Taekwondo and Dressage - More Alike Than I'd Expcted

Honestly, I thought I would be getting into a sport and hobby that was completely unrelated to dressage and equestrian sports. On the surface, it absolutely looks that way. But digging into it, they have far more similaries than I'd ever anticipated. And none of it has to do with horses. Last weekend, I had the pleasure to participating in the 50th Anniversary Hanmadang in Edmonton. I've been to several tournaments now, in taekwondo, on my journey to black belt, so I was really interested in participating in this format. Indeed, the similarities start right off the hop. When you consider an "open show," there are a number of classes - english, western, games, and age divisions. Hanmadang offered poomsae, freestyle poomsae, creative board breaking, tile breaking, long kick, hich kick and speed board breaking. Volunteers came Friday nightfor ring set up, despite a January rains storm. We weren't measuing a 20 x 60 and putting up a little white fence, we were pulling matts from trollies and building competition rings. Bless volunteers. Especially those who flow with short-notice change and keep showing up! A late night Friday and an early morning Saturday - sounds like a horse show weekend! The Hanmadang started Saturday morning with registration and 3 seminars with your choice of 3 different speakers in each time slot. I attended a talk on Taekwondo Spirit, Taekwondo through the ages (including a black-belt pattern) and "My Name is Trauma" a talk about how taekwondo can help people with mental health challenges and recovering from taumatic experience. Great information from people who are professionals in their areas. I've definitely attended equestrian conferences with similar formatting. Tournament went well! I took bronze in my poomsae (which was great because I'd barely practised at all since prior to Christmas!) a silver in tile breaking (which was great because I'd never done tile breaking with a hammer fist before) and a gold in high kick! Clean up went fairly quickly once the day was completed, unfortunately the day had run long (#amIright) and we were late to the dinner we'd planned to attend. I learned a very important skill: I can indeed change pants in my car! At least I got out of my dobok before going to dinner. We were sat at a table with a couple of Grand Masters, a new Master and a couple of other black belts. You could think of them as the dressage masters, the FEI competitors, etc. There were speaches and plenty of congratulating each other. Sunday gave me a bit better sleep. And this time, we didn't leave the hotel for the conference. There were a number of speakers, professors, doctors, grand masters speaking about varioius topics. The Hanmadang was held in celebration of the University of Alberta's Taekwondo club/team's 50th anniversary so it was logical that it remained fairly collegate in it's topics. When one speaker started speaking about "Authentic vs Traditional Taekwondo" and I couldn't help but compair that with the people who feel "classical dressage" is the only dressage. My feeling about Taekwondo has always been purely recreational, a hobby, something fun I enjoy participating in with my club friends and keeping my body moving. Likewise, I have no desire to be on a national dressage (or driving) team, but train and compete purely for the enjoyment of my animals, my progression in training and participating with friends. Hearing achedemics say "That's not REAL taekwondo" was absolutely paralell to riders saying "That's not REAL dressage." I think the fundimental of both of these sports/disciplines is that they're both fluid. They both evolve. And what elite competition looked like back in (your) hay day is not what it looks like today. And neither really look like what it was where it started. And people debate. They debate where it originated, who influenced, which (grand)master was most influential or should be credited with this or that... And how to help athletes to become more obsessive (this is my own takeaway) in training and competition. What mattered to me was how to better engage the recreational user. Likewise in how I only judge for entry-level horse shows (pony club, 4H, agricultural fairs, open shows, etc) my interest within my club is for the recreational participant to be supported and enjoy the sport at the level they want. Overall a great experience. I certainly do have some ideas on what I can contribute to our club, and maybe a slightly better understanding of taekwondo. Bottom line: It's a vast field of training encompassing many parts that should be practised together in balance. There is plenty of room to specialize, if that's what you're interested in, but none should be perceived as better than any other. Like dressage, and equestrian sports, there's a lot of ways to do it "right" and ultimately what's important is that you're enjoying your own journey.

Chah-ryut, Kyung Nae and Happy Horseing