Made it to Germany!

[agemechanic03]

Don't worry, I'm still gonna visit, if possible.

 

[Lynne]

You are so fortunate! GM Stumpf just promoted GM Byrne to 9th Dan recently, by the way.

http://www.ttfuk.co.uk/news.htm

 

[agemechanic03]

Well, I was hoping to start back to training this week, but it didn't happen. Although, I did put forth the effort. I drove a little over an hour, since the autobahn is in like full construction right now, and came to this house. Well, I didn't think it was the school, but come to find out after talking with the head instructor here in Germany, the lady does teach out of her house. Also, she wasn't there anyways as she is in the states and just finished up the WTSDA Championships that was just held in Florida and won't be back till the 13th of this month. The issue with her not coming back till then is that, Dan testing for WTSDA here is 27 September and WTSDA does there forms differently than the way I was trained in Korea since it is a completely different org. Oh, I guess I should tell you why that is an issue. It's b/c I recieved my Cho Dan before I left Korea and as with all organizations that you cross into, I have to do a confirmation test to see if I would qualify to transfer my dan rank from Korean Soo Bahk Do Association to World Tang Soo Do Association. On top of all that, I have to pay 147 euro, which with our wonderful dollar, it equates to $228.66 as of right now. Plus a 3-5 page essay as to why I want to transfer plus there hole testing criteria, plus supply them with 3 passport photos and so forth and so forth. Agh this is driving me crazy. It looks like I might have to wait till this next spring to test b/c I really want to be sure that this is what I want to do. On top of looking into these schools, I want to teach youth. I went to the gym tonight and as I was practicing my forms, a few kids were standing at the door watching me. Now I've always wanted to teach, and tonight confirmed it even more that I want to teach kids. So my plan is possibly at the beginning of the year, start working with you here on base or getting with the head of my village here and see about using the school and working with the kids in the community. Well, that's all of my rant for now. It's Friday night here in Germany and I just got home from the gym not too long ago and I'm gonna go relax. You all have a great weekend!!


Chris

P.S. Pics will be up soon.

 

[MBuzzy]

Good luck! It really sucks that they are making you take a confirmation test! I would have thought that Korean SBD rank would go pretty seamlessly into other organizations. I had no problem transfering it to the states, just had to join the US SBD Fed, no tests.

 

[agemechanic03]

Yeah, it sucks. I was hoping that it would transfer quite easily too, especially from Korea. But, everyone is different. I still haven't tried out GM Stumpfs school. I'm scared it's gonna take me 2hrs to get to b/c of the construction. But we'll see. Master Trogemann has been very responsive the past couple of days and he speaks English very well too. I'm going to contact GM Stumpfs school next week and see how that goes.

 

[Yossarian]

The WTSDA also has several weapon forms needed for Cho Dan and a large amount of one steps, it would probably take you a while to learn. Im pretty sure the empty hand forms are just about the same, there are some small differences in Sip Soo(has kicks) and Bassai. It does seem like a huge hassle changing orgs but you should think yourself lucky I was told I would have to start from white belt again when I enquired about joining a different org. I cant dont know German but if you do check out this club they are affiliated with the org im part of(made up of lots of tsd backgrounds).

http://www.tangsoodo.de/

I dont know if they have a class anywhere near you but it might be worth checking out.

 

[agemechanic03]

Thanks Yossarian, I'll research them later, but I don't think they are close by. I don't recognize the towns, but I've only been here for 2 months, so they could be right down the road.

 

[MBuzzy]

Catching up with the new requirements is the worst part. It took me almost 6 months to learn all of the new organizations' one steps and ho sin sul. A few different forms as well. I know that we learned Sip Soo in Korea, but that isn't taught until Sam Dan in the US....

I had to learn 3 new forms here....

 

[agemechanic03]

That's the bad part! I know like 20 forms just from Korea and now I'm gonna have to relearn some of those in a different manner, learn new ones, some will never be used again, and some they won't do with me till I reach that rank as just like you. I know higher level forms just b/c of Korea. Another good point is one that Yossarian brought up is that they have to know weapons forms! Sa Bum never taught us weapons forms while we were there. But that's the same for his instructor also. Master Lee up at Osan doesn't teach weapons either. Although, I am excited about learning weapons as I've always wanted to.

 

[MBuzzy]

Keep us posted on what you're learning, especially in terms of weapons, and the differences.