I feel like I’m finally getting into serious belt territory now!  My “belt class” began with 19 people as white belts, and as of test time we were down to 9, between people missing tests, dropping out or taking (short or long) breaks from taekwondo training. I believe only 7 or 8 of us actually tested–I’ll check the board next time I’m in class.

As you might expect, the tests get more involved as we get closer to black. For this one, we had to demonstrate kicking combinations 13 – 16, our form (Taeguk Yuk Jang), our usual two minutes of sparring, knowledge of terminology (cumulative!) and board breaking. This time around, we had to break TWO boards, the first one with a palm heel strike and the second with a jumping roundhouse kick, with various kicks down the floor in between the two. I’d been stressing a bit about the second break, because my “jumps” in class weren’t very, um, jumpy. I would find myself focusing too much on jumping and messing up the actual kick when we practiced with targets. As it happened, though, I broke the board (both boards) on the first try . . . after a bit of confusion. My sparring partner “crossed lanes” during the kicks down the floor and broke MY board instead of hers with the roundhouse! So, after a moment’s hesitation, I just threw in an extra couple of kicks to get to her board and broke that one instead. No harm, no foul.

For the next test (which we can’t take for at least four months) we’ll be expected to show cumulative mastery of EVERYTHING so far: all forms, kicking combinations and terminology, in addition to one-step sparring techniques 1-10. Plus our NEW form and two more kicking combos, of course. Oh, and we get to spar both one-on-one and one-on-two, which will be something new as well. Lots to learn before February!

Sharks! Lots of sharks!

Last month we finally made a much-postponed trip to Grand Bahama for some beaching and diving. It was right at the end of the tourist season, so the crowds were thin and several times we had beaches to ourselves. Even better, it meant customizing our diving to a much greater extent than we’d have managed had the island been more crowded. That said…

I did NOT plan on diving with sharks!! Our dive operator talked about the cool reef formations and some of the fish we might see. He did mention–in passing–that we might get lucky and see a reef shark, but we’ve heard that before so I didn’t stress about it. But we hadn’t been down for more than five minutes when sharks showed up–and kept showing up! There were probably half a dozen of them, and they circled around us for about ten minutes before leaving. Of course, after my initial “Oh, crap! Sharks!” moment, I brought my camera into play and snapped quite a lot of good pix of them.

[An aside here about my cute new dive camera: since my big one is both cumbersome and a little scary--I'm always worried I'll break it or lose a piece--I'd been wanting something smaller and cheaper. Just before leaving on this trip I bought a SeaLife ECOShot SL321, a self-contained digital that's small enough to slip into the pocket of a BC. The flash is kind of lame--as I knew it would be--but for dives under 50 feet or so on a clear day, it takes very nice pictures. It's especially great for snorkeling (see below). Definitely a keeper.]

Only after we surfaced did the dive master tell us that, yes, they do shark dives at this same spot, where they feed the sharks to keep them around. So (duh!) sharks tend to check out divers there, hoping for chum. I’d have been MUCH more nervous before jumping in if I’d known about that in advance–in fact, I might have chickened out of the dive altogether. But then I’d have missed all those great pix and a really cool story to tell!

Yes, I’ve made it one step closer to black with yesterday’s belt test! This is the one between blue and red, another one of those “awkward colors” that aren’t consistent across schools. At ours, it’s blue with a white stripe, but at many it’s brown. (Which, face it, sounds much cooler! So much closer to black!)

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I actually got a pedicure for the occasion, since I’d put off my usual annual trip to the salon before the RWA conference due to the extreme ugliness of my right leg. (See my “Badge of Honor” post.) I was afraid I would scare the poor pedicurist half to death if I went in like that. Plus, I doubt I’d have enjoyed the lovely leg massage very much, since it was still pretty sore. Now, though, I can say that I broke my board with pretty feet.

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And yes, I did break it—on my first try! I’m pretty pleased about that, since the back spinning kick is a tricky one. Very easy to miscalculate and fall on your tushie. Though I don’t remember anyone actually doing that at the test, so maybe the risk wasn’t QUITE as high as I feared. I’m still convinced it was my freshly painted Conga Line Coral toes that carried the day (even if I actually hit the board with my heel—details, details).

