Love the update. Glad it's going well!

Update!

So after about 2 months of training, my instructor said I was going to test for “orange with one green stripe.” Test day comes, and Master Kim is there, and I just so happen to be getting over some kind of illness, that kept me out of the dojang for a week and forced me to do my own training from home. I had no clue he would be there! He’s short. And apparently he’s 84, but I easily would have guessed late 60’s/early 70’s. He has a big smile the entire time, until the test starts.

First we’re doing a bunch of basics up and down the floor. Master Kim stopped class, and moved students around so he could get a better view of me (I didn’t know this at the time). We continue with basics. Some more time goes on, Master Kim stops everyone and calls me up to him. He asks me if I trained before. I said yes. He asks what style, I told him Shorin Ryu. He says “ohh, ok!” And sends me back to continue.

We’re doing more basics. He stops class again and calls me back up. He asks me how long I trained for. I tell him, and he gives me the same response, and sends me back in line.

We start going through forms, just the first 2. He then stops class again after we finished form 2 and calls me back up. He asked me who my teacher was and where he’s from. I told him, he asks a few questions about him, and after my last answer, he gives me the same “ohh, ok!” And sends me back in line.

Next thing I know, everyone is being told, one by one, to go sit down. I’m the last person standing! I have 2 more forms to demonstrate and Master Kim wants me to demonstrate them by myself, in front of what I’m assuming were 40-50 people. I was literally shaking because I was so nervous and did not expect anything like this to happen.

After I finished my last 2 forms, he asked me to demonstrate something from my first style. NAIHANCHI. For whatever reason, no other kata came to mind. So I performed Naihanchi Shodan, most likely the sloppiest version of it I’ve ever done in my life because I was still shaking, you could hear how shaky my breathing was (we did basics for like an hour) and I was completely exhausted. He thanked me and invited everyone back up to continue with the test.

The higher belts continued going up in their forms, then we performed our one step sparring, then we did real sparring (point style, rotating partners), and finished with breaking a board. I just used a reverse punch. I’m sure we were all exhausted.

Apparently, nobody finds out if they passed or not until about a week later. So when everything was done, Master Kim sat us down and gave us somewhat of a motivational speech. Encouraged us to deepen our stances while we still can. He encouraged us to use our hips. He encouraged us to do SOMETHING every day.

At one point, a student had to leave early for religious reasons, and Master Kim was confused at first. When he heard the religious part, he turned to the student, bowed towards him, and said “if I offended in any way, ask your god to please forgive me.” THAT stood out to me a lot.

As everyone was leaving, I stayed after to talk to Master Kim. I showed him my old sensei’s book, From The Minds of the Masters, by Jerry Figgiani (showing him Sensei Jerry’s picture). He said that he used to teach around NY a lot, so I wondered if they had ever crossed paths. He flipped through the book for a bit. He talked a little bit about life, gave me some advice. Basically welcomed me to their organization with open arms.

I thanked him and my instructor, Master Bruno. We all gave each other a loud “Tang Soo!” And left. I slept GOOD that night.

Oh, and some 2 weeks later, Master Kim told Master Bruno to give me a green belt instead of the orange with green stripe. I felt my eyes watering up a bit.

Now that was a very uplifting update across the board. Congrats of you earning your Green Belt. Seems that you've found a new home. Thank you for sharing!!

That is awesome! Congrats on your promotion! I think it is very cool that the Master took such an interest in your previous training like that. And he also apparently recognized that your level should be somewhat higher, which is very cool, too.

Wow! What a great story. Happy for you, Sean.

Patrick

Great story! congrats on your Green belt!

Somewhat belated response but congratulations.

Also great to hear about the recognition of prior training from Master Kim. If things are so similar it makes a lot of sense but you sometimes get people who are very dogmatic and believe "but it wasn't learned from me". Glad to hear that he isn't like that, is a positive sign for the longer haul too - i have always found instructors like that better to learn from as they teach to your ability/skill rather than just blindly following the syllabus.

Enjoy (re)learning the new forms for the new belt and best of luck with the training

I was actually interested in tang so do. Is Tang so do and soo Bhak do similar?

Are you still training Tang soo do? any update?

Update.

I actually stopped training TSD. I was beginning to see a strange hierarchy, where the favorites are allowed to speak openly, disrespectful as they want, and no one bats an eye. But whoever wasn’t one of the favorites, would be verbally torn apart (behind their backs) for something as little as not folding their dobak nicely enough before leaving the dojang. This is just an example, and the behavior seemed to carry on everywhere else.

The instructor, although in charge of the school, is still fantastic and I will always think very highly of him. But I’m not a fan of the dynamic that seems to be going on there.

When I opened up my own dojo, I saw that as my “out” and just stopped going all together. I’m back to training with my Sensei via zoom, and I’m honestly happier with that.

Thank you all for your support!