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Personal Mastery Through Taekwondo | |
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| A few years back in early 1999, my GP at the time made a passing remark that I would do well to find some more mobility in my life and suggested I get in touch with a trainer friend of his who specialised in the Korean martial art of "Taekwondo" which was the "hot new thing". At first I laughed and moved on as if nothing had been said, but having taken this gentleman's card a few weeks later I felt a strain return to my lower back from merely crouching to pick up my wallet from the floor and I knew something had to be done. |
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| Jump forwards a year later to the summer of 2000 and Sabom Kwang-Soo and I had become an unstoppable force! Immediately I had found great satisfaction in the challenge of working towards mastering the various forms (poomsae), coordinating my physical movement around sparring drills and building my physical strength to increase the power of my connections with opponents. For a substantial period I was training up to 4 times a week for multiple hours at a time. |
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| Whilst I usually trained one-to-one. there were occasional evening competitive events, of which I absolutely relished |
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Sabom was a kind but unrelenting teacher and demanded more from me than any publisher, director or producer ever has. Training was gruelling but rewarding and over that main 14 months of regular gym sessions I was undoubtedly at my peak physical performance of my entire life, which wasn't bad for a man in his 50s. |
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Towards October of that year, Sabom was insistent that I should begin to enter some basic tournaments to prove to myself how far I had come. However, just as things seemed to support that idea, a conversation with friends over dinner one night resulted in me committing to producing Bombay Dreams which pushed me vastly out of my comfort zone and absolutely absorbed my life for the next two years leaving no time for training let alone competing. Whilst Bombay Dreams was a wonderful project to have been involved with I often wonder how far I could have taken my physical training over this time instead. I never quite managed to return to the level of commitment I had reached in 2000 but I still intend to pick it up again when I have a chance. |
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| Sabom Kwang-Soo sadly returned to Los Angeles in 2011 which is a large reason I haven't returned to the gym in recent years. If you know of anyone who might be able to help me get back on the mat please get in touch as I am raring to go. |
Copyright Andrew Lloyd Webber 2003
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