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Next up, going for Red in October!

A week ago today, I received the closest thing to an injury I’ve had yet in taekwondo–a really hard kick to the shin while sparring. I’d love to be able to say, “You shoulda seen the other guy,” but I’m afraid the “other guy” was a girl, college aged, but much more aggressive than I am.

Last Monday, shortly after class, it looked like I had two knees on one leg. Then, of course, the bruise started forming, and it still hasn’t stopped, a week later! My whole lower leg is kind of a mottled purplish yellow, and as of yesterday I’ve also got some impressive bruising happening around my ankle. (Gravity, I guess?) I guess this sport isn’t for wimps, huh?

The worst part (vain creature that I am) is that I leave for the National Romance Writers of America conference in a couple of days and my leg will still be UG-LEE!  I’m having to rethink my wardrobe, maybe leaving those cute sundresses at home in favor of long skirts and slacks. Or maybe I should just flaunt my technicolor leg and seize the excuse to tell war stories?

I realized I never reported here on getting my blue belt a couple of weeks ago. It was a long test (mostly because the blues tested near the end) but not quite as gruelling as the last one–maybe because I remembered to drink more water this time. We had a little less time to prepare for this test than usual because the last one was two weeks later due to spring break for the kids. It meant a little more concentrated effort, especially on terminology and kicking combinations. I’m starting to think that in another belt or two, my head just might explode from trying to remember ALL of the kicking combinations! (We have to learn two new ones for each test, so I was up to twelve this last time.)

I do want to crow about breaking my board on the first try this time, after the embarrassment of taking three tries last time around. This time we had to break with an axe kick, which I found MUCH easier than the back kick. Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to aim at a board that’s in front of you than one that’s behind you! Next time, though, we have to break with a back spinning kick, and I’ll admit it already has me nervous. Real easy to land on your behind with that kick, even when NOT trying to break a board. Opportunity for embarrassment is high.

But that’s part of why I’m doing this–to play outside my comfort zone and get over the whole fear of embarrassment thing–so I’ll just try to embrace the experience as Personal Growth if I screw up!

One more belt test under my belt!  This is one of those “between” belts that are a little awkward to describe because different schools use different colors: it’s the one between green and blue, which at our do-jang is green with a white stripe. (When my daughter took taekwondo classes a few years back at school, it was a purple belt. Another nearby school uses a green belt with a blue stripe.) 5th geup, in any event.

This test was interesting because our group (a large one–about 18 people in my “belt class) didn’t go first, for a change, so I was able to watch several other tests before my own.  I’m already getting nervous about the test the red belts have to take to move up–it was a complicated one!  And of course it’s always fun to watch the little kids testing. Some (especially very young white belts) are clueless, while others are totally focused.  I think I may be the only adult female color belt without any kids in the school, so I’m able to watch for pure enjoyment–no vested interest.

My own test went smoothly until the board breaking. Back kick this time, and I’d practiced and practiced on the bag and with targets, but I was still nervous. With reason–it took me three tries!  At least I wasn’t the only one who had trouble, but it was still a little embarrassing.  But hey, getting embarrassed means I stepped out of my comfort zone, right? And that’s a GOOD thing.

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. And I do have my new belt!

Now that I’m only a couple weeks from my next belt test, I think I’m finally becoming respectably aggressive when it comes to sparring. At the very least, I think I can say that I’m not the LEAST aggressive sparrer (is that a word?) in the whole school!
There’s a city-wide tournament coming up (which I won’t be competing in–maybe next year), so our Master is teaching us more about sparring and scoring and such. Interesting thing I learned: a solid kick to the body is worth one point while a kick to the head is worth two. Now, setting aside the fact that people kicking each other in the head seems like a generally bad idea, I’m wondering if that’s an area I should work on?
I may not be as fast or as strong as most of the younger folks in the school, but I’m good and flexible. I work hard at that, mainly to avoid injury to my knees and tendons. So in THEORY, I should be able to kick high enough to whack someone in the head. Whether I could actually do it is a whole different question, of course. We do wear padded headgear, but I’ve still never seen anyone kick anyone else in the head while sparring. (In class I mean–I know it happens in matches, though again I’ve never seen it except on TV.)
If I ever do manage it, I’ll report on it here. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if everyone had to treat the old lady with extra respect because she’s known for kicking people in the head?? LOL!

