Returning to Taekwondo After 40 Years

This morning I was able to take my orange belt test. I had to request this because I need to get major surgery ASAP. Very grateful to Master Nam for allowing me to test, in a private session at the last minute.

  As I've mentioned before I'm taking Tae Kwon Do (which is a Korean Martial Art) and I've been learning Korean language on the side and have been practicing on the instructors. Normally when I say a word or phrase in Korean wrong they politely tell me the correct pronunciation. So on Monday day, I tried to memorize how to say 'Excuse Me' in Korean (실례합니다 sillyehabnida). When I saw my instructor I attempted to say it, and received a puzzled look and then a laugh. It appeared that he thought I said "I love you". I thought that was so funny. He told me I should only say that to my family! Anyway, I thought you would get a kick out of that.... LOL

  Grateful for a successful belt test to yellow.  This is a picture with the Grandmaster Kang after the test.  

 Update: It's been a month but as you can see my progress has been minimal. The only real difference is getting this low was easy and not as challenging.   I  guess I'll just continue and see where I am after another month. I guess my age is slowing me down.  :( 

Can a 60 year old learn Taekwondo?  Some people would say that a 60 year old is too old to be taking such an energetic and dynamic sport such as Tae Kwon Do.  A sport which requires good amount of balance, stretch and leg strength, which older people lack. You can build muscle, balance, and flexibility at any age. It may be harder but that's the wonder of the body, it response positive when placed under the proper level of distress.  I believe in fighting aging not giving myself over to it.  I'm a runner and I do a handful of half marathons every year, and a lot of people would say I'm too old.  I say "don't tell me, what I can't do!".  I believe much of the statistics of deprecation of health are based on people listening to the experts - getting a retirement attitude in their head (I deserve to sit around on a beach somewhere).  I say, my best years are in front of me, and I will fight my lose of balance, my loss of strength, and my loss of flexibili...

  There are 12 belts from white belt to black belt.  Right now I am white belt - which was not just given to me, but instead I had to pass my first belt test.   The white belt meaning is purity, basically an empty canvas which to be written on by the teachers.   White it's humbling to be a white belt again for the third time you need to remember the Chinese Proverbs that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".   For me being a white belt is exciting not because it's a first step, but that I have the adventure of the next thousand miles!

I'm 60 years old and one thing I can't do is stretch, but when trying to be good in TKD is be very important to be flexible.   So I have decided to work on my stretch and see if I can improve my hip flexibility in the next month .   Below is a picture showing where I am today.  Not very good.    So starting in 2023 - I will do 45 minutes of stretching 7 days a week, and see where I am at that point.  When I was a teenager I could almost do a complete split.  I hope that old me can be encouraged to come out!   Some of the stretching will be:  Lateral Lunge Single Leg Split Butterfly Vertical Leg Swings Lateral Leg Swings Middle Split