so you're saying there's a chance...

A few months ago, my boss challenged me to an arm wrestling match. Yesterday, he remembered and made me go through with it, right in the middle of Keumkangsan.

I lost. With both arms. (Meaning, we wrestled left first then right, not that I lost after getting to use 2 hands).

And then he promptly went on to explain "mathematically" why I had lost. (Actually, it's physics, but whatever). See, although I'm female, and not one of much upper body strength, I had youth on my side, and some degree of "athleticism". You would think that going up against a 60+ year old small Korean man would be somewhat evenly matched.

I realized with the first match that he caught me off-guard, as he immediately cocked his wrist and proceeded to take me down in about 3 seconds. I realized what he was doing (well, prior to his detailed explanation on torque and forces) and decided to do the same when we rematched with the right arm. But to my great surprise, he beat me out the gate and I was taken down yet again.

How humbling. And educational.

So it turns out that he, as the golfer, has very developed forearms and wrists - everything below the elbow. Me, as the Taekwondoist, well...I have developed legs but that wasn't useful to me unless I was going to kick him under the table and catch him off-guard. Just kidding. If anything, I would have developed shoulders and biceps/triceps (which I don't) from punching and doing pushups. (Theoretically.) So although I may have been stronger than him in the bulk of my arms, he one-upped me by being stronger in the muscles that were needed to strategize from the get-go.

Not to say that I should have been the favorite to win this match - but I didn't expect to lose that handily. He had created out of our respective strengths and weaknesses, a foolproof way to win. What does this mean? It means there's always a chance, if you approach a problem in the right way.

Well, that and I really should have known. He's a Korean man. Men have pride. And no Korean man, regardless of how old, is going to go through with an arm-wrestling match with a girl in the middle of a Korean restaurant, without knowing that he's going to win. I should have known that just by insisting on going through with this match, he had a plan.

As Tum Tum said in one of my favorite movies growing up: "don't be overconfident". (Name that movie). You'd be surprised at what the underdog can do. And if you're the underdog, then...you always have a chance. And winners are those who take a small chance and turn it into something foolproof.

You learn something new every day...