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I found out that my Great Grandmaster was very recently promoted to 10th dan!  My master (and I think all of the Chang Moo Kwan masters) recieved a letter about it from Korea.  May 12, his birthday, is going to be celebrated in Korea like a holiday.

I'm going to start teaching TKD on my own, without my instructor or anyone else.  I agreed to teach some of the Korean students who are teaching me Korean language and culture, sort of like returning a favor.  I'm a little nervous but mostly excited.  Wondering if anyone has some advice for me.  It's not like I haven't taught before, I've lead class many times before, but the new school thing is what's making me nervous.

I ran a ring for the first time at a tournament this weekend.  It was interesting to say the least.

It was a small tournament with a limited number of blackbelts to help.  First of all when the director called for people to be in charge of rings I thought the third dans would step up, but not all of them did.  My instructor enouraged me to, so I stepped up.  I didn't really have a problem with this because I figured that I've cornered and judged before, so I'll just have more responsibility but do the same job, and the others in my ring will help me.

Now there is a problem.  Two first dans with no tournament judging or cornering experience line up behind me to help in my ring.  That's all I had too, because it was so small.

Now this is why black belts should be trained at their gym before trying to help out at a tournament...  Don't just sit around in your corner watching the center ref equip the fighters, get up and help.  CALL FOR POINTS and do it loud enough so that the center can year you.  DON'T WALK AWAY FROM YOUR RING, and if you have to at least keep an eye on it.

So that was frustrating, but I kept my cool and talked to them between groups about what they need to be doing (not in front of the competators), so hopefully now they will do better at their next tournament.

Anyone else have some frustrating tournament experiences?

Has anyone else found that it's hard to find competition at tournaments?  Not so much for forms, weapons, or breaking, but there aren't a lot of black belt women who spar.  It's hard for me to get fired up to compete if there isn't going to be much competition, and I don't want to pay $40-$50 if I don't compete in sparring.  Maybe it's just the area I live in, but anyone else have a similar problem?

Does anyone remember theirs? I was too young I don't really remember anything other than my parents trying to get my sister to try it too

Sometimes I miss when I was a kid and I got different color belts all the time and I got to learn new things all the time.

I like where I am now too, and I love teaching.  I just don't get to learn as many new things.

I also miss the rate of improvement that I had when I first began.  Two weeks after I started I looked like a whole different person.  Now the improving is more subtle and at a slower rate.

I would have to say that my proudest TKD moment is from my first tournament.  I was seven years old and an orange belt.  There was a tie for second and third place in forms.  The two of us who tied were doing our forms at the same time, for a tie-breaker.  We must have started too close together because there was a point where I realized that if we both continued we would collide.  I froze on the step I was on and let the other student continue, and I moved on once they were out of the way.  I won the tie-breaker.  I don't know if I had the better form, but I was always told that I won because I stopped, showing courtesy.  When I think about it now, most seven year olds and orange belts that I teach don't do that.  They would just keep going and maybe even try to "accidently" hit the other kid.

Anyone else with a proud moment? 

TKD realizations I've had.

I can remember being a kid (10 years old or so), and all of a sudden, I realized how sparring worked.  I remember sparring for fun, just throwing whatever, and however I placed was OK with me.  One day I realized that I could control who wins each match and that I could keep track of the score in my head and figure out what I need to do to win.

The other realization I had was in breaking.  When I was a kid(12 years old or so) I didn't understand how to break boards and I just kicked the board, hoping it would break.  Then I realized how going through the board worked, and after that I could break anything, unless I missed the target.

Just interesting things to think about, because I can see the same kids of realizations happening when I teach, especially in breaking.