Sell Your Seoul Trip 3 - Day 7 - Learning Traditional Martial Art - Taekgyen, Mt. Inwang



I've never been a fighter but today's mission was to learn how to kick butt! Everybody has heard of Taekwondo, but there's another martial art from Korea that not many people have heard called Taekgyen.


I found myself on the side of a mountain once again, but this time not to meditate with monks. Maximilian Jang and his student Chad (from New Jersey but lives in Korea) met me for a quick lesson on a snowy hilltop.

Today was -17 Celsius and Seoul hasn't had temperatures this low in about 100 years, lucky me! It's the perfect temperature for getting tossed into the snow and feeling like your bones are gonna shatter.

Taekgyen is based on kicking; Jang explained to me that Koreans are the best kickers in the world because throughout time they have worn baggy clothing, which allows for a wide range of motion. Back in the day it was an entire country of people sporting MC Hammer pants!

My favorite part of the training was learning how to yell out TEK! and then exhaling…HAAA! Tek! Ha! Tek Ha! Tek Ha! I'm good at being loud, this could work for me.

The history of the art is fascinating; Taekgyen was an ancient form of fighting for hundreds of years until the Japanese invasion. They outlawed the practice and killed off most of the masters. The art was almost completely lost until one man found the sole living master and learned from him, at the age of 93. It's still miniscule in the world of martial arts but their hope is to slowly spread the sport.

Watch this amazing video to see the beauty of this martial art; it looks kinda like Crouching Tiger without the flying on rooftops.

http://www.tkbattle.com/bbs/zboard.php?id=specialclip&no=56

After a couple hours in the snow I was beginning to show mild signs of hypothermia so we decided to call it an afternoon.

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