In the Black!

Last Thursday Nathan, Dylan, and I took the first of two tests to earn our black belts. Yep, I said black, as in "stand back, these hands are registered lethal weapons." Well, not quite. But you might want to stand back... just in case.

This first test was the forms test. That means we had to have all 10 of our forms memorized perfectly. It was really tough, and I was really nervous. The test was a lot harder than I expected because I thought we would do the forms with the different belt levels as they tested, or that they would be in order, or even that we would have at lease a half second to think about what form we are doing before we got to do it. But no. When they said we needed to know them cold, they weren't kidding. He called us to ready stance then just called out the number "8. Go!" and we had to do it with no processing time. He called the forms in random order and called several twice. I messed up once when I lost my balance, and another time when I got tangled with someone else (not my fault), but other than that, I remembered my forms and feel like I did a good job. Whew! I was SO glad that part was over, because I was so afraid I would have a brain freeze and forget everything under that pressure.

I'm sure Nate and Dylan did good too, but since we were all testing at the same time, I didn't exactly get to watch them.

No pics of the forms. Sorry. (It is a good thing, because they would probably be dorky anyway. Even after all this time I still feel like a goofball in my gi.)

Then, just to give us a good workout and make us really sweat, our Master made us kick the bags. He gave us a combination to do over and over again, then had us add a kick here and a kick there to the same combination. I felt like we did that FOREVER! I was getting exhausted! I did not know this was going to be part of the test.

It was extra hard because we had warmed up and stretched out at the beginning of the test, but by the time he got to us, the high belts, it was an hour and a half later, so we didn't benifit much from the stretching.

Dylan is an animal! (albeit a small, furry one.) The teacher calls him "squirell."

Then after he had us good and exhausted, we had to so some sparring, even though this is not the sparring test. That comes another day. This sparring was just for "fun." Right.

It was good, because it gave me just a hint of what my upcoming sparring test might be like - only tougher, as I will have to spar against several black belts. It made me realize that I have to get myself in a lot better shape so I can handle everything that they throw at me. I'm too old for this kind of punishment!

Then came the real fun part of the test. The breaking! What? Slamming your elbow through a board doesn't sound fun? Well it is! Very. So there.

Who is that crazy lady pounding her fist through a stack of 3 thick boards?

That would be me. What I really wanted was a brick, but I got 3 boards instead. Next time hopefully.

Broke 'em my first try!

Like butter.

(In case you might be wondering what we do with all that broken wood besides save it for the next campfire):

Ta Da!

That was the test. Dylan did an amazing job!

Nathan did too!

I was just so glad to have this part of my black belt test over with.

Above is Dr. Howard. He is not my official teacher, but he is such a great teacher, and I have come very far since he started helping me and I will always be grateful!

After the test, we were exhausted and hungry, so we all ate at the all-you-can-eat sushi place next door. What a great way to celebrate our accomplishment!

Halfway to black! One more test to go. BRING IT ON!!!!