BTW, BigJim...

[AffectionateDan]

How's your ankle mending? Hope that's feeling better, mate. Plus, inquiring minds wanna know, are you making it to NEST?

 

[BigJim]

The ankle is in a condition to do gentle phys on, I'm back doing 1.5 mile runs now. But it's not okay for doing stuff like Tae Kwon Do yet. Thanks for asking.

No I won't be making it to NEST I'm afraid. There are a few reasons, one of which is my mobile phone company shafting me for £200 (about $300) on a loophole in my cellphone's warranty.

I will be getting my arse in gear one of these fine days and getting over the pond. Hopefully it will be this decade. I've not had much luck with my plans for it, I'm afraid.

 

[AffectionateDan]

The ankle is in a condition to do gentle phys on, I'm back doing 1.5 mile runs now. But it's not okay for doing stuff like Tae Kwon Do yet. Thanks for asking.

My pleasure, really. Wait... you're a taekwondo student as well? Fancy that! What form or forms? I've been studying Hungil for like 5 years, unfortunately, my dojang has closed and now the chief instructor is teaching over at a local country club. I miss it.

No I won't be making it to NEST I'm afraid. There are a few reasons, one of which is my mobile phone company shafting me for £200 (about $300) on a loophole in my cellphone's warranty.

Uh oh! That wouldn't be Virgin Mobile, would it? I must be one of the last six people in California that doesn't have a damned cell phone yet, and I've been shopping around. Who's giving you the shaft?

I will be getting my arse in gear one of these fine days and getting over the pond. Hopefully it will be this decade. I've not had much luck with my plans for it, I'm afraid.

Well, that's the beautiful thing about these events... there's always the next one! Eventually, the timing will be right for ya, and you'll have all your ducks in a row (or loonies, for you Canadians, LoL) and you'll make it! Then you'll spend all the next year anticipating the next one!

 

[BigJim]

My pleasure, really. Wait... you're a taekwondo student as well? Fancy that! What form or forms? I've been studying Hungil for like 5 years, unfortunately, my dojang has closed and now the chief instructor is teaching over at a local country club. I miss it.

Not sure about forms, never really got taught that. When General Choi and Master Ri Ki Har originally sponsored a group over here, the TAGB came into being. (TKD Assosciation of Great Britain.) Eventually the British masters decided that it was going in a direction they didn't want and split from General Choi's traditionalist movement. The TAGB is my group, they're strictly light and non-contact.
The other group is the UKTA and they use heavier contact and body armour akin to American Football players. That's the group that General Choi officially supports.
My grade is a 1st Kup, (which for all y'all unitiated is one grade below 1st Dan Black Belt) but it hasn't moved for quite a while. I was due to take 1st Dan in April, but got knocked back when I broke my ankle. I'll be lucky to take it this October, more likely next April. I'm beginning to forget all the stuff I've learnt, which is sad. I was just getting to grips with Choong Moo too. 🙁 That 360 jump and spin was great, but the jumping yop chagi was a bit harder. Suprised I never broke anything doing THAT! lol

Uh oh! That wouldn't be Virgin Mobile, would it? I must be one of the last six people in California that doesn't have a damned cell phone yet, and I've been shopping around. Who's giving you the shaft?

Nah, my network is Vodaphone. But it's not them that screwed me, it was the franchise who supplies the phones on behalf of them. The sad thing is that they screwed me perfectly legally.

Well, that's the beautiful thing about these events... there's always the next one! Eventually, the timing will be right for ya, and you'll have all your ducks in a row (or loonies, for you Canadians, LoL) and you'll make it! Then you'll spend all the next year anticipating the next one!

Hope I catch you there one day mate. You'll get the benefit of hearing all my awful voice impression! 😀 As will you Meemster!

 

[BigJim]

Of course you do realise that I only started it to hang around girls in thin, un-protective cotton jackets and bare feet, don'cha? 😛

 

[AffectionateDan]

OMG, I totally HEAR you on that one...

