A Crucial Milestone in My Life Part 7

On the ride back from the tournament, I was so excited, Master Yoon, was his usual very reserved self. I felt like I hurdled a giagantic obstacle, and now was going to ascend to the ranks of the TKD elite. I couldn't wait to resume training on Monday.

Monday morning came and Master Yoon, asked me to meet him at the school. I was so excited I couldn't wait to see what the next phase of my training was going to be. When I got there Master Yoon had a grim look on his face. He said he received a phone call from our Grandmaster the night before, and he was no longer allowed to train me, he now had to focus on the school. I was crushed, he apologized but I felt a little betrayed, in my mind I felt that I was brought all this way only to be left stranded. In the weeks and months that followed I did my best to keep up my training and my fitness, I would run, weight train, jump rope, kick relentlessly, and spar every chance I could. Eventually I was told to cut it out Grandmaster wanted me to focus on teaching, I was to report to the school every morning with a few of the other Instructors, to go over curriculum, and teaching methods.

I begrudgingly would show up every morning for the next 3 months. Finally after the the three months were done, my mornings were free, and I wanted to get back to training but, not TKD I wanted a broader base of skill. I decided the first thing I would do is learn how to punch properly. The best way to do that was to learn Boxing. I started going every morning to a local boxing gym, go home eat go to work teach, Kick pads, go to the gym and weight train, go home and pass out. I was happy again outside of work, but at work I was unhappy I had been passed up for a promotion for full Instructor because Master Yoon had no time to work with me and the other staff members, so now was I not only not training for competition, I wasn't training for my 3rd degree Black belt, and wasn't being allowed to become a full Instructor. I was at a loss, all i did was teach and watch students progress, while i felt my skills as a Martial Artist began to diminish. I eventually decided to start looking for a way out, I thought maybe it was time to find another career so that I could dedicate time to training.

One day when I was finishing up at the boxing gym, I saw Master Ramirez, I remembered him from a Melody Schuman seminar I had attended many years before, and had taken a few private MuayThai lessons with him. He recognized me, and we started talking, he asked me if I was looking for a job...   and the rest as they say is history.