I've been thinking pretty hard about what Matt had said on the AE list about a coven based on martial arts. As many people know, higher level and "internal" martial arts have an interesting emphasis on ki, or chi, and internal power that is quite spiritual, but the everyday forms and punching and kicking type things are rarely thought of as spiritual by most spectators, and even by many practitioners.
Yesterday, we had our black belt test. It was a physically and emotionally grueling day, dealing with our own internal will to succeed, temptation to quit, etc. There were approximately 50 testers, 30 doing first dan, others doing their testing for the Korean Kukkiwon certification, some for second degree, some for third, and one for fourth.
The fourth degree tester was the son of Grand Master Choi, John Choi. John is a 20 year old man who has dedicated his life to Tae Kwon Do, and wants to take over the school when his father retires in about 20 years or so. John is the coach of the "C-Crew" competition team, the group that goes to tournaments and demonstrations. It's a very close knit group whose motto is "unity." I'm very proud that me and my daughter are members.
John began his 4th degree test by doing 5 forms in rapid succession. He was obviously very tired afterwards, but stood there with a look of determination on his face. He then had to do an amazing kick through 5 boards, running across the room, leaping up and breaking them all before he landed. It was a fantastic feat and we all cheered loudly. Then came his most difficult challenge. Breaking three bricks at once.
I was about 5 feet in front of him, sitting next to the head table. John was breaking these stacked slabs with a hammerfist strike - basically his bare hand. It is a VERY difficult thing to do. I tried to send as much energy as I could to John, but I was so nervous myself that it was quite difficult to concentrate. John got ready....set up, and SLAMMED into the structure. Unfortunately, only the first one broke, because his hand was shaking so much that it knocked the spacers out between the slabs, making it virtually impossible to break the ones beneath.
For anyone who knows anything about power breaking, once you summon the power and strength from within yourself to perform a break, and once that energy is expended by attempting or completing the break, it is VERY difficult, VERY VERY difficult to again raise that type of energy to do it again. All of us looked at each other, thinking that this was the end of the story, that John was unable to do this, and we were all quite sad about it. But that was not all, folks.
John decided to do it again. He would not give up, no matter what the cost. His hand was hurting. Sweat was pouring off his face, but the look of determination did not fade. He pulled his hand back again and slammed it into the slabs. Again his hand was shaking, so the spacers were pushed out and again he only could go through the one slab. By now the pain was very visible on his face. His father told him he did not have to continue. He had already proven his heart, and his determination. But that was not enough for John. He was determined to get the last one.
Hand pounding, John reset the last slab onto the cinderblocks. His whole body was shaking with pain, and the attempt to again draw enough energy from within to break the final brick. Voice shaking, he called for energy from the rest of the C-Crew by using the C Crew chant that we use to raise energy before competitio ns. He choked out "C Crew" and from all parts of the room, the member of the team yelled "Don Gyo" which means unity in Korean. His voice got stronger and again he called out "C Crew" and they yelled "Don GYO" louder this time. It was obvious that John was growing stronger, and stronger with each chant. After the third time, he raised his fist and slammed through the third cinderblock.
Grandmaster Choi, sitting at the head table watching all of this choked up with tears. All of the testers and all of the black belts, and all of the spectators were speechless after a resounding standing ovation for John. Grandmaster Choi told us that his children had never seen him cry except when his father died, but now he couldn't help it. And he related a story of when John was a child of about 10 years old, and he told his father that he didn't think his father liked him very much. John said that his father never coached him, and instead coached other students, and encouraged them instead. He was barely able to speak as the tears flowed freely down his face as he said how hard it was to explain to him that his position as Grandmaster forced him to put his family second. When John bowed out at the end of his test, we gave him a 5 minute standing ovation.
This morning, John told me he only wanted to lead by example. He wasn't really aware of raising energy at the time, and instinctively called out to the team. He DID feel the energy come back to him, and it helped him through that last slab.
It's really hard to write any more at this point. I'm just so floored by what happened. It was amazing. It helped me through the 11 hour test. I HOPE I passed, but I don't know yet. But I DO know that John Choi is a very worthy leader who taught us all something that would be difficult to show any other way.