Page 85 - Martial Science Magazine Special Edition 2015

What motivated you to

learn martial arts?

I was working in advertising and marketing in
Detroit, Michigan. Being a young girl in a big
city and working late hours, I found myself to
be an easy target for crime. Eventually beco-
ming “fed up”, I asked the local police how I
could obtain a gun for protection. They told
me that was a bad idea. They explained that if
I was not tough enough, confident enough, to
actually use it, the next crime would definitely
be by gun point because the bad guy would
take my gun from me. I asked about pepper
spray, they advised the same thing. The spray
could be used against me. I decided to arm
myself with something that no one could take
away.

How was your experience

training in Korea?

I was already a 3rd degree black belt and ins-
tructor at my school back in Detroit. But I had
no idea the level of training that would be in-
volved in Korea. As a member of the profes-
sional martial arts team - the Korean Tigers,
we spent 5 days a week training, 8 or 9 hours
a day. We usually performed demos on the
weekend. The first few hours were spent on
the opening poomsae with an emphasis on
perfect unison. The balance of the day was
spent on jumps, kicks, self defense sets, tum-
bling, breaking and stamina training. After a
while, I did not seem to have wrists or ankles,
they were always swollen and as big as my
arms and legs. The other members were ex-
treme athletes, the stamina portion of the tra-
ining was the most difficult for me. Often, I
would have to bow out and lose my breakfast.
I would always get a big stinging slap on the
back with words of encouragement, “good!
now you are ready for training!”. Sometimes