Black Belt Test

[lertulo]

Yet another exciting day: I tested for black belt this morning.  The whole process took just under three hours--though half of it I was just standing by watching the junior members test, and helping out only by holding boards for breaking or playing attacker for self-defense tests.

The test went quite well, I think.  The patterns went smoothly--didn

Comments

[saanen]

I was super impressed with you and everyone else at the test--of course, it was the first time I'd attended one. You did great! I'm 100% certain you'll get your black belt, so congratulations in advance!

[lertulo]

Thankee. Although the official pass/fail list comes out in two weeks, my instructor had me wear a borrowed black belt during today. One of my class mates joked to him about the list not being out yet; he laughed and said, "yeah, but I write the list."

It was creepy wearing a black belt to class. But also lots of fun to learn a new pattern. :)

[jackiejj]

So great to see a picture!

I thought about you all morning and hoped all was going well, which it obviously did.

Many congratulations!!!

[lertulo]

Tara was carrying the baby for the entire test period and Katie was (thank you!) watching the other two boys, so no one really had free hands to take a lot of pictures. Worse, the lighting was fairly poor (it was a gym after all); the photo above was seriously photo-chopped to make it legible. So I'm afraid there aren't that many photos to see. :(

During most of the test, the candidates are arranged in a grid across the floor and we all go through the same actions at the same time: demonstrate pattern X, demonstrate defenses for knife attacks, stay in this region while you fight against person Y, and so on. My instructor chooses our sparring partners and our positions on the floor; he gave me the top-left corner right in front of Grand Master Kong, and as he said in class today, "I gave Richard some really tough sparring partners". Meanie. :)

[jackiejj]

When you went to class today, did people congratulate you? Did you wear someone's black belt till you get your embroidered one?

I bet it was fun, going to your class--is it a new class now, or the same?

[lertulo]

Yes, and yes. The black belts are embroidered with your name and the school's name; it takes a while for them to get made. In the mean time, it's customary for the newbies to wear borrowed black belts from others (who have since moved on to higher belts, and left their older belts for the purpose).

Got to work on a new pattern today--Po Eun, which you can see done (by someone far better than I am) here. It's always a blast learning a new pattern.

The class is the same one I've always attended--it's an hour-long adults-only class, that for the last two and a half years has had about a dozen black belts plus me. There were a lot of good-natured jabs today about it "finally" being a black-belt class again; the people in my class have watched over the last years as I've worked my way from white belt to black.

My legs are really, really sore today; too much effort during the test, I think. But they're already far better than they were Sunday. :)

[jackiejj]

Here's the ceremony photo: