From Hobby to Profession, and Finally to Training for Survival

[진영]

In Korean 한글 번역
https://m.cafe.daum.net/enlightenment-k/dcM5/632?svc=cafeapp

취미에서 직업으로, 그리고 결국 생명유지로 - 나의 무예 수련의 변화 과정

In Spanish
https://m.cafe.daum.net/enlightenment-k/dcM5/633?svc=cafeapp

Desde el Pasatiempo hasta la Profesión, y Finalmente hasta la Supervivencia

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Before writing this article,
I would first like to say a few simple words.

As time passes, every human being — without exception — inevitably experiences physical change, aging, fatigue, loss of vitality, and emotional instability.

No matter how strong someone may be,
no matter how healthy they once were,
and no matter how much wealth, power, or fame they may have possessed,
no one can ultimately escape the realities that come with the passage of time.

That is why I hope people will not read the article “Training for Survival” only from the perspective of martial arts or physical exercise.

I sincerely encourage everyone to read it slowly from a personal perspective, taking time to reflect deeply on one’s own life, body, breathing, habits, and state of mind — thinking carefully, honestly examining oneself, and contemplating quietly.

Many people only begin to understand the importance of health, balance, recovery, and inner peace after gradually losing them little by little over many years.

However, true training should not begin only after everything has collapsed.
It should begin while we are still capable of restoring and preparing ourselves.

In other words, we must prepare in advance.

Even if some parts are difficult to understand right now,
as time passes and life experience deepens,
there will surely come a moment when these ideas become meaningful, helpful, and naturally connected.

Sometimes the body understands first,
and only afterward do the mind and thoughts begin to follow.

I write this in the hope that this article may become a small opportunity for each person to quietly look back at themselves more honestly, and to reconsider the direction of their life and the condition of their body.

—

Jeong Seong Kim
Founder & President
Jinyoung Ssangkum Ryu ☆ United World Haedong Kumdo Federation


■ Subject: From Hobby to Profession, and Finally to Training for Survival
— The Evolution of My Martial Arts Training


1. Training as a Hobby — The Beginning of Passion

Although my martial arts training began in early childhood, my journey into Haedong Kumdo during my younger years first started as a hobby.

At that time, training was driven purely by curiosity, excitement, and passion.

I simply enjoyed learning movements, studying techniques, and challenging myself both physically and mentally.

Before I realized it, martial arts had gradually become an important part of my daily life and personal growth.

At that time, I still did not fully understand the deeper meaning of training.

However, the joy and fascination I felt back then eventually became the most important foundation that allowed me to continue walking this path throughout my entire life.

Before I first entered Haedong Kumdo,
about 35 years ago, on the day before I began training with a white belt,

the image of the dojang students wearing black uniforms, sitting quietly in meditation with their backs straight,
their swords neatly placed beside them,

still remains vivid and fresh in my memory today.

Even now, that scene still feels new to me,
and sometimes overlaps with the image of myself today.


2. Training as a Profession — Teaching and Responsibility


About ten years later, entering my 30s and becoming a high-ranking practitioner, I opened my dojang and began teaching students.
At that point, martial arts became both my profession and my life’s work.

From that period onward, my focus gradually expanded beyond simple personal enjoyment.

As a founder and instructor, I became responsible for guiding people, transmitting martial arts, researching teaching methods, and helping others grow through training.

Living as an instructor, I repeatedly realized that martial arts cannot consist only of physical techniques.
Because of that realization, continuous exploration and expansion naturally continued throughout my life.

True training must include technique, philosophy, and healing together.
This is because everything is ultimately connected through one principle. Human life itself is no different.

Through many years of teaching experience and research, I became deeply absorbed in understanding the human body itself through musculoskeletal structure, breathing, posture, and human physiology.

I gradually came to understand from a broader and more professional perspective that proper training should not rely merely on force or repetition, but should help restore natural balance, breathing, circulation, awareness, and harmony within both the body and mind.

These realizations, moment by moment, continuously transformed both my teaching methods and my understanding of martial arts itself, and that process still continues today.

New thoughts and realizations gained through challenge and experience always keep life fresh and exciting.
Perhaps that is why even when I am alone and seemingly relaxed, I am always busy inwardly.


3. Training for Survival — Health, Balance, and Life Itself


Now, as I enter my seventies, training has taken on yet another meaning in my life.

Today, daily training has gone far beyond being merely a hobby or even a passionate profession.
It has become directly connected to my health, vitality, balance, and survival itself.

As the body naturally changes with age, I clearly feel that maintaining balance, breathing, movement, and inner stability becomes increasingly important — and certainly not easy.

There are more and more moments when even simple movements and postures no longer feel the same as before.

These uncomfortable moments,
these warning signals from the body,

make me understand more deeply why proper training is necessary throughout one’s entire life,
and why it is essential to understand such principles and natural laws.

Because ultimately,
I must do it in order to live.

And one day, a person may suddenly realize that this is precisely what “Training for Survival” truly means.

These days, I especially emphasize the importance of breathing, the diaphragm, the abdomen, and the pelvic floor during training.

Breathing is not merely inhaling and exhaling.
It is deeply connected to the nervous system, emotional stability, posture, recovery, awareness, and the body’s natural functions themselves.

Even the way one uses the mind and emotions continuously interacts with the internal organs.

In particular, the natural coordination between the diaphragm, abdomen, and pelvic floor plays an extremely important role in restoring the body’s balance and energy flow.

Today, the highest priority in my training is the recovery and understanding of natural energy flow through the principles of nature.

Its level and depth can never become perfect, even through a lifetime of practice.
Human beings are simply made that way.
We can only continue doing our best until the very end.

Instead of forcing unnecessary strength and tension, once a person learns to follow the body’s natural flow, both body and mind gradually begin recovering their original harmony.

And as this process deepens, consciousness itself also changes.

Awareness becomes broader and calmer,
movement becomes more natural,
and martial arts ability can develop far beyond what one could ever have imagined before.

Physical weakening may be unavoidable,
but the evolution of consciousness can continue until the very end.

For me, martial arts training is no longer separated from life itself.
In other words, visible and invisible aspects of everyday life are all connected together as one.

Training has become a lifelong process of understanding the body, refining the mind, restoring balance, and living in greater harmony with nature and oneself.

One day, I came to realize that the professional training period of my 40s and 50s had been deeply rooted in the passionate hobby stage of my youth.

During those years, passion and professional responsibility existed together, and those experiences shaped who I am today.

When I was younger in Haedong Kumdo training, I immersed myself completely through passion, enjoyment, curiosity, and challenge.

Later, during the professional stage, I continuously pursued deeper experience, knowledge, teaching ability, and broader understanding of martial arts and the human body through structures and theories based upon the principles of nature.

However, as I grow older, training has taken on an even more essential meaning.

Today, I no longer train merely for improvement or teaching.
I now practice “Training for Survival” itself.

As time passes, maintaining and restoring weakening physical and mental functions eventually becomes a form of survival training in order to continue enduring and living until the very end.

Based upon the foundations built during both the hobby stage and the professional stage, I now clearly feel that many parts of the body naturally stiffen, weaken, and lose balance with age.

Various functional problems also gradually begin appearing.
Through these experiences, I have come to think more deeply, realistically, and practically from many perspectives that the human body was fundamentally created to function through movement.

The body functions normally through movement, stimulation, circulation, breathing, balance, and natural reaction.

I have often explained that the human body maintains life itself through stimulation and response.

Therefore, depending on one’s circumstances and condition, if a person spends long periods merely sitting or lying down without sufficient movement, the body’s natural functions and harmony inevitably begin to weaken.

This simple and ordinary understanding has become one of the most important realizations in both my training and philosophy of life today.

The reason I have recently been writing more articles about the diaphragm, abdomen, pelvic floor, balanced breathing, and the relationship between balanced breathing and a balanced mind is because these are fundamental principles that must be understood within Training for Survival.

Through long years of training, teaching, observation, and direct experience, I have gradually come to realize through my own body that breathing is connected not only to movement, but also deeply connected to emotional stability, awareness, recovery, posture, energy flow, and the overall condition of both body and mind.

And these truths become even more urgent when one begins facing the weakening and gradual decline of bodily function.

That is when the meaning of Training for Survival begins to penetrate deeply into one’s bones.

Even when the body feels tired and wants to become lazy,
more than the youthful passion of hobby training or the professional sense of duty,
now I move my body because I must live.

That is what Training for Survival means.

And it is only because of all the training accumulated throughout my life that my present training is still possible today.

“Training for Survival” is no longer an unfamiliar phrase to me anymore.

As I grow older,
I realize more deeply once again today that natural internal coordination between balanced breathing and a balanced mind is not optional,

but an essential foundation for maintaining health, balance, vitality, and clear awareness throughout one’s entire life.


Thursday, May 21, 2026

Founder & President
Jinyoung Ssangkum Ryu ☆ United World Haedong Kumdo Federation
Jeong Seong Kim


#JinyoungSsangkumRyu
#JinyoungSsangkumRyuHaedongKumdo
#UnitedWorldHaedongKumdoFederation
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#BodyMindSpirit
#AgingAndHealth
#PhilosophyAndPractice
#WayOfLife
#LoveOfNature

Ref)
https://m.cafe.daum.net/enlightenment-k/dcM5/322?svc=cafeapp

Transmission of Jinyoung Ssangkum Ryu Haedong Kumdo

https://m.cafe.daum.net/uwhkf/MbWZ/62?svc=cafeapp

The Future Direction of Haedong Kumdo Through an Interview (한글 및 영문번역)

https://m.cafe.daum.net/enlightenment-k/dcM5/625?svc=cafeap

The True Structure of Breathing – Toward Balanced Breathing~~

https://m.cafe.daum.net/uwhkf/DvEa/647?svc=cafeapp

My interview before the USA HK Seminar 2024 🇺🇸

https://m.cafe.daum.net/enlightenment-k/dcM5/603?svc=cafeapp

The Forgotten Half of Martial Arts and Jinyoung Ssangkum Ryu Practice