Establishing Landmarks

This morning in class I was practicing spin inside-outside kicks and spin hook kicks, because I don't do these very well. I can't seem to get enough rotation. Oddly, I have less difficulty with jump spin kicks; this is probably because when I'm off the ground (admittedly not by very much) I can pivot without putting too much torque on my knee. Sa Bom Nim has told me that it's okay for me to substitute a jump spin kick for a regular spin kick in techniques like Il Soo Sik (One-Step Sparring) #11 and #12, but I want to be able to do both versions.

So today I was really trying to figure out where I need to plant my feet in order to execute the kicks successfully. My target was an adjustable pad set into a heavy-based holder. After about forty repetitions I thought I had the solution; all I had to do was set up with the heel of my kicking foot lined up with the seam in the floor mats. But then after another forty repetitions I realized that using a floor seam as a landmark was really dumb. What would happen to my alignment if somebody moved the target?

What's important is not the abolute position on the floor, but rather the relative position with regard to the target. That meant I had to change what I was looking at. I found that if I reached out at arm's length and touched the target, then stepped backward six inches, that seemed to put me in just in the right place.

This coming weekend is the first pre-test for those of us who are testing for Il Gup, Cho Dan and higher ranks this fall. I hope I can remember and apply what I figured out this morning.