Training Log: Entry 2623

Slept until about 0630, got up and did a fasted 30 burpees over bar.

Life happened.  Got chores done.  Part of that included a Costco run, which meant, for lunch, I had 2 drumsticks, 2 wings and a thigh off of a $5 rotisserie chicken.  My kid wanted a Happy Meal from McDonalds before belt testing, and I didn't want to test off McDonalds, so that was the call I made, only to giggle to myself over the idea that MY Happy Meal IS a rotisserie chicken.  

**BELT TESTING WRITE UP**

We spent 5 hours at the Dojang today.  My kid's test was 2 hours long, but we got there 30 minutes early so they could take their written test, and once their test was done the Mrs and I took OUR written test and then our physical test.

Belt testing day is the most intense day in the curriculum.  We open up with physical testing requirements, which for our belt was a whopping 25 push ups, 25 sit ups and 25 jumping jacks. It's easy to mock that as a meathead, but I love that our school holds students to a standard, and the numbers increase as the rank goes up.  That said: there needs to be a little self-pride about it and an attempt to actually DO a real push up...but I digress.

After that was about 40+ minutes of basics.  This is where the intensity lives in the day, especially since, the higher up in rank you go, the more you know.  We are basically evaluated in every single technique we've learned, starting with blocks and hand techniques, transitioning to kicks, and then combinations.  We march across the floor doing these, and all commands are in Korean, which is a solid test of how well we're picking up the material.  One of our peers legit did not know ANY of the Korean terms, and had to have everything explained to them.  That was frustrating.

After thoroughly soaking my dobak with sweat, we transitioned to Hyung, or kata if you're Japanese, or "forms" if you don't care about any of that.  Once again, the higher in rank you are, the more you do, so we started with the white belt hyung and worked all the way up to our current one.  The Mrs and I were the lowest ranking in our testing group, yet we were the higher performers, as we were eventually called off the floor while the senior students were forced to repeat a few hyungs before they demonstrated them to a satisfactory level.  That's a win.

After hyungs, we transitioned to one-step defense techniques, starting with hand techniques, then kicks, then grappling.  My wife and I got paired together, primarily because we're the only two legal-aged adults in the class.  We work well together. Biggest issue was my buggy hamstring and shoulder made it hard for me to land softly during the grappling.   

From here, we put on the sparring gear for a whopping 2 minutes of sparring.  Again, easy to laugh at...and amazing how many folks want to do martial arts and aren't in shape enough to do 2 minutes of sparring.  No joke, if you're at home and on the fence about taking a martial art, sign up, and show up IN SHAPE.  You will be SO far ahead of your peers.  You'll spend more time grooving better reps because you aren't always fatigued, which allows you to progress so much faster.  To say nothing of being able to tool someone in a sparring match because they're gassed and you're fresh.  However, once again, the Mrs and I were paired up, and she's a psychopath that has run 37 half marathons and a few fulls, so I had to actually work for this one.  

And after that was board breaks.  I'm proud of the whole family here, because most of the students picked "safe" breaks and we all went for some challenging stuff.  My kid went with a palm heel strike and step up side kick, the Mrs did a knife hand and jump roundhouse, and I went with an upset knifehand strike and a spinning hook kick.  The latter took me 3 attempts.  Power was there on all 3, but distancing was off.  Once I was in the right spot, it was magic.

In sum, whole tribe absolutely crushed it, and we celebrated with some local BBQ and peppermint milk shakes...and I'm STILL putting away food, because I'm in the middle of Super Squats and hungry as well.

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Also, when we got back, I did 1 round of Teddy Grahams, and ended up getting 25 ABCs and a TEBEARTA of 3-3-3-1-3-3-1-3.  That's pretty clutch.