Leaving TaeKwonDo

The subject is slightly misleading, but it did get your attention didn't it :) What I want to talk about here is that down feeling you get when something doesn't quite go right at training and that "I'm going to quit" feeling starts. Its probably happened to all of us at some point or another. For me it was a recent Monday night session where nothing went right. I've been plagued with an achillies tendon injury for about 10 months now along with a shoulder injury for the past year or so. The achillies problem seems to flare up quite often now. Some sessions I have no pain at all and I can do linework, patterns, sparring etc with no issues, but other sessions I can be just beginning in a class and it starts. This is what happened during the first 10mins in of a 90min class, I felt a familiar twinge of pain but I ignored it and kept going through padword and linework. It was into the latter part for the class when we started sparring that it really kicked in (no pun intended). Every time I was on the bounce, every movement, I had pain shooting through my foot so of course my brain says "stop moving", which I did... and of course this is sparring so I get lamped a good few times. What compounded it was next session I got exactly the same with the shooting pain and again in sparring I got lamped a few more times. Mr Chahal eventually pulled me out of the sparring line. I was really angry at myself but there wasn't much, if anything, I could do.

That night and for the rest of the weekend I was down about my performance, beating myself up about this injury and the "why me???" started. Wallowing in self pity isn't pretty and isn't something to do on a regular basis. We all get these doubts and worthless feelings now and then when things don't go the way we planned but what to look at is that you might have one or two bad sessions, but what about all the good ones? or the successes at competitions? or the enjoyment of training alongside the like minded people in your club? These good times more than outweigh the bad ones.

So if you get this sinking, quitting feeling, think back to what you've done and continue to do well at in TaeKwonDo, write it down someplace and keep it to hand in case you need reminding. As for me... well, I might never get past the injuries (being an auld man and all that) but I'll find a way to work round them and keep going. I know I'm never going to be a world class or even a club class sparrer but I'll still try it, even if it means yet again Mr Chahal pulls me out the line, sits me down and then gives me a stick (or just gives me stick) to hobble home with.