Black Belt Camp

A month so back, Sarah, my wife Teresa's younger sister, came to our apartment for a visit/knitfest. Sarah had recently returned from 4-H camp, and she regaled us with stories about her new friends, the events that took place, the fun she had, the giggle fests, the pranks, and the general fun she had. She talked about the bittersweetness of saying goodbye to her new friends and Teresa and I really appreciated her spending time with us describing her good time. I especially appreciated those stories because in June, I would be attending my sixth Black Belt Camp.

Back in the day, when we were gup (Korean for colour belt) students, the black belts (dan, in Korean) used to tell us magnificent tales about... black belt camp. Actually, they never really told us what happened at camp. What would happen is that one day in the summer you would come across a black belt instructor, like Mr. Francis, Mr. Papp or Mr. Robinson, would be all limping and wincing and looking like they were suffering a world of pain.

Mr. Papp (l) and Mr. Francis (r). Mr. Robinson (below)

So I would ask them: "Yo! What happened to you guys?"

And because I didn't follow protocol they would say: "Don't you mean 'Yo, sir'?"

And I would say: "Yo, sirs! What happened to you guys?"

their response would only consist of three words: "Black Belt Camp."

As if that explained everything.

So I would ask: "What did they do to you at Black Belt Camp?"

And they would reply: "If you stick around long enough, you'll find out..."

Real mysterious, like.

Black Belt Camp. Those three words came to represent one of those unknown stops along the path to black belt. The event was deliberately kept a secret to us gup students, not to discourage us, mind you, but to irritate us. Apparently, our instructors believed that irritating us would build character.

One things our instructors couldn't hide from us was their true feelings about camp. Despite the sore muscles and the sunburns, you ask a black belt about camp and a beatific smile would cross their face. My friend Paul McNally used to describe it as "Christmas in June".

As you rose in rank, and your instructors got to know you a bit better, they would sometimes offer more info about camp. If you believed them it sounded like boot camp in hell. You ever see the movie Full Metal Jacket? We'll that's how those black belts would describe camp. It was every counselor was like R. Lee Emery on crystal meth. And invariably the worst sounding of all counselor was Master John Beam. He was a legend in World Tang Soo Do. He ran the Saturday afternoon calisthenics, informally known as Master Beam's Death March.

The black belts would wax rhapsodic about camp:

Mr. PAPP - Last year had to be the hardest work out. I mean I almost had to sit out after the hundredth knuckle push up.

MR. FRANCIS - Last year was a cake walk! Remember two years back, during the heat wave? How many people passed out on that one? What was Master Beam thinking?

MR. ROBINSON - Remember that one back in '98?

MR. PAPP - Ooooooh! Oh God!

MR. FRANCIS - I had to take therapy to forget that year.

ME - What happened? Tell me! Tell me!

MR. ROBINSON - That was the year that Master Beam was in a... *gasp*....bad mood...

MR. FRANCIS and MR. PAPP solemnly nod their heads.

Finally in 2001, I got to go to Black Belt Camp.

Camp occurs over three days and two nights, usually during the first weekend in June. Only black belts and black belt candidates (or, cho dan bo) were eligible to attend. In Region 8, Camp is mandatory for those testing for the next dan level. In our school, you had to have a reeeeeally good reason for missing out on camp.

2001 was a good year for my first camp. There were a lot of firsts and lasts that year. It was the first camp where kids 18 and under were not present. World Tang Soo Do had grown so big that they now had to separate kids and adult camp. It was the first year that they ran the "Gong Show" on Saturday evening. This began a Vaughn's Dojang tradition that each year, Vaughn's cho dan bo's had to perform in the show to represent the dojang (studio). It was the first year that Grandmaster Shin introduced Ki Gong to his black belts. Ki Gong is a healing art, in the same vein as Tai Chi Chuan. Ki Gong practice required the practitioner to perform a series of "dance-like" rhythmic moves. The purpose of these moves were to harmonize the ki energy in the body, but initally they all made us giggle. As a result, our class of cho dan bo's decided to parody these moves as part of our "Gong Show" routine. We would throw in a bunch of exaggerated, and outdated hip-hop moves like "The Carlton". All in good natured fun. I thing the best part was when my friend, colleague and fellow cho dan bo Marv, sang the World Tang Soo Do Anthem in Korean. I guess it sounds a bit lame when I describe it, but it was truly a gutbuster. Marv, is actually Dr. Marvin Unger, a well respected chemical engineer that does prestigious work on innovative remediation technologies with the US Government. Here's a picture of Marv and his oldest son, Eric. As you can see, Marv is also a fiftyish, balding, ex-hippie and genuine New Yorker. So if you every want to hear the Korean version of our anthem sung wildly off key in a heavy Brooklyn accent, Marv's your man!

As I said it was a year of lasts too. It was the last year that Master Beam supervised the Saturday afternoon exercises. Master Beam was a hard man and he lived quite an adventurous life. He had mastered many martial arts including Tang Soo Do and Ki Gong, and it was rumored that he had knowledge of Ninjitsu. His Ki Gong training helped him as he started to develop the conditions associated with Parkinson's disease. I don't know much about his past, but I personally was present when he cleanly broke a board balanced precariously on a students head with a spinning wheel kick. Mind you, this is a man with Parkinson's disease, who at that time needed a cane to walk.

By the way, he still mercilessly worked our butts into the ground that Saturday.

It was then that I discovered the secret to black belt camp. I discovered the link between the aches and pains and the beatific, happy smiles. It's not a real mystery. Sometimes it's presented as a mystery, because that's part of the tradition, the protocol, but the key is really simple.

At camp you work out the hardest you have ever worked out in your entire life. You commit to it all. The pushups. The situps. The drills. The kicks. The hand techniques. The blood. The sweat and sometimes the tears. You choose to commit. You choose to participate and you participate fully with all your heart. That's it. That's the big secret.

During the work outs you sometimes find your self getting to the bottom of your cup. You get to that point where you think to yourself: This is it! This is all that I have! But somehow, you continue. You look to your left and to your right, you look in front and behind and you see all the people that you love, the people you traveled with you along the path who were just too stubborn to give up. That's all a black belt is, really, a person just too stubborn to give in, to quit, even if they reach their limit. These folks, your friend and fellow warriors, they know you so well that they see when you are getting to the quitting point. So they share words of encouragement to keep you going: Attaboy! Keep it up! Don't give up, I'm with you!

Those words are just enough to keep you going, past the point of no return. You do it because you want to honour their encouragement, their perseverance. Their energy fortifies you, and you in turn will fortify them in their time of need. That's the main lesson of black belt camp. You get three days worth of love, encouragement, strength, friendship and fellowship. That kind of positive energy is worth any amount of sore muscles and body aches. It's what keeps me going back year after year.

This camp will be a special time for me, because I have been away from my friends and fellow black belts for about a year now. I will be seeing them all again and I will be catching up with the changes in my extended family. I just can't wait!