Saturday, November 17, 2007

Red Belt Test

After a year without testing I decided I was ready to retire my blue belt and go for promotion. Grandmaster Wonik Yi administered the test. A few days before testing he told us that he had meditated and decided to make the testing more challenging. He felt the tests had been getting informal and that he wanted to move back to traditional testing.
For the next two days we heard that an "interesting" test was coming. On the day of the test I knew we were in trouble. We were asked about injuries and encouraged to quit if we had health problems.
Our tests have about 7 judges which consist of some of our most advanced practitioners.
I don't htink it is right to go into details, but I can tell you the test encompassed a broad range of skills. The test was very challenging...physically and mentally. It lasted 2 1/2 hours! Two days later I am still sore.
However I am glad to have passed this test. Testing is a good way to learn control, even in unpredictable and challenging situations. This last round has inspired me to practice harder, and work on my conditioning. Need to start running again.

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