*In the original article, the term 'training' is used as 단련 (dan-ryun), which not only means practicing and exercising, but contains the meaning of tempering, building up and inuring oneself.

- About Training...

Today I want to share my thoughts on training.

There has been a lot of controversy over me, training back of my hands.

After people saw me hitting trees as a means to temper the back of my hands and breaking granite in Yetbeop Taekyun demonstration, they have been disputing that it was not pure Taekyun and some other martial arts have been mixed in.

Can we, however, say that my training itself is not Taekyun?

In Yetbeop Taekyun there are a lot of hitting techniques that use the back of a hand(활개뿌리기), palm(면치기), hand blade(팽이치기), the inside of an arm(안가지치기), and the outside of an arm(밖가지치기). I have been training just to add power to already existing Yetbeop Taekyun techniques. There is no difference with other martial artists lifting weight and hitting sandbags or mitts for their needs.

I think training is one of the most essential aspects of martial arts.

Training is not only done by those chosen fews, but by every martial artist in their everyday practices and takes different forms by the needs of each martial art.

Even if a Taekwondo player kicks kick-pad to enhance kicking power, it does not mean that the person is doing Muay Thai or kickboxing. Just like it, we can't say that a person who does Young Chun Kwon is doing boxing just because the person is hitting sandbags, can we? All these practices are choices by the needs and fall into the category of training.

To people asking whether breaking granite is Taekyun, I can certainly say breaking granite itself is not Taekyun. Martial art is not about hitting an immobile object, but about dealing with a moving opponent. Then why do I break granites? For me, the breaking is part of a demonstration. Since I cannot hit a real person, I am showing the power of each technique through breaking granites.

I've been doing Taekyun since 1995 and it's been 24 years until now. Excluding the 2 years of my service in the army, I've been practicing Taekyun for last 22 years. I am constantly practicing up until today from the past. I have never stopped Taekyun. Even when I was laying in the hospital bed due to femoral fracture, I mapped out and arranged Yetbeop Taekyun. So how can my training become something else besides Taekyun?

Training is a necessary requisite for martial artists.

We should keep in mind that training itself cannot decide the characteristics of a martial art.