darren_stranger | GM Park seminar, the second coming (Reply)

Last night was another poomsae seminar with Grandmaster Park. It's apparently the last time he's likely to come to Australia again, so i wanted this time to ask at least a couple of the questions about applications that i haven't been able to find answers on.

I considered asking about the turning kun dol jjogi move in Keumgang, but decided that some moves in Sipjin were more baffling for me, so i saved questions until then in case i didn't get to ask more. As last time, nobody else was asking any questions and we just went through how the patterns were done, with the odd bit of application here and there to show why an arm should be straight or whatever. When we got up to Sipjin, i swallowed my nerves and asked if there was any application for the "lifting two buckets" move, but Mr Park just showed how to do the move again. When we stopped for a water break after that, i asked again, mentioning the word 'hosinsul' in case he misunderstood what i was asking, but he just said how to perform the move again and then walked off, so i guess that meant no.

It was kind of awkward, and i'm not sure he particularly appreciated me asking, but given it's the last chance i'm likely to get to ask the guy who wrote the book, so to speak, it was worth risking an etiquette faux-pas for the possibility of finding something out.

Of what was discussed, there were a few notable points i collected on various patterns. I'm not sure if they will match with what's specified for competition purposes, but for practical purposes they may be important.

Keumgang - for the first palm heel strike, Mr Park specified that this should come directly from where the spreading block finishes, not from back at the hip (ie how we used to do it, not how it's now done for competition). He demonstrated, against me holding him by the lapels, how the hand is already between the grabbing arms, allowing the strike to come straight up at the chin, whereas from the hip the arms might get in the way, as the striking hand tries to get past or between them. Also, the hand position on the turn between the two kun dol jjogi strikes is apparently jagon dol jjogi, not a mirror of the kun dol jjogi finish position.

Taebaek - for practical purposes, the spinning backfist should flick over towards the opponent's head, in order to get around any arm that may be in the way (such as the one that tried to grab the spear hand). Again, may be different to the competition style. The move between the three punches coming forward he described as now being a pushing out motion, not a grab, and the way he showed it looked a bit smaller to the motion as we practise it.

Pyongwon - the upwards elbow strike should be directly in front of your face / center line, not straight forward from the shoulder. Mr Park also performs the yoke strike as a lapel choke, opening the hands before the 'strike', with the palms facing forward (same in Sipjin). As well as the circular motion between the knife hand body and lower blocks after the side kick, he also said the wind up to the following supported minor face block should have a big circular motion too.

Sipjin - for the intermediate move between the mountain block and side punch, Mr Park described it as a downwards patting motion, indicating it somehow like a hat being placed on a head. I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that - whether it's a pushing down action of some sort perhaps. I might have to ask Dave or Barry what they made of that.

Jitae - during this pattern i finally got what Mr Park meant by "whole body force" during slow moves, when he thwacked me on the gut during one of the slow upper blocks (ie keep the body tight). The intermediate position between the third slow upper block and the combined upper block and centre punch (keumgang ap jireugi) he showed as near shoulder height, as we'd done with Mr Cho, but coming from a position out from the shoulder, not near it. Viewed from the side, the in between motion had a sort of circular look to it, which added a sense of soft-hard power. As he explained the difference between the old way and new way of doing the double body block at the top end, he seemed to be indicating that the two blocks still mirror each other (ie the supporting hand would be at the blocking hand's elbow on the first block as well as the second).

Chonkwon - on soseum jireugi, the two fists should finish together (touching, or almost touching). One big difference in this pattern was that the pulling hand on the slow punches, after the twist blocks, should start with the fingers reaching forward to grab the opponent's arm (ie with the palm outwards and thumb out), different to Mr Kang's circling of the knife hand. On the final mountain push, he corrected mine first in bringing the lower hand in closer to the body (ie the arm bent a little at the elbow, and upper arm nearer the body), then the next time through he did the same with my upper hand, bringing it in line with the lower, and both palms facing directly forward, not angled. That resulted in a finishing position a bit closer to the body and with both elbows slightly bent, not straightened as i had been doing it, which did give a much stronger feel to the move.

All up, it seemed a useful night, even if i left with old questions still unanswered. At least this time i tried to ask, and don't have to kick myself over wasting an opportunity like last time.