Thanks to some Chinese ointment that Robert gave me, my legs recovered rather quickly from my week spent at Dojang Studios. Most weeks I find myself in somewhat intimidating positions; continually learning something new and taking on a profession in which I have had no prior experience. It’s rather humbling, and I must say that I was humbled yet again this week.
One example came in the form of a nine year old girl when I was mock sparring with her. She had me continually backing up in circles around the studio attempting to avoid her high side kicks directed at my face. It was Kate, daughter of Dojang Co-founder and Owners, Robert & Emma Lynds. The whole family participates in the sport and their son Aidan, age 14, just put out his first DVD designed for kids. This is one house that you wouldn’t want to be caught breaking into.
This week I have seen how Dojang is a great way to stay in shape, both physically and mentally. When you enter the studio and begin your practice, you tend to leave everything else outside and focus entirely on what you are doing. We talked a bit about building up your core energy, your chi, and how this is channeled into your movements. It is a topic that came up in my week as a Yoga Instructor in Week 7 and is something that I would like to learn more about.
In the interview with Robert we talked about the importance of goal setting and planning. He described a very cool idea that he and his family uses. Every year, they will take a bunch of magazines and make a collage of different words, images, pictures that grab their attention. He was saying that if you want to see your goal realized, it must first be conceptualized and showed us his previous collage pointing out different things that he had now achieved or obtained.