A bunch of people asked me to post the may poomsae challenge for my taekwondo students, so here you go!
30 Day Poomsae Challenge → starts May 1, 2014
For those of you slightly in tune with the fitness world, you know that there are a lot of 30 day challenges out there: 30 day squat challenge, 10000 swings, 300 swings a day, 30 day pushup challenge, etc… Some of these are pretty cool, others can be pretty nonsensical.
As we usher in the summer, I was thinking about how we could create a similar challenge for martial arts students using little or equipment AND in a way that made us better, not just sore and tired.
So, I came up with the 30-day poomsae challenge. It’s not horribly creative, but I think it will accomplish the objective.
When you do these poomsae, you need to approach them as performance not as mere practice and especially not as exercise. When you perform each poomsae, approach it like this: You are testing for you black belt, or next Dan of black belt, and the entire test consists of performing one poomsae, nothing more. How would you perform that poomsae? That’s how I want you to approach this 30-day poomsae challenge.
1. This challenge should be performed in addition to your normal classes and training.
2. It can be done by yourself or with a partner / teammates
3. When you reach a poomsae that you have not learned yet, just substitute with one that you do know
4. I’ll provide you with a systematic, but complex to read, program on the following pages. The program is actually simple. On day 1, you do 1 poomsae, on day 2 you do 2 poomsaes, and day 3 you do 4 poomsae, so on and so forth until you complete ~30 poomsae on day 30. (it’s a little less since there are some rest days in the program)
5. The challenge can be done in one chunk each day, or it can be spread out through the entire day.
6. You must report back and encourage your fellow classmates to stick with it for the next 30 days.
7. If you have any questions, let me know.
Pick an exercise: 5 pushups, 3 pull ups, or 10 kettlebell swings. You must stick with the same exercise for all 30 days.
E = the exercise of your choice
KP = Kebon Poomsae
PP1 = Poomsae Palgwe Il Jang
PP2 = Poomsae Palgwe Ee Jang
PP3 = Poomsae Palgwe Sahm Jang
Etc.
K = Koryo
KG = Kuem Gang
TB = Taekbaek
PW = Pyong Won
SJ = Sip Jin
GT = Gitae
CJ = Chon ji
DG = Dan Gun
DS = Do San
WH = Won Hyo
YG = Yul Gok
CG = Choon Goon
TG = Toi Gye
H = Hwarang
CM = Choong Moo
KG = Kwan Gae
PE = Po Eun
KB = Kae Baek
CG1 = Chulgi Il Dan
CG2 = Chulgi Ee Dan
PH = Pyung Hwa
Remember, when you get to a form you don’t know, just substitute with what you do know. For example, a certain day in the challenge may be as follows:
Day X – PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8, E.
But, you only know up to Poomsae Palgwe Sah Jang (PP4). Your day X will look like this:
PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E
Here’s the program with day 1 being May 1, 2014.
1. KP, E
2. KP, E, PP1, E
3. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E
4. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E
5. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E
6. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E
7. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E
8. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E
9. JUST ONE POOMSAE
10. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E
11. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E
12. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E
13. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E
14. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E
15. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E
16. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E
17. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E
18. JUST ONE POOMSAE
19. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E
20. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E
21. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E
22. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E
23. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E
24. JUST ONE POOMSAE
25. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E, PW, E
26. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E, PW, E, KG, E
27. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E, PW, E, KG, E, PE, E
28. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E, PW, E, KG, E, PE, E, KB, E
29. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E, PW, E, KG, E, PE, E, KB, E, SJ, E
30. KP, E, PP1, E, PP2, E, PP3, E, PP4, E, PP5, E, PP6, E, PP7, E, PP8 E, K, E, KG, E, CJ, E, DG, E, DS, E, WH, E, YG, E, CG, E, TB, E, TG, E, H, E, CM, E, CG1, E, PW, E, KG, E, PE, E, KB, E, SJ, E, CG2, E
31. JUST ONE POOMSAE
