Courage is something that everyone needs to grow and progress. Without courage, we cannot earn the rank of our age. A forty year old might have the progression of an infant if he has no courage. We need courage to break through the mental barriers leading to maturation. Some barriers may be thicker than others, but we can get through them all if we have enough courage to break them down. Soo Bahk Do is a great trainer of courage. It teaches you not to be afraid to surge forward in life.

It teaches us how to build up strength to go uphill instead of downhill. A board may not be exactly the same as a mental barrier, but they definitely complement each other. It takes the same courage to do a class presentation, that it does to get up and break a board. This is how I add the courage aspect into my daily life.

By: Libby Hunt

Yong Gi is the Korean way of saying courage. Yong Gi means a lot. It means standing up for yourself and your friends, not running away from your fears, holding that pose until your arms and legs sting with pain. That is Yong Gi!

I try to show Yong Gi in Soo Bahk Do. It’s harder than you think it is! When we are just standing, I try not to fidget, I try to focus. When we have to hold a pose, I try not to let my arms drop and I try to look straight ahead. I also have a fear of breaking boards. I think that I will hurt my foot or I won’t break it. That is a fear I have to face to be a 3^rd gup.

I have used Yong Gi all my life. I had to tell my friend to include me. I had to go up in front of the whole school and do a form for Putting on the Arts. I had to go up in front of my whole acting class and sing a song. But, after I did all these scary things, I realized they are fun.   My friend now includes me and I have more fun.

 I think Yong Gi is important because if you never face your fears you’ll never learn how to get past them. It’s important to get past your fears because you need to have fun in life. I try to use Yong Gi a lot at Soo Bahk Do and at home.  I will try.              

HAVE YONG GI!

There are many parts of moo do that we’ve learned about in Soo Bahk Do training such as courage (yong gi), concentration (chung shin tong il), endurance (in neh), honesty (chung jik), and humility (kyum son).

First, I am focusing on concentration (chung shin tong il). I have been concentrating on having better stances in class and on learning new forms. Concentrating also helps me be more prepared and when I’m prepared, people look up to me. My teachers reward me for my hard work. When I concentrate I don’t have to do extra work. When I concentrate in piano I can play better. When I concentrate when I’m shooting baskets I can get more points. When I concentrate when making scrambled eggs they don’t get burnt. When I concentrate on carving, my fingers don’t get cut. When I’m concentrating on breaking boards, I don’t get bruises and I can break the boards. When concentrating, you get lots of confidence.

Honesty (chung jik) is another part of Soo Bahk Do that I try to always do. Even though if you do something wrong you may get punished, you can learn with the mistake you made. You can be rewarded by being honest. If you don’t tell the truth the first time, the problem grows and you get into a bigger heap of trouble. If you tell the truth the first time, you don’t have to get in all this trouble. Sometimes, I don’t practice piano like I should, but when my mom asks me about it, I tell the truth. My mom isn’t disappointed in me when I’m honest. People can trust you when you’re honest. One time at school, I was playing freeze tag with some friends. I wasn’t honest about being frozen and they figured it out and I had to be “it”. From this, I learned a lesson.

Finally, I want to talk about courage (yong gi). I showed courage in church by bearing my testimony in sacrament meeting this month. There were a lot of people there, maybe 350 people. I was happy to share my testimony even though it was a big group and I had to walk up to the stand by myself. Other kids followed my example.

I think I should advance to 3^rd Gup (red belt). I want to finish what I started. I feel motivated to go to my destination. Soo Bahk Do makes me feel better by letting me focus and know something about self-defense. I feel good about Soo Bahk Do and that I should keep trying. When I do this – when I finish, I go on to the next thing, the next level and try harder. This is why I think I should be a red belt.

In my life I have reflected Moo Do in many ways. I have always done this, but even more so after joining Soo Bahk Do Moo Do Kwan. These are some ways of showing Moo Do in my life.

Showing respect to others is very important in Soo Bak and in life. I try to show respect to my parents, teachers, and peers whenever possible. I do this by obeying my elders and following what they tell me to do. A recent way I have showed this was last Friday when a guest came to stay at our house over the weekend. I was home alone and although I did not want to help clean and prepare for this person, I did want them to be in a clean environment. It was a last minute job that I probably could have avoided but I did not complain, did my jobs well, and I even asked if there was anything else I could do to help. By doing this, my mom and I were able to finish the jobs we needed to do.

I am loyal to my friends and other peers by helping them and listening to what they have to say. I am trying to improve on this right now. As Assistant Senior Patrol Leader in my scout troop, our Senior Patrol Leader and I have been trying to encourage another scout to come more often. We are now planning a campout directed towards him to encourage him in scouting. We hope this will get him more involved so we can be better friends.

By following Moo Do I learn and grow in many ways. I have learned Yong Gi (courage), Chung Shin Tong Il (concentration), In Neh (Endurance), Chun Jik (honesty), and other values. I practice these every day, but I worked on honesty just last night, as I was looking for a book I accidently saw our web protection password. I knew that for my safety that this was not something that I should know. I told my parents about how I had seen the password on accident and she changed the password, this experience helped me be more honest, and helped me to be safe.

I also have really been working on my humility and on finishing what I have started. I recently showed this in my schoolwork. About three weeks ago although I did not want to admit that I was failing my History and Math classes and was almost in denial. But I humbled myself to the advice of my parents and teachers and worked hard. I did not want to fail those classes so I voluntarily stayed after school, redid my assignments, and did extra credit work. The term ended this past Friday and I passed both classes with B’s.

Because of Moo Do I have been able to learn many special things about Soo Bahk and other things in life. These values and concepts have helped prepare me for my rank advancement and I think I am ready both mentally and physically for this test. I am ready to take on the responsibility of a red belt and realize that I am someone else’s pier and someone else’s elder and truly believe that I can help others the way I have been helped .This understanding has and will also help me go further in Soo Bahk Do and other fields of life.