eternaleponine

I've started to develop this theory regarding the reason the belt colors progress the way they do in taekwondo. I'm pretty sure that they're roughly the same color as the bruises that you end up getting at that level of training.

White = No bruises
Yellow = Minor bruises
Green = Things are getting pretty grisly...

I'm sort of afraid of what's going to happen at blue on up. *g*

Seriously though, the one on my right ankle from last Friday's complete breaking fail has turned really gruesome (I took a picture but I'll spare you... at least for now). And my forearms... well, I'm honestly starting to wonder if someone at work is going to ask me if everything is okay at home. A friend did so jokingly today, but it really wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that the cause might be something untoward, even though in truth it's exactly the opposite. Both forearms have any number of really prominent bruises on them, and some of them I'm not even 100% sure how I got them!

Last night we did sparring without headgear, which was sort of a pity because if we'd been wearing it, I totally could have gotten R. in the head. But Master Paul decided we would take it easy, because if we put on full gear "You two will kill each other."

Which isn't entirely inaccurate.

Tonight we just did no-contact sparring, which really means minimal contact sparring, because we can't manage to not occasionally clip each other. Even Master Paul got me a couple of times, but nothing that left a mark... well, except where I got R.'s elbow. My feet, particularly the left one, seem to be magnetically attracted to elbows.

At least I'm not feeling as bad about sparring as I was a couple of weeks back. I don't know if I'm actually improving or if R. just sees how pissed off I get and gives me more opportunity to score, or what. We'll see how things go in the tournament when I'm facing off against people who are more my own size.

I'm kind of concerned about breaking at the tournament. When we did breaking earlier this week, I completely failed at it, and not in a "succeeded but hurt myself or otherwise did something dumb" way, but in a "the board(s) didn't break at all" way. I was trying side kick through two boards again, and well... I won't be doing that for competition. Because I can't do it.

My board holders admitted that the first attempt was probably as much their fault that the boards didn't break as mine, and after that, my legs went shaky and I knew it wasn't going to work. I should have just switched to something else, but oh well. (It was a rough week, and watching R. succeed on his first try didn't help.)

I have a week to get it figured out.

But we did have a visitor from Master Paul's old school that day – he seems to turn up on school vacation weeks – and he did a flying side kick OVER the heavy bag and through a board. Twice. I was impressed. But hey, he's a teenage boy. He hasn't learned yet that there are things that people aren't supposed to be able to do. ;-)

This is really more for my records than anything else, because yes, I do sometimes forget what I've learned, or what I'm supposed to have learned, especially with the self defense.

( White Belt )

( Yellow Belt )

( Green Belt )

I broke my second board today. Master Paul let me pick what I wanted to do, and it took me a little while to decide. Finally he asked if I'd chosen, and I said, "I'll do palm strike, because I'm afraid to do hand breaks."

Putting your foot through a board, especially your heel, is not that hard. It's really not. Putting your hand - that thing that you use for writing and typing, that thing that is filled with little breakable bones - through a board is another story.

Except not. It's all in your head, really, that little voice that says, "You can't do it. You'll hurt yourself."

That's why I did it. To shut that voice up. To prove that I could, and that yes, it was harder than breaking a side kick, but it was far from impossible. My hand stung a little bit after, and if I do it again I need to make sure to keep my fingers back more, but by the end of the class my hand wasn't red anymore, and it didn't swell.

So now I have two broken boards on my desk. I'll probably stop keeping them now, but those two are proof that at least in the dojang, I can do anything I put my mind to.

I really meant to update about TKD more often, but then I forget or I'm busy doing other things or whatever, and it just doesn't happen.

This morning I tested for my green belt, three months and a week after my yellow belt test. (It probably would have been three months exactly, but Master Paul made sure to schedule the test for a Saturday I didn't have to work, so that added an extra week to it.) This means that our next testing should be right around the end of the school year (not that it matters to me, but for the kids) so that works out well.

I was more nervous going into today's testing than I was last time, mostly about my poomsae (form). I don't like the yellow belt form (Poomsae Taeguk Il Jang, for the curious) and I had this weird paranoia that I was going to somehow mess it up.

Last time, we all had to do our poomsae individually, but that didn't happen this time, which makes it a lot less nerve-wracking. (If all else fails, sneak a peek at what everyone else is doing. *g*) I didn't need to, and it ended up fine. I've been helping out one of our young white belts with her form, and she did really well, too. At one point, she was actually the only one of the three that got a bit right, so yay her!

During the testing of our basic skills (punches, kicks, etc.) he had one row of students sit down, and then another row line up behind them... and kick over our heads. Let me tell you, that is incentive to make sure you've got your leg up! When we did the side kick, I had it easy because the person I was behind was the smallest one there. I was kicking well above her head anyway, and not just because she was hunched over in fear.

We did step-sparring and self-defense, and that all went smoothly. One of the self-defenses we've been working on we didn't actually get tested on, which is probably a good thing because we're all still a bit dicey with it. The Master doing our test (I don't know his name... I should find that out) said that going forward we should work on making sure that we are able to do the self-defense on both sides, instead of just drilling primarily on one side. We have done that for some of them, but there are some that are still pretty hairy if suddenly the person attacks with the left instead of the right.

He also talked a bit about a tournament that's coming up, and some of the events in it. We did a mock sparring match, which was rigged against me, because he wanted to show what happened if someone did something illegal. I got picked to be the one to do the illegal move – TWICE – so it resulted in a point deduction and all of the judges deciding that my partner won. BOO. (He did thank me for playing along, though. *g*)

And then Master Paul did a demo of breaking, and I got called up to do it as well... until Master Paul said that I'd done it before, so instead one of the younger yellow belts got to do it. BOO AGAIN.

But overall, it was fun, and I look forward to seeing what new skills we get to start learning next week for green belt. I know that with the tournament coming up in a month, the intensity of our training is going to pick up to get us ready, but I don't mind. It's good for me, even if it gets more brutal as the temperature goes up.

I should actually get my belt in class on Tuesday, which means I have to make sure that I actually go that day. Yes, I'm a little bit petty and don't want my classmates to actually get their belts before me. (I get mine first because unless there is someone with an actual higher colored belt than me, I am considered the highest ranking because I've been training the longest.)

I am icing my foot. The idea of putting ice on any body part in the middle of the winter really isn't a very attractive one, but the ball of my right foot and put into the arch has been hurting for a while now, so I'm trying to calm it down again. Probably I should actually give it a break and maybe take a day or two off from TKD, but that's unlikely to happen.

( My foot is f***ing freezing. )