Doug is practicing Taekwondo
started
Taekwondo way back when I was a first
year Computer Engineering undergraduate in around 1989, under
the instruction of a 6th dan Korean
grand master, Master WOO Jong Pill, which was
also one of the coaches of the Hong Kong Taekwondo Team. I joined the
HKU Taekwondo Club and
took the class
there for around a year and a half and then I left because of heavy
course work and knee injuries. My knee cap dislocated twice during practice
and I had to receive therapy for more than a month the second time my knee
was injured. The doctor I saw said that the tendon there was loosened and my
knee cap is susceptible to further dislocations. Incidentally I never have
another knee cap dislocation after I left the Taekwondo class but I had not
done anything like Taekwondo after the injuries anyway.
So I left the Taekwondo class for three and a half years and in 1994 I took the classes again. Before I left I had got a yellow belt nevertheless I started it all over again from white belt. It has been over a year since I returned and luckily I have passed all tests so far. I have just passed my black belt test in October 97 and am now holding a first dan black belt.
Doug fights in tournaments
I have taken part in two tournaments so far. In 1995 I fought in the Hong Kong Inter-College Championship. This is a game held every year for Taekwondo clubs in various post-secondary education institutes in Hong Kong. I was still holding my white-belt then but it required at least a yellow-belt to fight in the game. So you know what happened: I wore a yellow-belt during the tournament. It was the first competition I had ever participated. I won the first game. The unlucky guy was also a yellow-belt. Actually there was not any technique during the fight. I won because of sheer stamina. In the second round, I was kicking him tens of seconds. I did not score for the attack because he used his thigh to block my attack. It was the first time I realised that you can hurt yourself by beating up someone else. My shins hurt badly because I kicked my opponent too hard. I don't know what happened to the poor guy.In the second game I fought against a guy from UST with a red-belt. This guy was something. I was too tired at some point and got kicked at my head...oops. I lost the game eventually. It was a pity. Had I won the game instead, I could have got at least a bronze medal.
I also fought in the Hong Kong Inter-College Championship in 1996. Before that I was in US for a conference. If you have been to the US, you know eating in US makes one gain weight easily. The portion of a typical meal is awesome for people in Asia. And I really enjoyed the steaks, French fries and ice-cream there. I gained 7 pounds in 10 days and I went back to Hong Kong just a week before the tournament. Well I lost 3 pounds of water after the last practice session before the tournament but I still felt that I was too heavy so I did not drink much water the night before the competition. My pals said that I was slower than I used to be. Sigh....
Actually I was better that year. I know how to fight and my master was pleased when I was fighting the game. Everybody thought that I would win the game and they counted three hits for me when I was hit once. Surprisingly enough the result was a nil-nil and the I lost because of my opponent attacked more. My master was very unhappy about the result because everybody thought they both me and the other hit each other and the result should be 3:1. So my master complained to the chief judge and that fellow said something rude to my master in Cantonese. Mr. Wu was angry eventhough he did not understand what the judge said. After that Mr. Wu told us to gather, gave us a long speech and told us that the HKU team would quit the game because the quality of judges was questionable. That was very unusually but it might be a Korean tradition. Incidentally, the Korean women team quited an international tournament in Hong Kong a couple of months later under similar circumstances.
My knee broke again.....(6/96)
I had the feeling that somehow my right knee would dislocate sooner or later. And it became a reality. I had my third knee cap dislocation during the second practice session after the break in final examination. That day Mr. Wu introduced a new coach, a young black-belt master from Korea. The new instructor was very energetic and he asked us to do some very intensive exercises with him. My quadricep soared after that and I kneeled for a short moment as I was too tired to stand on my feet. After that we did some kicking. During a left turing kick I sudden lost balance and fell. My knee was painful and I don't need to doctor to tell me that I had a knee cap dislocation. I was sent to the Queen Mary Hospital near-by and stayed there for four boring days before I was discharged.
I got my black belt finally (10/97)
I did it finally. I took my test yesterday and luckily I passed. Actually I have not yet got my belt, I have to wait until my master send all my information to Korea and have my certificate issued there. That takes months usually. Originally I was going to take my brown-black belt test yesterday but there was another guy in my club taking the black belt test and my master told me to try that too. I was a bit nervous as I did not think I was well prepared to take the black belt test yet. During the power test, my master asked me to do either jump side-kick over 7 people or jump reverse kick. Since I had not trained for the black belt test, I did not do the jump side-kick. It was a matter of faith. I think I could do that if I had to but I would have hurt myself and other people if I had made a mistake. I did the jump reverse kick instead, which I also did in the previous test, and did that not so elegantly last time. This time I had better control of both my power and balance. I succeeded in the first try and stood well balanced after the kick. Last time I failed in the first attempt and fell on the ground. Then I managed to do it the second time but I kick too hard, lost my balance and fell again. Anyway I am glad to pass the test but I could have done better if I had known that I was going to take a black belt test.
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Copyright 1996 Doug Kwan. All right reserved. Last modified 18-2-98