About that big test I took this weekend
September 11, 2007 | 10:11 pm | Uncategorized | Below The 38th Parallel | 1
The leg is the longest and strongest weapon a martial artist has.
I won’t know for about two weeks or so whether or not I passed, and I still have to break my five boards, but I think I did pretty well. The gory details are inside.
I had an extra practice on Saturday, and we got to the stadium early enough on Sunday that I could practice some more. When they announced our province over the intercom, I headed down with my school-mates and my instructor to the stadium floor where we ended up standing in a crowded hallway for over an hour while the judges went to lunch. That was probably the hardest part — standing in that crowd with only my thoughts to accompany me and with no room to practice or even fidget to burn off the nervous energy.
All week people kept asking me if I was ready — I responded that I was physically ready but not mentally ready. I had no doubt in the safety of my own dojang that I had all the poomses memorized, but I was afraid that in front of several thousand people I might freeze and forget everything.
Eventually we were called out onto the floor, and I was able to watch the group of red belts before me take their poomse test. Some of them looked pretty weak, scared senseless and pathetic. I don’t blame them, because I felt the same way too, but I was also thinking to myself that I knew I could do better.
There weren’t very many red belts from my region and we were tested six at a time. When it was my group’s turn to test, they called out the random poomse number (it was number six) and about three moves into it, when I realized I was not going to forget anything, I started to feel really confident and basically rocked it out. I was still running on nervous energy though and wasn’t able to put as much force into the forms as I would have liked, but I made no technical mistakes and I finished strongly. I was equally relieved when they dismissed us after the one poomse because I was sure we’d have to do at least two.
Then it was a mad rush to get into my pads for the fighting segment. We fight a lot at my dojang, more than most dojangs do, and for the majority of the summer I’d been going to the night class and fighting against teenage boys who’ve been in taekwondo for years. I was sure that I could hold my own against whoever I fought. I was also prepared to fight for two minutes, which is the length of one round in competition fighting. Turns out the fights at the test were only about 45 seconds, at the most. When I realized this I made up my mind to just bust out with every kick I knew right from the start.
Luckily, I got to fight the other girl from my school who was also testing for her black belt. We were the only women from our province who were testing for first dan, so we think that’s why they paired us together. I was quite happy because I’ve been fighting against her in practice all summer. I knew we would do well against each other and she wouldn’t hurt me (even though I did accidentally kick her in the teeth a few weeks ago).
Christopher took a bunch of pictures of me fighting but in every one I’m grinning like an idiot while throwing kicks because I knew I was doing a good job. Once I get my belt in hand I’ll post some pictures.
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Congrats for kicking ass, chica!
Whether or not they say you did, YOU know you did.
*And* you could kick the ass of anyone who tries to kick my ass! Can I hire you as my bodyguard when you return to Texas?
Ooh, you could make some serious cash as a bodyguard to rappers, you know? I bet there are many who’d love to have a hot, beautiful, black belted blonde chick as their bodyguard. And think of the classy crowd they run in! Fiffy Cent, Kid Rock, Snoop Dog - claaaasss.
OK, maybe not.
Holding my breath for you,
ab