I had another belt test this weekend, and it was by FAR the most gruelling one yet. Fitting, I suppose, since it was for my recommended black belt (that’s the one RIGHT before black, with the belt half red and half black). I obsessed for two weeks over the board breaking, since I knew I’d be expected to break with both right foot and left foot back-spinning kicks. That’s a scary kick at the best of times, flinging your foot up and around at head-height. Getting it wrong doesn’t just mean the board doesn’t break. It means there’s an excellent chance you’ll land on your tush on the mat in front of God, Grand Master Yoon, and everybody. And it’s the one part of the test you can’t fudge at all. With forms and kicking combinations and even one-step sparring, there more than a dozen of us doing it at once, so a flub isn’t terribly noticeable. But with breaking, you either break the board or you don’t.
I had to be at the do jang at 8:30am for the group picture. I should probably mention here that I am NOT a morning person. Note the time stamp on this post. It’s rare that I’m in bed before 1am and it’s rare that I’m out of bed before 9am. Add nervousness about the test (and a big–unrelated–party we were hosting later that same day) and I didn’t get a lot of sleep. After pictures and announcements, the testing started. My group wasn’t first. Or second. Or third. I started to worry I’d be too stiff to do any decent kicking and tried to stretch a little, inconspicuously, while waiting. Finally, after the second-degree black belt credit test, the first degree kids’ credit test (which they failed–they had to try again later on) and the first degree adults’ credit test, it was our turn. I creaked to my feet when my name was called and tried to hurry to my spot. Yeah, I was stiff.
We started with poomsae–forms. At this level, we were expected to know ALL of the forms we’d learned so far, nine in all. Our Master Instructor had us do three or four random forms, then the most recent and hardest one, taeguk pal jang. I was starting to loosen up. Next we did kicking combinations, any from 1 – 20, again called out randomly. A few of the kids were having trouble remembering, which meant we had to do some of them several times. Definitely getting warmed up now. Next came free sparring, never my favorite thing, but not too bad. Lora and I had fun with it. Then (oops! I’d forgotten we had to do this!) sparring one-on-two and two-on-one. That really gets the blood pumping, believe me! Now it was time to demonstrate our one-step sparring, as high as we could go. Lora and I had practiced these together before, including at a two-hour special class, so we did really well, I think. We made it through number 11, then realized everyone else had stopped when the Master Instructor called a halt.
I braced myself for the board breaking, which would be next. Except it wasn’t. Instead, Grand Master Yoon had us pair up and do back kicks countered by roundhouse kicks, up and down the floor, as quickly as possible, until he told us to stop. Several hours later (okay, it was probably about five minutes but it sure FELT like hours!) with all of the black belts cheering us on as we trembled and sweated, nearing the end of our endurance (well, I was, anyway–I had the distinction of being the oldest one testing for that belt….by about a decade), he called a halt. Then, finally, it was time to break boards.
Yeah, I guess you could say I was warmed up.
I set up, tried not to overthink it, spun, kicked, and broke the board on the first try.
YES!!!
And then we went straight to terminology without breaking a second board. I won’t say I was disappointed, however. (And I did break with my “bad” leg–not the one I’d have chosen, had I been given a choice.)
And now, I have my beautiful new black and red belt, which I will wear with considerable pride!
