Sinchon Kumdo Kwan 신촌 검도관
Originally posted on March 18th, 2014.
Already in the last semester I started with Kumdo (검도), my first martial arts experience. I have been playing Badminton since ever and wanted to have an activity I could do during my study abroad. Somehow I became very eager to start with something new. As my first attempt failed to join the Kumdo student club in the University I found a Kumdo Kwan near Sinchon which is the area where I live.
Kumdo is a Korean martial art that is originating from the Japanese Kendo. Kendo was introduced to Korea the first time in 1896 and became accepted from the Korean culture and society under the term Kumdo which is used in the latest history as the common label for the Korean martial arts. Kumdo and Kendo diverged after World War II to form separate but nearly identical practices but the meaning remains the same as the way of sword. They have many similarities but the one main difference I experienced here is that they use Korean terminologies for the main targets. Kumdo is a really popular sport in Korea ranking on the 2nd place right after Taekwondo.
Most Koreans train really hard almost every day. In the Kumdo Kwan I am it is possible to have training sessions every day in the morning from 7-8 am and the evening from 7-10 pm. I practiced for three months and went to trainings almost every day. Going to Kumdo training helped me a lot to settle down in Korea and to actually meet Koreans. I did enjoy it the most here during the last semester so the time I could practice it was actually much too short. I started to train in the Hogu (body armor) in the last six weeks and just started to make friends in my class when it was already time to go back to Germany.
So it was a really good coming back two weeks ago. Also my master was really happy.😄 Somehow he seems to like me a lot although we can barely communicate with my still low Korean language skills. (I will definitely have to work harder on that during this semester!)
I was surprised when I should attend the exam to progess to the 5th Kyu one week ago. I will come back to the ranks and training in Kumdo more detailed in my next posts.
Since then I was allowed to attend the engagements in the end of a training session which are done under the condition of a tournament. Engagements are conducted between two individuals at a time in a court. Both are wearing the Hogu and use the Jukdo (bamboo sword). The court is normally a square or rectangle 9 to 11 meters on a side - surrounded by an additional margin of 1.5 meters - and is presided over by a referee and two corner referees.
Although the first engagements were quite unfamiliar to me I managed to not receive a hit right after the first attempts of my opponent later. The one thing in Kumdo is that it really shows how experienced someone is doing Kumdo during these engagements. I figured out that as a beginner I need to go for the strikes as fast as possible to not get hit by the opponent. Making these steps actually takes time and some courage.
Since yesterday I have a new big goal for the next three months: To train for a tournament that I am supposed to attend in June! This event makes me so excited because that is something I really wanted to experience when training Kumdo in Korea. I guess from now on there is a lot to learn until this big event!
Hope you accompany me on the way to my first real Kumdo tournament in Korea through my next Kumdo post. yaaahaaab 😄✌️
