Recollection
As a child, I studied Tae Kwon Do with my father and brother at a small school in West Virginia. This was over twenty years ago, so my memories of it are rather dim, and after some false promises by our instructor, we were disinclined to attend. For a long while there, I shut martial arts out of my life due to resentment.
Obviously, this has changed.
When I earned by green belt in TSD at my current school, I decided that I would try to reclaim some of the forms that I practiced back then. In previous attempts at reclaiming the forms through meditation, I was able to revive the knowledge of the first basic form, which happened to be the same basic form we teach our kids at this studio. This prompted me to consider trying again after I got my blue belt, as I wasn't actually being taught how to do it and didn't want to just start recalling any form that wasn't appropriate. (Additionally, adults are not tested for knowledge of children's forms, so I felt comfortable with this experiment.)
After this morning's workout, I sat down and focused. The dull brown tiles of the old school appeared in my mind. I remember stepping on a bee and being forced to do running jump kicks that night. Ah, the punching bag at the end of the hall, right. The right wall had mirrors along the side. Two useless fans lazily spun silently on the ceiling. It still seems so big in my mind. The forms. Face the mirrors. The first two were basic 'I' shaped patterns, but the attacks and blocks changed. High punch, different block. Upper block along the center. Pivot here and here. The third had... cat stance? Yes. There was a 45 degree shift in position at the ends... leading to? What punch? Center aisle had horse stance side strikes, that I know.
And I returned to the apartment, pretty sure that I reclaimed the fundamentals of forms that were taught to me twenty years ago.
After tonight's class, I grabbed the instruction sheets that were available to help parents correct mistakes in their child's forms. Huh. I recalled the forms with 80% accuracy. A few mistakes on a punch or two, but they're still there. Whoa. Now I'm seeing flashes of the next advanced form, but it's still in pieces. Maybe after getting my next belt...