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This summer we are in for a real treat! Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim just announced that on some weekend this summer, Jung Suwon will go back to basics for a day – out into the woods, into the mountains, to give Jung Suwon warriors young and old a little taste of traditional training!
But what is Jung Suwon back to basics training? Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim points out that while we cannot go back in time, what we can do is go out into nature and connect with it similar how the olden time Masters trained their students. Since we live in the here and now, in the 21st Century, we do have to adapt somewhat.
Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim further invites us to experience Ki energy straight from nature, to learn to connect and utilize that Ki energy in our daily lives. You will come back with increased self-confidence, motivation, Inner Power, inner peace, appreciation for team work, just to name a few.
Here are some pictures to help you visualize what you might experience that day:
Bong training
Climbing up a wall
Teamwork
Sunset Meditation
So, come on over to Jung Suwon, and let Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim know you want to sign up!
HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!
“You are always testing!”
This is a favorite saying here at Jung Suwon. And indeed, every student, from the time they set foot into Jung Suwon, every day, is a testing. Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim explains it this way: on testing day, what we do is important, but it is for show, it is for the guests mostly. Sure, in the Jung Suwon DoJang, you have to perform in front of a lot of people, and the familiar stage is now differently set up, with head table and all and you will have to overcome all kinds of fears in order to do your best. Still, the real testing happens in your day to day performance, at Jung Suwon and wherever you are. For example, how is your attitude when you come to train? Do you come to class as much as you can? Or do you sometimes choose to be lazy?
Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim continues, “The real testing is this – can you maintain your goals? The ones that you have set at your last testing, or when you started your Jung Suwon training? Are you working harder in school? Are you keeping your room cleaner? Are you coming to Jung Suwon classes more? Have you lost that weight? Are you controlling your anger better?”
So yes, testing at Jung Suwon is serious business. Not only do you need to do your best at Jung Suwon, in front of a crowd of spectators, and in front of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim and all the Grandmasters and Masters, you also need to do your best every day in class, and in whatever you do!
Are you up for the challenge?
Of course you are! HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME!!!
At Jung Suwon, we hear this a lot: Body and Mind as one! It is the first of our Code of Ethics here and so even the youngest of warriors, and the newest members learn this right away.
But what does it really mean? Our teacher, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, gives us great examples. “If you are studying for a test,” Great Grandmaster Tae Yu Kim says, “and for hours look into your book, but at the same time you are daydreaming about this particular boy (or girl) and thinking how to best ask her/him out – and then you wonder why you get a bad grade on your test – well, your body and mind were not together – your body was looking into the book, but your mind was elsewhere!”
The same goes for breaking during Jung Suwon testings, or demonstrations. At Jung Suwon, we do not practice breakings. We practice to focus on having body and mind in harmony, together. Sometimes Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim will ask some senior students to do some things that seem completely impossible – and they are, if you do not keep body and mind together. Only when you have achieved harmony of body, mind, and spirit, will you be able to perform something like this!
Here is Chief Master Paul Newman, catching an arrow. Please don’t try this by yourself! Wait until Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim asks you to perform this – she will know when you are ready!
Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim doesn’t ask us to practice these things, and we never do. Once our bodies and minds are in total harmony, catching an arrow will be no big deal. But until then – do not attempt this, and go practice your basics and forms!
And as a special treat, here is the video:
Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim takes forms very seriously at Jung Suwon. “Sparring with your silent partner,” is what Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim calls it. Or, “moving meditation.”
“Either way,” Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim explains, “when you do forms, you must execute each technique with the strength, power, and intensity as if you were to do the technique by itself.” “Each move of a form,” Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says, has a specific purpose. Each move deserves your full attention.”
So, last week during a Jung Suwon class, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim brought out some boards, to demonstrate to us what she means. For each technique, there were actual boards there, to be broken with each technique of the form!
The Art of Jung SuWon 
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