Taekwondo Grading - Red Belt

Following our Christmas party at work on Friday I was very sore from a day of snorkeling and beach cricket. I didn't train on Friday night but did so on Saturday. Sunday morning I had grading to attempt for 3rd geup - red belt with one stripe.

Nervous as hell. Why do I feel like a kid about to enter an exam before grading? I guess we all are nervous about passing and take nothing for granted. Just couldn't wait to get on with it. By the time you start you done enough pattern practice to really confuse yourself.

Luckily once we started I didn't have to wait, the blue twos did but the blue threes graded, and the nerves faded away. Managed to do my three patterns ok without stuffing them up. Did muck up one of the line exercises but in a more difficult way. Oh well. My jumping back kicks were nothing to write home about and my spinning kicks were far from desirable. At least I didn't fall over and embarrass myself. Sparring was ok.

Then we had to sit and watch the blue twos. One big guy, good friend of mine, had no partner so when it came to self defence and sparring I had to help out. I knew that I would be asked to do this as I am the same size, less 15kg, as him and nobody else at the grading was even close. Man, did I feel stuffed afterwards. When I sat down the girl next to me said, "Are you dead yet?" Yes, it was also a warm day and I did feel knackered.

Reasonable pass so now I'm a red belt. And with that comes responsibility. Ok, maybe there's not too much responsibility. But there were a few bruises.

Taekwondo Grading

Yesterday I attended my third grading for taekwondo. Luckily it wasn't a hot day as you have no opportunity to rest or take a drink but it's all over in 10 to 15 minutes anyway. My partner for the grading was Steven, a yellow three (seventh geup) whom I'd not met previously, who was grading for his blue belt. I was a yellow two (eighth geup) going for yellow three.

Only five weeks after learning my second pattern I thought I did rather well and considering that I was invited to grade after having only learnt it for three weeks and then had a week off for Easter it wasn't too bad at all. Much easier than learning the first pattern which took about three months.

I scored a 70 for my self defence and that was probably my most worrying technique to be honest. It was also my highest score but I'm pretty pleased with my pass. Now I have to concentrate on a new pattern and remember taeguk 2 (the second pattern) to get to blue belt. Maybe another 12 months down the track I can go for red belt but there is still much to learn. And I'm enjoying learning it.

My First Taekwondo Grading

I had my first taekwondo grading on Sunday. I guess it was a bit easier for me than for my son as I've watched him for a number of years and knew what to expect. Even though it was over in about ten minutes I felt pretty exhausted during the sparring. The temperature was reasonably warm at 35.5C and I stood in the non-airconditioned section of the room. Still, did well enough to receive an honours pass but just not quite enough for a double promotion.

Taekwondo Oh Do Kwan white belts who graduated to yellow belt

The World Is A Safer Place - The Boy Is A Blackbelt

Last Sunday we I spent four hours watching taekwondo blackbelt grading. The main reason behind that was for the fact that The Boy was grading for his blackbelt. The first group of students included many blackbelts going for higher dans and their board breaking, between three and five boards, was done individually. This took an hour and a half for that group. The Boy wasn't in the second group graded so it was nearly an hour later before he hit the floor.

Actually, it was the best grading that he has done so far. He had to do taeguk 4 to 8 (patterns), kicks and blocks, ho shin seul (self defence), one step sparring, two step sparring and break two boards. I don't think that he's broken the boards before so he surprised himself somewhat. And when the board breaking was complete he was one happy chappy.

It was so great to see him be awarded his blackbelt as he's worked hard for just over four years. Not bad for a nine year old. And the world should be just that bit safer.