Yesterday, I competed in my first competition — at least the first one against people from schools other than White Tiger. I competed in one event: forms (poomse). Poomse is my favorite thing about taekwondo. I enjoy sparring, kicking practice, etc. — but there’s something about poomse that makes it appeal to me above all other aspects of the art. It’s been the same in the other martial arts I’ve tried. Kata was my favorite part of karate-do and bojutsu; I loved t’ai chi because it was all forms (though I must admit, I missed sparring). I’m not sure why it appeals to me so much.
Perhaps it’s the moving meditation aspect of it. I know that poomse doesn’t stay in the dojang for me. When I’m emotionally upset, I do poomse. When I need to de-stress from a day, I do poomse. When I’m angry at my DS and I need to calm down before I can deal with him rationally, I do poomse. When I’m scared or irate, keyed-up or extremely nervous…you guessed it, I do poomse.
When I can’t do poomse with my body — like the day I had to stand in line for two hours at traffic court — I do it in my head. It helps me calm down and focus on the task at hand. I do it in the morning when I just can’t seem to wake up and, if I’m insomniac, before I go to sleep at night. I do it when I need to memorize information. I’ve very much a kinesthetic learner and I find it extremely difficult to memorize anything without tying it to movement.
Poomse has become a structure I can use as a framework for my life, as well as my art.
