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[lertulo]

Just completed my 7th gup belt test in TKD. Testing was pretty straight-forward:

• a new pattern (Do San)


• four self-defense techniques


• a small amount of korean terminology


• a breaking demonstration (2" of pine, side kick)


• a few minutes of sparring (went well, surprisingly; that's the only part that ever worries me)

Comments

[mom_counsel]

Congratulations are at hand.

Would you believe i used to try to do this?

I know the thought is hysterical, but, i did.

i think i was about 35 and the kids were taking it, and so i thought well, i could learn self defense and get in shape too..

got as far as learning round-house kicks, and that was it. the floor we had was a carpet, that did not work well with the ball of ones foot, especially since i weighed close to 190 pounds, the hippo dancing in fantasia, comes to mind, and low and behold the body went one way, while the ball of my foot stayed glued to the floor. I was in a cast for 6 weeks. oh what memories..that concluded my little side trip of learning the master art...lol.

thanks, for sharing your achievment.
m

[lertulo]

In college, I studied a martial art (Cha Yon Ryu, which I still remember
with great fondness) in a studio with rough carpet floors--the kind of
carpet you could tear off the ground and use as Brillo pads to clean your
pots and pans.

The first few weeks, I invariably went home with my feet actually bleeding.
After that, my feet became so tough I could run bareful over gravel without
really caring (well, not entirely true; gravel in the arch still hurt like
anything--but Houston sidewalks in august were no big concern any more).

Years after that, I studied shotokan karate in a dojo that used to be a
dance studio--they still had springy hardwood floors. Which didn't really
feel very good when you're being thrown.

The do jang where I'm studying now has nice, sensible pads on the floors--
the same kind of stuff they use underfoot for gymnastics. Ugly and cheap,
but a very nice improvement.

[mom_counsel]

yes, that is what the sen-se said when i sat down, hard, and held my foot!...i need to toughen up!...when my ankle, foot and half my leg began to swell, cause i got or tried to get right back on it, i just couldn't and bowed and excused myself. Well, he was sooooo angry at me, you could have heard him yelling 2 blocks down the street. he was not a good teacher, and i think, took great delight in hurting women. i called the children's father to see if he could take me to the emergency room, which is where i needed to go, and he had went to sleep, and was dead to the world to answer the phone