As has been previously documented on this blog, I am learning my first martial arts weapon at Hapkido, the Korean martial art I've studied for more than a decade.
The weapon is a short stick called a tahn bong and it's used for striking, blocking, stabbing, choking and manipulating joints. It's a little like the billy club my favourite superhero, Daredevil, uses, so I was hoping I'd be a natural with it. Sadly, I'm not.
To improve, I've built training for 15 minutes every day into my work schedule and I've now been doing this for about six months, and, recently, I thought I was getting somewhere with it. My strikes were fluid and my striking accuracy was definitely improving.
Then, at a couple of recent classes, I've had a few major corrections to my striking. The first was to do with excessive shoulder rotation and the second was to do with thumb placement. I was also told that I'm gripping my stick too hard. Make your own jokes…
So I've had to re-adjust my striking technique and pretty much restructure most of my delivery. It's a bit annoying I'm not as good as I want to be, but it's all part of the process.
At least, I'm slowly working my way through more of the second dan syllabus now. These things take time, and I'm in no rush. I also need to sometimes remember that most 46-year-olds don't even study one martial art, let alone two.
Perseverance is all.
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