Pride goeth or whatever...
Mar. 31st, 2012 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eternaleponineI am proud of my green belt. Proud to a level that's kind of stupid, really. It's only a green belt, which means (for most people in my school – other schools have different belt progressions) about six months worth of training. That's not that long, and my skill set is still pretty darn limited.
But I'm proud nonetheless.
Because the thing is, I'm not the sort of person that sticks with things. I'm stubborn as hell, but when the going gets tough, I tend to give up. If I'm not good at something, I give up rather than battling through to get good at it. Sometimes I give up before even starting, because I hate being bad at things.
I guess maybe the difference here was that I never felt like I was bad at taekwondo. Untrained, yes. Uncoordinated, yeah, sometimes. There are some things where it took me weeks to finally have it gel in my mind (or my muscles) how something is supposed to go. (And muscle memory is a lot of it. Working with one of our white belts, I would have to go through the poomse to figure out what came next, because it's not in my head, it's in my body.) Currently I'm still having issues with sliding up and throwing a front-side roundhouse... apparently I cross my feet when I do it? But I can't feel that I'm doing it, so it's hard to correct. I only have Master Paul telling me I'm still doing it. And yes, it's frustrating, but rather than giving up, I'm just working harder to fix it.
For a while, I was stressed out because the kid graduates at the end of next year, and I know thatrikibeth will likely want to move to the Boston area when that happens. But assuming that I don't miss any testing cycles, I would be testing for my high red belt in June, 2013, which would leave me about 9-12 months from my black belt. So I told Riki that I want to stay in this area after the kid graduates, at least until that happens. Because I'm pretty sure that if I do, I will be the first person to achieve my black belt trained entirely in that school. And that would be something to be proud of.
When we do our tests, we get a progress report, showing how we've done in various categories on a scale of Needs Improvement to Excellent. (With an option for N/A for things that don't apply yet.)
When I did my yellow belt test, I got Good on pretty much everything, and Very Good on Poomse and Self Defense. (Also, N/A on Advanced Skills, Step Sparring, and Leadership.)
For green belt, I got Very Good on more things than not, and the only thing that was N/A was Advanced Skills. I have no idea what other people got, and it doesn't really matter. I'm competing against myself, and apparently, winning.
But I'm proud nonetheless.
Because the thing is, I'm not the sort of person that sticks with things. I'm stubborn as hell, but when the going gets tough, I tend to give up. If I'm not good at something, I give up rather than battling through to get good at it. Sometimes I give up before even starting, because I hate being bad at things.
I guess maybe the difference here was that I never felt like I was bad at taekwondo. Untrained, yes. Uncoordinated, yeah, sometimes. There are some things where it took me weeks to finally have it gel in my mind (or my muscles) how something is supposed to go. (And muscle memory is a lot of it. Working with one of our white belts, I would have to go through the poomse to figure out what came next, because it's not in my head, it's in my body.) Currently I'm still having issues with sliding up and throwing a front-side roundhouse... apparently I cross my feet when I do it? But I can't feel that I'm doing it, so it's hard to correct. I only have Master Paul telling me I'm still doing it. And yes, it's frustrating, but rather than giving up, I'm just working harder to fix it.
For a while, I was stressed out because the kid graduates at the end of next year, and I know that
rikibeth will likely want to move to the Boston area when that happens. But assuming that I don't miss any testing cycles, I would be testing for my high red belt in June, 2013, which would leave me about 9-12 months from my black belt. So I told Riki that I want to stay in this area after the kid graduates, at least until that happens. Because I'm pretty sure that if I do, I will be the first person to achieve my black belt trained entirely in that school. And that would be something to be proud of.When we do our tests, we get a progress report, showing how we've done in various categories on a scale of Needs Improvement to Excellent. (With an option for N/A for things that don't apply yet.)
When I did my yellow belt test, I got Good on pretty much everything, and Very Good on Poomse and Self Defense. (Also, N/A on Advanced Skills, Step Sparring, and Leadership.)
For green belt, I got Very Good on more things than not, and the only thing that was N/A was Advanced Skills. I have no idea what other people got, and it doesn't really matter. I'm competing against myself, and apparently, winning.