Of course you do realise that I only started it to hang around girls in thin, un-protective cotton jackets and bare feet, don'cha? 😛

Not why I started, but MAN, I could tell you some stories! LoL!

 

[BigJim]

Re: OMG, I totally HEAR you on that one...

Not why I started, but MAN, I could tell you some stories! LoL!

Oh you could? Well let's start now then. 😀 You first, then I'll chime in with a few of mine. 😉

 

[AffectionateDan]

Aha, touche'!

Oh you could? Well let's start now then. 😀 You first, then I'll chime in with a few of mine. 😉

I absolutely LOVE sparring, as long as my parter or partners (multiple attackers is SUCH a rush) are at least as skilled as I am. There was this one gal in my class, big girl, say 5' 10" easily, broad-shouldered, she joked about how she worked for a furniture company moving pianos and crap, LoL. An Amazon. Her name was Tracy. Not all that skilled, but POWERFUL. She could kick a hole in a cinderblock wall. Legs like granite. Anyhow, if the sparring partner rotation got around to us being paired against one another, we'd just share a knowing grin, because we each knew it was gonna be fast, furious, and fun. So this one time, we're going at it, and each of us does a roundhouse kick simultaneously, so our shins met with a sound that stunned the other students who were also sparring, not unlike two blocks of wood banged together. NOT a rewarding sensation... I don't recommend it. LoL So we're all right, if still favoring our legs a little, and we continue. A couple more exchanges, and then she reads me like a book and has me dead to rights as I'm finishing a spinning backfist that should've gotten to her temple, but she's completing her snapping front kick as I come around, and BING. Got me good, solar plexus. Unfortunately (for HER ), I was still in motion, and her foot went right into my dobok shirt. This resulted in some hilarious off-balance flailing on both our parts, but we stayed standing. So we're laughing about it, and she's tangled, so she's holding onto my shoulder as I reach in to dislodge her foot. Damn the luck, we were wearing the padded punches and kicks, which limited my hand's mobility AND shielded most of her foot, but I knew EXACTLY what I was doing as I reached in to "help" her out. I got my fingers far enough past to curl around the padding and made it to her sole, and was rewarded by her clenching my shoulder and her teeth, and she hissed in a breath and said, "Ooh, careful."... Bear in mind that this is the same leg that we'd just banged together with not that long ago. I stopped and said, "Did that hurt? Are you all right?" (HA!) She won't make eye contact with me now, and says "No no, it doesn't hurt, but hurry up, I can't stand like this all night." I scratch with my nails as best I can with the limited motion I can with the damned padding, and tease her, "Oh SURE you can! You're a big strong piano-mover!", and to her credit, she didn't scream or anything, just this snorting snicker that let me know I'd hit gold. "DON'T even, don't you DARE", she says, and I grin my best evil grin and let her pull away. Never got another chance to tickle her, though. Drat! Curses! LoL

 

[BigJim]

The first chance I got was in my first three months in the class. I'd just got my 9th Kup yallow tags, and was holding a kick-bag for this blonde 1st Dan, who was slightly younger (I was 19 or 20 at the time) and considerably better looking than me. She was hammering away at the bag with her best extended turning kick, which as I'm sure you know, means her toes were extended so that her top instep was making the impact, not the ball of her foot. As she was doing it I mentioned that there was a very easy way to counter her kick.

She looked at this 9th Kup rookie from her lofty perch and said "Oh yeah?" before launching another one. Even as a 9th Kup I had pretty good reflexes and caught her ankle, pinning her left foot high in the air, against the bag. "Yes" I said, with a seraphic beam. "Tickle the opponent to death!" I happilly demonstrated for her and she squeaked and hopped, trying to get her foot back, but as it was nearly 6 feet in the air at the time, she couldn't get the leverage. It wasn't until she lost it and flopped onto her bum on the floor, that she got away from me. Ahhh, happy days...........

Your turn! 😀