A fiest of kicks and punches

It is a tradition of ours, to celebrate the black belts-to-be in the manner best known to us, with tae and kwon.

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Last Sunday, I performed three patterns before receiving my certificate from Mr.V. I was slightly nervous because he called for Ue Yam (name of one of the patterns) when I first entered the ring. Ue Yam is one of the most difficult second degree taekwon-do pattern because of the four reverse turning kicks that one have to do in completing the pattern. Reverse turning kick requires a lot of control and body balance, as well as speed. Speed is not a problem for me, but to stop the kick when you've executed it in a high speed - that would be a real challenge - to balance yourself and to stop the kick in the air for about two seconds.

The second pattern was Choon Jang, the easiest of the lot. Had no problem performing except that I didn't do enough stretching and that resulted in not-so-graceful kicks. The last pattern, Ko Dang - a pattern that I first learned when I was a first degree black belt. We performed that pattern for the National Taekwon-Do Tournament in Terengganu...unfortunately, we lost to the Kedahans.

After everybody has finished performing their own patterns, we were given our certificates and a short lecture before the real grading test began.

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The red blacks performed quite well on the grading day, although they had some minor tactical problem in one-step sparring and of course free-sparring itself. Self-defense was quite ok, again the techniques were not sharply executed - that was very much expected as they have yet to understand the philosophies of each movement, avoidance, and counter-attack. I sincerely think they can 'shout' louder and fiercer to enhance their 'acting' skills.

Free-sparring was the most awaited event, not by the red blacks, but rather by the black belts. It's the time to whack the black-belts to be so that they would be able to learn how to avoid and counter attacks in a high speed match. Of course, we, the black belts had to restrain ourselves from putting more than 50% of our strength when whacking the red blacks.

Owh, remember Ms.Nosy-attention-seeker? Well, she kena kaw2 from me (well, I just pushed her away with my controlled kicks, and occasionally punch her on the face, once or twice). Before we began the match, she said, "Sir, can you try not to whack me?" - "hehehe, of course I can try, but I can't assure you that I can hold it back" - I didn't kill her, I didn't even whack her, because most of the time, she's busy running away from me, and she failed that part of the exam and had to re-do it yesterday. Although, I was pretty mean to her, I didn't want her to fail the test the second time, so I gave her some tips to counter the attacks, and even cheered for her yesterday. Most important thing when facing your opponent in the ring, don't be too scared of him/her. And plan on how to 'play' in the sparring ring. If your opponent is the bulldozer type - simply attacking without thinking - it's best for you to play counter-attacking. Wait for him/her to strike, once s/he puts down the leg, attack him/her. Will blog more on free-sparring tips later!

In a grading test, what's important are the techniques, the variations of them and tactics - when to execute different techniques. Instead of trying to kill your opponent, or to score points (like in a normal sparring match), you need to show your ability to read your opponent, to attack when necessary, to counter-attack when needed, to avoid most of the time, and to maintain your stamina.

After sparring with Ms.Nosy, I sparred for at least another three rounds, against Zach, Susan, Michelle. I missed the power test (breaking planks, 1 inch for red black to black belt, 1 1/2 inches for 1st degree to 2nd degree black belt). For 1st degree to second degree black belts, they have to perform their own special techniques, among other fixed hand/leg work. I did a reverse knife hand when I took the test last year.

Overall, this year's black belt grading test was enjoyable (yeah, I kicked Ms.Nosy's a** - metaphorically, cannot kick below the belt lah) and thank God, everybody passed the overall exam (well, unofficially...have to wait for a month for the official result).

Have a good week people!