.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series, and will be continued next week.
Interviewer and interviewee.
Martial Journeys: What is taekyun?
Master Do: Taekyun is a traditional Korean martial art. There are many martial arts in Korea but taekyun is the only one the Korean government recognizes as a Korean cultural treasure. It is also recognized as a UNESCO world cultural heritage. Other martial arts like Shaolin kung fu, tai chi and muay thai applied, but they were all rejected. Taekyun is the only one.
Martial Journeys: Why do you think that is, that it's the only one?
Master Do: This is just my opinion, but I think it's because taekyun has changed less than the other arts. I think Shaolin kung fu is a very good martial art, but it might be too commercialized. It is not an exact tradition because it has changed so much. Tai chi was also changed by the Chinese government. But taekyun never changed like that and still maintains its traditional form. During the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese government prohibited taekyun practice. Only a few people continued to practice taekyun in secret. After Korea gained its independence, Korean people weren't interested in taekyun. Since there were so few taekyun practitioners, taekyun couldn't develop. But it also couldn't change.
Martial Journeys: Why should someone who practices another martial art be interested in taekyun?
Master Do: Almost all East Asian martial arts like karate, kung fu, taekwondo and hapkido, are based on Chinese philosophy and Chinese traditional movement. China is a big country and they have a long history so when cultures collided almost all East Asian martial arts were influenced by Chinese styles. But taekyun is absolutely uniquely Korean. It has no horse riding stance and no punches from the waist like most styles do, and taekyun moves according to a unique 3 beat rhythm. The techniques have a very different flavor compared with other East Asian martial arts. But it's more than that. Usually Chinese martial arts are very mysterious, Japanese martial arts are very serious, but the Korean martial art of taekyun is just fun. When you attend my classes, it is not serious or mysterious. My students are smiling and in good spirits. That is why I think taekyun is a very good martial art system. I hope in the future, all the other martial arts will want to change to foster a happy mind, to relax, help each other, and practice to enjoy themselves.
Taekyun students being neither serious nor mysterious.
Martial Journeys: How old is taekyun?
Master Do: Nobody knows. There are historical records from the Joseon Dynasty that depict taekyun, but that's all we know. Some martial arts have a single founder who created their style, but taekyun developed as a folk activity, so no one knows who originally invented it. It's possible it didn't even have a founder, and developed as neighboring villages fought each other according to their folk fighting systems.
A historical depiction of traditional Korean martial arts.
Martial Journeys: Why is taekyun less popular than it used to be?
Master Do: During the Japanese Occupation almost all of the taekyun masters died. After Independence Day, Korean people didn't want to learn traditional culture, which had gone out of style. Major sports like judo and wrestling were popular. Korea was very quickly modernized and nobody wanted to understand Korean traditional movement.
Martial Journeys: Why does taekyun include elements of dance?
Master Do: It's not dance. Almost all martial arts--not just taekyun--reflect the dance of the culture that created them. If you watch very carefully, Chinese martial arts are very similar to Chinese dance. Japanese styles also have a relationship with their national dance system. It's the same in Africa. By the same token, taekyun has similarities with Korean mask dance. The purpose of dance is to express beautiful form, and the purpose of martial arts is to kill. They have different purposes but they have a similar movement because the people are the same.
Korean mask dance. Thanks to koreanet for making the image available for reuse.
Martial Journeys: Which is better for a beginning taekyun student, a dance background or martial arts background?
Master Do: Either will be helpful but martial arts is better because all martial arts have a common philosophy. Technique is not important. The most important thing is to get a sense of how to avoid or how to hit. It is very difficult. If I am attacked, I need to be able to avoid the attacking technique, be able to block, and be able to hit. If someone has a lot of taekwondo fighting experience, it's very helpful. He already knows how to avoid and how to hit, so just learning taekyun technique is easy. Of course if his taekwondo practice consists entirely of forms, he won't have that benefit. But if he develops to a high level of skill in fighting technique and competition, how to avoid and how to hit, he can learn taekyun techniques very quickly. It's just like if someone is very good at swordplay, he can learn another sword very quickly.
