Seeing red - 2 steps away from black belt

Up the ladder once again. White, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, brown and now red. Today was taekwondo test day at my dojang and I passed and got a new belt. However it didn't all go according to plan. My condition was pretty good, preparation was fine, practice went OK and I felt extremely confident and then the test started.


First we did the 6th and latest poomsae. This went very well and I didn't make any mistakes. Then came numbers four and five and my technique collapsed. I made so many mistakes it just wasn't funny. Three hours later and I'm still furious with myself. The mistakes were stupid mistakes too, things that I don't get wrong when I practice. Usually it's the easy poomsaes that I screw up.


Luckily our master gave us both another chance to take the poomsaes and they went much better. He said we need to be at 60% to pass but he wants us to be at an 80% level soon. I'm supposedly at 70% which is OK for now but not good enough for the black belt test in maybe two months time. I repeat to myself that I must improve, must work harder and must try my best even when I don't feel up to it. It's not going to get any easier from here on in.


When we get to the black belt test there are no second chances on the day, it's pass or fail. Today would have been a fail and a two month wait till the next time. On the up side I feel I'm getting better and I've got rid of that ugly brown belt. Now I have a HUGE red one which is so long that I have to wrap it around my body twice. You win some you lose some but you can see in the picture how pleased I am to get rid of the previous one. I anticipate the next test in about three or four weeks and then we will be practicing for black. This is going too fast but it's something to look forward and something to aim at.

Black belt on my mind

Back at taekwondo after missing two classes last week and my body is feeling it. I had - and still have - a cold all last week which had been compounded by the yellow dust which left me lethargic, a dry throat and with a lengthy headache. I think this week I'll be doing a lot of stretching. My kicks were pathetic today and IF I'm going to get better then I need to be more flexible.

Last week we started learning (properly) the new poomsae. The one we're currently studying is number six (Taegeuk Yuk Jang) which will be for the red belt. Previous to today we'd only practiced half of the movements but we ended up finishing the entire pattern. It felt difficult but as the class was ending everything clicked and I didn't want to stop practicing. I'm now very confident of passing the belt test, be that next week or the week after, health permitting.

Looking at my calender, and if all things go according to plan we could be taking our black belt tests at the end of June. I say according to plan because that depends on passing the upcoming tests, being in good condition and reaching a standard that means we are ready to take, pass and excel in the test. I don't want to make up the numbers. I want to pass and look as good as I can and not be the token 'foreigner/외국인' who is given a pass just for turning up.

That's about eleven weeks to go so plenty of time to improve and to reach some kind of peak condition. I'm used to these type of tests but nerves will start to kick in the nearer it gets to it. In order to do well I need to loose some weight, get fitter, become more flexible and practice a lot more. That means exercising more, getting out more and stopping the drinking for a bit. Easier said than done. A plan at the very least.