Mama D Does TaeKwon Do

Apparently YouTube is doing some work over there. It doesn't say how long it will be down but hopefully it will be back up shortly. I obviously picked the perfect time to do a YouTube week. Sheesh. We are going away for the night so I'll be posting a little later tomorrow.

Any of you who know me or have been reading a while, know that I do TKD. Not only that but I love it. Since I went to my first class over 10 years ago it has been in my blood. It will always be a part of who I am.

I started TKD when I was 18 and at 21 I tore my ACL in my knee. Over the next four years I had three surgeries, a scope, an ACL reconstruction and another scope. I attained my first degree black belt between surgery #2 and #3. My surgeon suggested after my last surgery that I should perhaps, give up TKD. I tried. It only seemed sensible. I was obviously not cut out for it, otherwise I wouldn't have injured my knee so badly. So I did other things, lifted weights, swam, did aerobics. When my urge to hit stuff again became too overwhelming to ignore I joined a boxing club. It just wasn't the same. I missed TKD too much. I decided to go back and 'take it easy'. It felt good, my knee felt strong. I kept training and eventually trained towards my second degree black belt. That test meant more to me than anything I had accomplished up until then. After everything that had happened with my knee I thought I'd have to quit and never believed that I would ever test again.

But I did. The test went so much better than I ever could have imagined. While doing my patterns I literally felt as if I was almost outside of myself. I was conscious of my heart beating, my breaths. My body was doing what it was supposed to do but it felt like it was in autopilot. Everything else went smoothly and I was thrilled. My self defence routine was against two people since as a 2nd Degree I am supposed to be able to defend myself against two people. AT the end of the routine one of my partners performs three different knife attacks which I must defend against. It felt so good to do all of my board breaks since they aren't something we practice often. They are done at the end of the test. If you watch me my body language shows my increasing giddyness with each break.

It was fun putting this video together. I usually have a difficult time watching myself do TKD on tape. I am highly critical of myself and pick everything apart. I can actually stand to watch this and don't criticize myself too much. YouTube always seems to mess up sound so my breathing is all over the place and you'll see the boards break and then hear the crack. Soundtrack compliments of Bjork and Jamiroquai.