Soccer Dojo

September 15, 2011. Written in Seoul, South Korea.

Soccer Dojo

Now that Chusok (the Korean holidays) is over, I thought it was about time to go and search for another Kyokushin Karate Dojo here in Seoul. I had received the adress and telephone number of a Dojo here from the people of the Dojo in Pusan, and decided to go and search for that place. I had heard that the teacher there was a woman.
I showed the adress to Miss Kim to ask her which subway station I had to go to, but once I got out at that station, I knew almost for sure that this was not the correct place. It looked like the number 1 business district of Seoul. All I could see were skyscrapers! Nobody would start a Kyokushin Dojo in a place like this. I decided to call the telephone number of the Dojo. A woman took up, and said "Hello" in Korean.
I asked if she spoke English or Japanese, but she said no, but when I asked if I was calling to a Kyokushin Dojo, she said yes. She then gave me a number of someone that was supposed to speak English. I hung up, and called the new number. The guy that took the phone explained me in very good English that I was at the wrong station, and told me to which station I had to go. It took me about 30 minutes by subway to get there, and once I was there, it took me another 30 minutes to find the place. I felt very happy to be able to practice Karate again. My body had wanted some fighting for a long time!

When I entered the Dojo, I was told to sit down and have a talk with the female teacher. There was a guy with a white belt that spoke English, so he translated for us. The teacher said that it was no problem for me to join the lesson, but that she was a bit worried because the way of practicing was probably a bit different from Japan. They practiced in a much more freestyle way. I take the apporoach of a gym, rather than that of a dojo, she said. I told her that I didn't mind and that I was looking forward to experience a different way of practicing.

Everyone except for me and the white belt guy where not wearing a Karate-gi, but just a short pants and a T-shirt. If I would have known that, I would have brought a T-shirt myself too!
The training started without sitting down, bowing and meditating. That, however, was still acceptable. What came next, really surprised me. Those who remember the title of this blog might already feel it coming, but the training started with a 4 to 4 match of soccer! Now, first of all, playing soccer without wearing shoes in a Karate-gi is a very uncomfortable thing. Next, the Dojo was way too small for a 4 to 4 match. And above all of that, the plastic ball was too small and soft to play a serious soccer match with. I ended up kicking the the floor multiple times, and finally injured my foot. If it would have been a warming up, I could have somehow understood the reason that we were playing soccer, but the match went on until one of the teams scored 10 points! The goals were very small, and it usually took a long time for someone to score. I think we played soccer for about an hour, and that was at least the half of the training! After that, we did some kicking and punching to the mitt's, but that is all the Karate I have done that day!  The last half hour was a condition training. I cannot deny the fact that it was a very hard training. Especially because I already felt quite tired after the soccer, I had a had time kicking and punching after that. Maybe my condition has become worse since I haven't been practicing on a regular basis these days. But although I was pretty tired after the training, I didn't feel completely satisfied. I had wanted to practice Karate so much, but actually hadn't really practiced any Karate at all. I especially had wanted to spar! To fight with new opponents in a different country is a lot of fun, and an easy way to feel a connection without speaking the same language. I was invited to come the next day too though, so I hope I can do some sparring today!