I had my belt promotion test this weekend, in taekwondo, to be promoted from yellow to orange belt. An apparent well kept secret of the taekwondo school is the belt promotion day referenced in the calendar only refers to the children's promotion and the adult promotion (not noted in calendar) is always the Friday just prior. So here I was ready to take the test on Saturday and hoping to get a little coaching in the Friday class. But when I show up to the Friday class, most of the students are wearing their white uniform (which you have to wear for testing). I was nervous because I wasn't sure how ready I was for the test. Esp. since he may randomly expect me to have one of the virtues memorized (which I was planning on studying that night).Fortunately the teacher allowed me to take the promotion test even though I wasn't wearing the proper gear. This is my first full fledged promotion test, as last time I did a make up promotion test. He made us do 100 of each exercise (jumping jacks, mountain climbers, crunches, etc.) and 50 laps around the matt. What makes it extra fun is my having asthma - I'm just lucky, what can I say? Then finally we were tested on our forms and techniques which I did fine, despite my lack of extra practice.
The last part of testing is the board breaking. We don't get any practice time to try breaking these 1" thick boards. You do it the day of the test - you get as many tries as you want, but you ha
ve to break it in order to be promoted. Being promoted from white to yellow was easy 'cause I got to choose the hand and kicking techniques (have to break 2 boards, 1 with hand - 1 with foot). I chose the easy 'hammer fist' and 'axe kick' (see kick photo) then. But this time around I had to break the board with my hand stretched out like a chop (see first picture, if you double click on it you can see the animation). But instead of chopping down - I had to break it while it was being held vertically on my left side. I was nervous about that. But fortunately I broke it on the second try - but my hand hurt afterwards. I got a bump on the side of my hand that lasted a couple hours afterward. I still got to choose the kick so, of course, I chose the axe kick - since it's the easiest.
Needless to say - I was promoted and am now an orange belt in taekwondo. Soon my hands will need to be registered as lethal weapons.
4 comments:
Mazel tov, Jen-san!
lol Thank you!
Congratulations!! Check you out... I don't know if I'd be able to break wood in half...eek! You go girl!! :)
@Ivette - Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it with my hand out straight like that. The trick is to not think about breaking the board, just aim for the center, hit with the proper part of your hand and just hit as hard as you can.
Those who have a hard time - it's mostly in their heads. People tend to slow their velocity when the get to the board and don't follow all the way through. It's because they're thinking too much about breaking the board and how hard the wood is.
It's going to be hard when they want me to use a kick other then the axe kick. My legs aren't as strong.
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