A Tale of Two Doboks

Ahhh, can you see that?  It's the bright sunshine of the beginning of spring in Korea!  The birds will be singing, children will play soccer in the park, and girls will start looking like they actually knew what season it was when they put on their clothes ...
So as the weather changes, in this land that time can't change, spring is putting a lot of changes on my plate.
The first change is the closing of CNN's kindergarten program.  I know, I know, how will I live without having glops of I-don't-wanna-know-what sneezed onto me?  To be perfectly honest, though, (which I always am anyway) I will miss some of these children.  I'll miss dropping the lesson plan to play a game when their attention spans are gone.  I'll miss the seeing the six-year-olds develop adorable kindergarten crushes (We've all been there. That girl you told your friends you hated, but secretly made a construction paper valentine for and delivered it to her doorstep in april with your hair combed for the first time since...ever, only to have her return it at school the next day in front of everyone with the picture of a flower crossed out and replaced with a picture of her pushing you off a cliff.  It's happened to everyone.)
With the removal of my morning (Classes pushed back from 12:30 to 2:00!....What? 12:30 counts as morning.  Period.) commitments from my schedule, I'm free to slack off, stay out late, and sleep in!
But wait.
Life can never be that generous.
My classes now end at ten p.m.  And as my more serious fans out there can tell you, that means my classes end when my Tae Kwon Do class used to end.  No more Jeff-Ninja.
But wait.
Life never stays that greedy.
My supervisor helped me find a new class nearby that ran late at night.  Unfortunately, it wasn't Tae Kwon Do.  Fortunately it was Tukkong Musul.
Pause.
If you're like me (and really, like most non-koreans) at this point, you have no idea what Tukkong Musul means.  Allow me to explain.
Tukkong Musul means Special Combat Martial Art.  This is the fighting style developed for the special forces of the Korean military to combat unconventional attacks in urban warfare settings.  It's developed to fight terrorism and anything-North-Korea-can-come-up-with.  It's stylistically similar to Krav Maga, the art used by Matt Damon in the Bourne Identity movies.  Students greet each other with the martial artist's hand-into-fist salute, and an exhortation of "to combat!".  The art combines punches, kicks, grapples, joint locks, and "kill shots" from a veritable buffet of martial arts from western boxing to judo.
Unpause.
I accepted with surprisingly little hesitation.  After viewing a demonstration at the studio, I was sold.
Unfortunately, this would mean I still had to break the bad news to my Tae Kwon Do teacher.  And it would mean I wouldn't get to really make black belt.  Regretfully, I asked my supervisor to write my breakup letter to Inha Elite Tae Kwon Do.
But wait. 
Life's never that greedy.  For me at least.
Upon reading the letter, my Tae Kwon Do teacher told me he didn't want to lose my progress.  In fact, he planned to accelerate it.  If I'd meet him in the mornings every day and train one-on-one, he would have me ready to perform and fight in the Kukkiwon for my tests in two months time.  I needed to think about it.
...
So now I train twice a day, Tae kwon Do in the mornings, Tukkong at night.
My first milestone story in Tukkong happened last friday, when I fought my first ever grappling match.
After an interesting lesson in which I learned one takedown, one arm-lock, and one choke, I was treated to a series of grappling matches.
A grappling match is fought where two fighters begin standing, then fight without punches or kicks until one gives up.  It's much like wrestling, but there are no points for pinning someone.  You win if your opponent taps out or passes out.
"Je-Pu!" My korean name.  I looked around in surprise.  Had the instructor really called me in to fight a match?  Yes, no doubt about it.  I walked to the center and bowed. 
Who was I fighting?  I'd been matched up with a yellow belt most days, and while he was more experienced, he was about my size.
Oh wait, him?  The top student?  The black belt I'm not even allowed to warm up next to because he outranks me by so much?  You're joking.  He even gets a sweet red and black uniform- what am I supposed to do about that.  Oh you're not joking.  I've actually never heard you joke.  The last guy who tried to joke with you can't walk now?  Ah, I should've known.
"Shi-Jahk!"  Ok we're fighting now.  Do I make fists when I'm not allowed to punch?  He grabbed my sleeve, can I do that to him too?  I don't know if--
Oh that's the ground.  Hi, ground.  Didn't see you there.  I guess trying out that takedown I know is out of the question.  Well now that he's got me pinned to the ground, I could try that arm lock thing.
Nope, he saw that coming a mile away and blocked.  I do only know three moves, after all.
What about that choke?  Maybe if I--
Nope.

...And then something in my brain clicked on.  A dim, dusty bulb WAY back in the caverns.  Wait a minute, it said (do bulbs 'say'? who cares.  I'm fighting).  You know a much more difficult choke from a certain Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-trained blackbelt at Ripon College.  If you can maybe get a LEG around this guys neck...
And somehow, through a combination of the element of surprise, an underestimating opponent, and the sheer audacity of choking the person who has you pinned by using only your legs, I choked him.  He had my arm locked as well, but when the instructor called us to return, I saw genuine surprise on the spectators' faces.
That choke would never work again, but from that point on, I knew they were going to challenge me and not consider me a hopeless foreigner.

Black is the Tukkong uniform.  White is the Tae Kwon Do.

So there you have it.  Tae Kwon Do for traditional, beaufiul moves and a black belt.  Tukkong Musul for the ability to break the windpipe of someone who tackles me in the street.  I went from Jeff-Ninja to Just Jeff-Teacher, then to Jeff-DOUBLEninja in the span of one week.
It's been a whirlwind, and the training's just getting started.

To Combat!

Jeff-Teacher


*This week's episode brought to you by a brilliant contribution by Andrew, the source of my Jiu-Jitusu knowlege.  I owe you one.