And yes, that trip was a wee bit more adventurous than either I or my daughter had bargained for.  Enough so that I’m glad I decided to go along rather than let her make the trip solo. (She’s just 23.)

The first adventure was just a couple of hours into the trip, when we had a flat tire. Tooling down I-70 somewhere west of the IN-IL border we heard a funny loud rattling sound. Then it stopped. We weren’t even sure whether it came from inside or outside the car, but since we were coming up on an exit, I suggested we pull off and take a look, just to be safe. Good thing we did! By the time we pulled into a gas station and got out, the tire was nearly flat and going down visibly. Lucky us, there was a tire repair place just down the road and even though they normally closed at noon (it was about 1pm) the guy was still there and came over to take a look. He was able to pull the tire, repair it and have us back on the road in no time. We only lost an hour and $60. All adventures should be so easy!

The next day and a half were fun. From St. Louis on, we were basically following old Route 66, though on the interstates. Great way to see the country, I must say, though early February probably isn’t the best time of year to do it. We chose the southern route to LA rather than the slightly more direct one via Denver because of the season. HOWEVER….

Day 3 found us still paralleling Route 66 into Arizona. We were debating the relative merits of a side trip to Sedona or Las Vegas as we approached Flagstaff, when the first snowflakes began to fall. Then it started snowing in earnest, and soon we were facing near white-out conditions. In Arizona! Somehow we hadn’t realized that Flagstaff is 7,000 feet above sea level… I was driving at the time and the wipers were so caked with ice I couldn’t see. I pulled off in Flagstaff to clear the wipers and get gas, and we very nearly ended up stuck for the night at a Circle K. The city streets were MUCH worse than the highway, so once we managed to get back on the road, we decided to brave the interstate again in hopes of driving out of the storm.

Bad idea.

The next exit with lodging was 20 miles away and it took us a full hour to reach it. It was the most harrowing hour on the road either of us had ever experienced, but we safely reached a Holiday Inn in Williams, AZ–both shaking like leaves. However, that blessed Holiday Inn had a restaurant (with full bar)  AND an indoor pool and hot tub, and after taking full advantage of both we felt MUCH better.

We discovered the next day that I-40 had been closed just west of Williams due to a 6 tractor-trailer pileup. Good thing we stopped when we did!  We passed the remains of that pileup around noon and it wasn’t pretty. But after a late start and a dicey hour or so, we were back on clear roads and made it the rest of the way to LA without incident.

It was a great mother-daughter bonding trip, though I don’t know that I’d advise the blizzard portion! And now I’m back to my tamer adventures in the taekwondo do jang.

I’m officially a green belt in taekwondo now!  Our group went first (again! I think because we’re the biggest group) but all 18 of us acquitted ourselves well, I think. Some of the youngsters needed a couple of tries to break their boards, but otherwise I didn’t notice any issues.

As always, I was paired with the only other adult woman of my rank for the kicking combinations and sparring. She’s a good bit younger than I am, but I’ve been working on my flexibility and stamina and felt like I held my own.

I think I need to come up with some way to display my “retired” belts. Three of those so far–and many more to come!

Next adventure: driving cross-country with my younger daughter (just the two of us) to move her to LA!

And I think I’m ready. I’ll review my terminology (Korean terms for front, side and roundhouse kicks, skipping versions of those kicks, and terms for low, middle and high blocks) and make sure I’m solid on my kicking combinations.

I’ve started back on the elliptical machine to work on my stamina. There’s nothing like sparring with teenagers to make someone my age feel REALLY out of shape!  (And hey, I think I’m in pretty darned good shape for my age. But, um, I’m not a teenager.)  Every step forward is a step forward, right?