Haidong Gumdo

An Evening in the Dojang

A description of a Gumdo Session

Due to an inflamed tendon, I wasn't doing Gumdo every day, so headed down with my camera to take pictures one evening. This was prompted by hearing that two of my favorite Gumdo friends would soon be moving to different cities. So, introductions first, stating with the guys in light coloured pants.

These are the two masters of the club. On the left we have the third best Gumdo guy in Korea (which probably also means the world). The other is the one I like to think of as 'my kwanjangnim'. When he moves with a sword, it's like he's dancing. He taught me pretty much everything I know about Korean swordplay.

Then we have Kyong-Hee and Chung-Hyung. Kyong-Hee is built like a tank and has done other martial arts, so he's constantly beating up the other guys in the club, in this instance, Chung-Hyung.

The other two most senior members of the club who often take us through the warm up and initial goup exercises.

Then we move onto those with plain dark blue or black trousers. Sung-Rae, one of the guys who's leaving soon, is doing the 'golden rooster' stance. I'm pretty sure he's protecting his manhood from potential attack with his right leg, at least that's the only reason I can think of to cock a leg just so. I've had so many things explained to me by him, but that's actually not one of them. He speaks excellent English. He will be sorely missed. And me, doing the first move in the 6th form. I've just leaped to my right and landed like this, blocking an imaginary foe (the people we combat are generally imaginary).

Then we have the four youths. They started at about the same time as me, and though we don't really talk, not sharing a common language, we do smile at each other and make friendly gestures every now and again.

The session starts with an intensive warm-up, then the whole club goes through approximately 15 of the most basic moves together. Here we see Daedogunjukse, a wide-stance guard. This section of the session usually last about 30 minutes.

Then it's on to group learning, usually organised by belts. The club was pretty full that night, so the Masters did some pretty basic stuff so that they could make the groups bigger. Here we have some white belts learning the Golden Rooster, and a large group at the back of the shot going through their short forms (gyukums).

Without any prompting, my kwanjangnim kindly organised a group shot of everyone that turned up that night. I think maybe he thinks I'm leaving soon, and that's why I'm taking so many pictures.

And yes, I am aware that the baggy pants look like skirts. They're big so that they hide your feet, giving your opponent less information. This is why the masters have baggier pants. They've learned how to not trip over on them, a skill I have yet to acquire.

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