So Close

In my last post I mentioned that I was studying for an upcoming Tae Kwan Do test. Thursday was that test day. Recently our instructor took over the main gym in Brookings and her assistant was promoted to head instructor of the Sioux Falls classes. Because of the change up, the fourth degree instructor who was in charge of the Brookings and Sioux Falls programs (and instructor of the two now running the classes)had made arrangements to do all the testing for both programs in one three day period. It was decided that we would do testing during class time on Thursday night for both the adult and children's classes. Class starts at 7 for the kids, 8 for the adults, the nursery closes at 9:15 and the whole fitness center closes at 10. Tight schedule so I was a little nervous about getting my testing done before the nursery closed and I'd have to split my time between watching the kids and doing my required techniques. Hubby and I drove separately so he could get there a little early and help set things up and help out with target holding and board holding in the kids testing. The more holders the faster the test. I had kid duty so I made sure I was there a little after 7 so we had two full hours of nursery time. After dropping the kids off I decided to warm up by hitting the hot tub. It sounds weird but by sitting in a nice hot tub of water and slowly stretching out my hip and leg muscles I was able to loosen up enough in a shorter amount of time than if I had done the traditional warm up exercises and then stretches. Of course the kids test went a half hour over so all my nice warm muscles cooled off and I still worried about pulling something. I had to feel for the poor husband, he was doing the board holding for the kid's breaks and his fingers took quite a beating. Nothing broken or bleeding but some of the kicks he took were pretty hard. Once we got to testing it went pretty fast. When we line up it is by belt rank. Jim and I are the highest ranking in the class so we would stand first in line and go down to the end to those testing for the first time. In cases where belts of the same color are in line the oldest person goes first so usually in class Jim is on my left since he's older than me. For some weird reason our master instructor decided to go alphabetically in the line up so I got the first spot. There are three main components of a test. The first is usually the pattern, the second is required techniques, and third is board breaking. A pattern is a series of moves similar to a dance routine. Do your pattern right and you impress the master and he is pleased. When a person first starts out, testing is pretty easy. A simple pattern, a few required techniques, an easy board break. Mistakes are easily forgiven and more leniency is granted for lapses in memory or extra tries for the breaking. Once you get up in rank the test is not so easy and do overs are not looked upon too favorably. There is also A LOT more stuff to remember and some techniques are very similar to others so it is really really easy to get mixed up and do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Hubby and I have devoted much of our free time these past few weeks to reviewing and practicing and more practicing all that we needed to know plus things that he might want us to know that we would have known in previous tests. Last test he had us preform something that was not on our "need to know" sheet that we had done previously and I had a major brain fart and had to do that particular technique four times before I finally remembered how to do it right--not fun. The other thing that gets harder as you move up is the amount of time you get to complete your required techniques. The lower ranking belts are usually given a slower pace to do things and if they forget or mess up then they get re-trys. At our level, it is fast and furious with no time to think. I think we were up there for about 15 minutes straight doing all that was required of us. I was very glad we did practice more than we needed to know because he did test us on material that we had in our previous test. Our techniques are numbered so he yells a number and we do it. To give you an idea of the pace of things think about watching a martial arts fight on TV or in the movies. That is how fast we are supposed to act and react when doing our stuff. Most things start off with us getting kicked or punched at and we are blocking and attacking back. One of the things we have to do is as close to a choreographed fight as you can get. In reality I don't think anyone would be that stupid because there is seven sections to this that we have to know and each section involves us (the defender) breaking body parts or knocking the opponent out but who am I to question. We actually did pretty well and only made a few big mistakes. We got to have a little rest while the others did their stuff and then we were called back to re-do what we had missed. We didn't quite get everything finished by the time the nursery closed but the only thing left was breaking so the kids got to watch us break boards. Now I have to admit that when it comes to breaking, this is my nemesis. In our previous training (Michigan), patterns were emphasized and we spent hours learning and practicing them. Breaking was something done during testing but didn't count against you if you didn't make the break. I like patterns and I do them very well. I'm OK on the numbered techniques and with practice I don't make a total fool out of myself. Breaking is another matter. My brain and my body disagree when it comes time to actually break the board. My body is going full force and my brain is going "wait, you're not supposed to break that, it will hurt". Unfortunately, I have to break the board to get the belt. Each test gets a more difficult break and the belt we were testing for--brown--had two required breaks. One of them was a hand break and one was a kicking break. Jim had to hold a board and break it with a punch. I had to hold the board and break it with outside edge of my hand. Jim broke on his second try---I tried three times with the same result...THUNK. Yes, it hurt. I was expecting to have to kick two separate boards for my second kick and he surprised us with a power break instead of a technical break. Jim's break was front kick through three boards and my break was front kick through two boards. Once again the loving hubby delivered and firewood was created. I have kicked double boards before but it was years ago so I lined things up and with all the confidence and strength I could gather went for it... THUNK Actually you could hear it echo in the room. I'm still surprised that those boards did not break because I hit them hard enough to. I tried twice again with my right foot and once with my left but to no avail. The good news is all I have to do is break those boards and I get my belt. The bad news is it might take me awhile. Normally it hurts worse when you don't break the board so I left that night with a sore hand and a sore foot. Hubby had a very very sore foot. I didn't think too much of the pain until my foot started to hurt so bad that I could not fall asleep and getting out of bed and walking was almost impossible. I'm pretty sure the adrenaline rush from the test allowed me to walk out of the building and get home. I decided that since this pain was different than what I normally feel after breaking things and the fact my foot was not three different colors I might have actually hurt myself. Hubby delighted in calling me a wuss for making the doctor appointment but did agree that I had kicked the boards hard enough to possibly do damage to bones. I really love taking three kids to the doctor's office and getting X-rays done. Matthew and Carolyn stayed behind and one of the nurses amused them while Andrew decided that he could not possibly leave my side and came with and watched. The X-rays came back normal so the doctor decided it was just a really bad sprain. I'm supposed to stay off it as much as possible, not walk barefoot for two weeks minimum and keep it iced and elevated. Great idea, too bad the loving husband is in Mitchell pheasant hunting and not due back until Saturday evening. I went to Lewis Drug and bought a very nice ankle brace to wear at night and when I'm not wearing my shoes. I guess it's going to be awhile before I get that brown belt.