This July 7th, 2019 we performed our 7th Keub (green) belt test in HaiDong GumDo (Korean Sword Art) in Schwerte, Germany. Yes – a 7th keup test on the 7th of the 7th 🙂 The test was accompanied by an intensive HDGD seminar with GrandMaster Seung-Eun Chae Impressions and speed-learning What I love most about… Read More HaiDong Gumdo Green Belt Test
Recently, both in Haidong Gumdo and Taekwondo classes, a surprising (to me!) thing happened. I had come back to classes for the first time after a serious dance travel bout, and: – For the first time in my (admittedly short) sword class student life I was able to fairly consistently execute a horizontal cut from… Read More A Break-Through
It’s been a long time since I’ve last taken part in a dance competition, although I still do enjoy being a judge! I have recently re-discovered my love for competing through Martial Arts. What is it that I love about it? It teaches me to stay focused under pressure, to prepare consciously for peak performance,… Read More Competition Love
During a profoundly inspirational Haidong Gumdo (Korean Sword Art) seminar with EUHGA Headmaster Sang-Hyun Han, the following question was asked by one of the participants: ‘why do we put ourselves through suffering in practice?’ I can’t piece together the exact answer, but I do remember I felt deeply inspired. The gist of Master Han’s response was:… Read More The ‘Why’ of Practice
If there is one thing that preparations for our Taekwondo black belt test has taught Mr E and me, it’s that there is pure magic in practising slowly. We wanted to combine studying the Korean terms for movements with cleaning up our technique and basic stances, so we practised by naming each movement, transition and… Read More The Magic of Slow
Last weekend we had our second belt test for HaiDong GumDo (Korean Sword Art) in Bedburg, Germany It was preceded by an exhilarating and fun HDGD technique and conditioning seminar by Senior Grandmaster Seung-Eun Chae. A list of the disciplines we were tested on for our 9th to 8th kup (yellow to yellow-green belt) test:… Read More HaiDong GumDo Yellow-Green Belt Test
An update on my Martial Arts goals for 2019: Continue going to HDGD and TKD class 2 times a week if possible A self defense workshop is in the charts for May, as well as practising what we‘ve learned. Flexibility work has reduced the past few weeks. Will get back ‘on it’ (and update the… Read More Spring Recalibration – Martial Arts
During the past few weeks I’ve been working on our first (in benefit of Dance4Children) self-produced mini-kickboxing workout. It is now available! (in downloadable and streaming format) at https://gum.co/kbcombos And we’re really excited about it. It was great to see ‘our’ D4C coaches at work together, and very interesting for me to do the filming/editing… Read More Online Kickboxing
This is what happens when 3 martial artists, who happen to also be dancers, meet at a bellydance/martial arts fusion festival – and a free photoshoot is offered. It was an honour to ‘duke it out’ virtually with my amazing dance colleagues Daniela (Aikido Master) and Senta (Karate Master) from the Netherlands. Representing here (as… Read More All is One
One of the most interesting (and unexpectedly fun!) things we got to practice during this weekend’s MartialArts4Children workshop day was ‘ground work’ techniques for MMA. In other words, I survived my very first jujitsu-esque experience. I found it incredibly intriguing. Playing with gravity, using the flow of movement (or at least trying to!) and awareness… Read More Gravity and Flow