After six years of training, Nicholas has finally made it to the summit of the mountain that is the black belt testing in Tae Kwon Do!
The last few weeks of training have been very intense for him to hone his skills in the forms, kicking combinations, meaning of the forms and belts, and all of the other things that a black belt is expected to know when it is time to face the ardous black belt testing.
An interesting twist is that when one tests for the black belt, their own master is not allowed to be one of the (at least) four master-level judges required to judge the students and recommend them for promotion to black belt.
Even with that surprise and all of the stress of the final weeks of extra training, the actual testing session actually seemed to be easier for him than the training leading up to it. Even though there were plenty of times that he wondered if he’d ever make it to the black belt or doubted his ability to remember everything or even questioned whether he’d survive the testing itself (which often lasts two or more hours)…when the testing had begun, he and his fellow black belt test candidates faced every obstacle with courage and confidence and passed the test with flying colors.
The actual black belt itself won’t arrive for a few months as his application package has to go to Korea for processing and registration and the black belt will be embroidered over there and sent back to his master in Clayton. However, he will be accorded the privileges and responsibilities of the black belt immediately in advance of the belt’s arrival.
But his journey won’t stop here…as a black belt, he is expected to be a good leader to the junior belts which includes his sister who was just promoted to the red belt herself and only two belts separate them. Meanwhile, the training in the paegeuk forms awaits him as well as remembering all of the taegeuk forms that led to the black belt until it’s time for him to test for the second dan black belt.
It’s been a long climb up that mountain but isn’t the view wonderful up there? 🙂
