Spirit or training

[terryl965]

In your endevour to be the best that you personally can be, do you focus more on the training or the spiritual side of TKD?

Which do you find to be more than what you expected and why?

 

[Kacey]

When I first started, I focused on the physical side... over time, I came to realize that the physical training is a way to prepare the mind for the mental training that many do not understand - at first - is the key piece. By learning to control the body, one learns to control the mind; by learning to control the mind, one learns greater control of the body. The two are inextricably intertwined.

The physical side is what first attracted me; it was all I knew when I started - having been an unathletic teen and child, finding that I could learn a physical skill fascinated and motivated me. However, the mental side - call what you will - is the side that kept me in TKD; learning more about the art I had found, - physically and mentally - is what motivated me to continue.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Well, I started TKD at age 35 but my spiritual beliefs derive from my religious beliefs if you will, which have been around a lot longer in me and are a much greater part of who I am, spiritually. If anything, I work to incorporate my martial arts into my prior spiritual beliefs. So the spiritual aspects of TKD or any MA really don't have any interest for me. TKD for me is all physical, and like my music, it becomes a part of who I am, but I invest my spirituality into them, not derive spirituality from them