Mondays training was a little lighter then normal. Our branches are preparing for promotional testing this weekend, so my wife and I decided not to attend the South Branch last night. We figured it would be better not to attend other branches this week because we did not want to take time away from students who are working on perfecting technques requried for their testing.
Grey Belt class is a class offered once a week at the main school for students from any branch. In any event we did head out to the main school for Grey Belt class, which is normally a black belt class however they allow Red Belt Black tips to attend. Grey Belt class is for the most class normally a forms class and not as "intense" as regular classes. I was shocked when I noticed that the class only had 11 people in it last night. I figured that with black belt testing going on this weekend the class would be pretty full, but out of the 11 people in attendance only 3 of the people were actually testing.
For class we worked on forms as normal as well as some basic kicking drills, free sparring and basic self defense combinations our school calls one steps. I did not realize how many 'one steps" I actually new until we were told to go through all of them with both right and left sides. We just started working on them a couple of weeks ago and I managed to remember 9ish which is actually pretty good. I still need some work on them ofcourse, but they will come by the time I have the opportunity to pretest in Feb for black belt.
I am looking forward to attend promotional testing this weekend to support my wife, my classmates, my friends form other branchesand one of my instructers on their testing. I am also going to pay close attention to the black belt testing to make sure I am able to do all the techniques they call out, and see what other fun stuff they do to them. When I watched the pretest I took very careful mental notes and did not notice anything being called that I was not able to do, except the fact that they held them in deep stances for quite some time so I started working on that now so when I need to go through it my body will be prepared.
I am extremely thankful for the year waiting time from Red Belt to Black Belt. During that year you still need to test for the last 2 red belts, however you need to remain a red belt belt for a year before you are able to test for black belt. I am 6 months into that year, and extremely thankful for what I managed to accomplish so far. I am at my last red belt which means I get to attend black belt classes and just simply work on all the forms, techniques and so forth that I have been working on since white belt. Attending black belt class has been wonderful, it has belped me to learn more advanced combinations, and I honestly enjoy being in the back left position in class for a change. The greatest benefit is that the Masters and Jr. Masters are always quick to offer advice or assistance when needed. It is also nice being able to attend a class a week under our schools Grand Master which is the first time I have had the opportunity while training at other schools. The Grand Master leads a few classes a week at the main academy and black belt class, but since I train at a diffrent branch I only get to train with him at black belt class. The Masters are normally the stone face people at belt testing and the Jr. Masters are normally the ones that get to lead the promotional testing and have little simpathy for what they put us through. IT is nice to see them in class, and see that yes the Jr. Masters and the Masters make mistakes from time to time, and again hearing their feed back on my technques and so forth.
I have been attending black belt classes since June and I already feel as though I have made a number of improvements on my Taekwondo path. By being the low rank student I have been able to look towards the front and I have been able to set high bench marks for myself then I have at my home dojan. At my home dojan I am either the second highest rank or the highest rank depending on the day not counting my instructers so be letting a new level for myself those behind me are also benefiting since they are using me as a bench mark for their own skills. Using people as benchmarks is good because it will make you a better martial artist, but remember you are not in competition with them or anyone else. I have also stepped up my own proformance by helping out when I can with the beginner class, and I will normally stick around after the advanced class to work on forms, breaking, or drills other people who stay want to work on. We call it our practice group since we have the usually 4-5 people and no black belts running the practice session. The same group of people met a few times a week when our branch had to take a month off and our instructer just happend to be at the gym each time and although he did check up on us, and normally did not enter where we were practicing. I think he was extremely proud to see a number of his students practicing togather when we were out of session and wanted to see where we would be with our skills when the session began. I believe he was pleased to see that everyone who met togather did not lose a step while on break.
Ok I think I may typed more then enough for now so I will not keep rambling on.
Remember you may where your uniform and rank a few hours a week, but you are a martial artist 24 hours a day,
Hannigan
