The Martial Artist

Week Ending 8-8-09

I am a week from the black belt pretest and I feel pretty good with here I am right now. I have been working hard on a possible test combinations and tirelessly on all poomse from Kibon 1 to Koryo. I have also been working on holding my stances and even managed to knock out some breaking practice. At this point I can say I have done all I could think of to prepare for the test and if I succeed or if I fail I know that I have given all I have to give and that is all that I can ask of myself.

This weeks goals

I am not planning to take it easy this week, but I am not going to push myself to the risk of injury either. This is actually a time when a number of people get hurt because they feel they need to train harder to be prepared, and honestly this is a week for training smarter not going all out. I am going to spent this week working my basics, perfecting stances and making sure my forms are as clean as possible. I am also going to make sure that I spend time working on my cardio and if all goes to plan hitting 2-3 yoga classes. Yoga classes are great for flexibility as we all know but they are also good for building strength and some of the yoga positions are similar to TKD stances and this helps with holding stances for extended time. My strength and cardio training has been good lately but I am in the process of changing up my routine so I will need to make sure that I do not over do it this week. I am going to play my cardio training a bit safe this week and make sure I stick to the ARC trainers. The treadmill and track are fun but I do not want to risk tripping and falling and harming myself. The ARC trainers in my opinion work you harder then both but they are also a bit safer so this is a win/win situation.

I am also going to work on making sure I do daily reiki treatments as well as sending energy to Saturday to help during my test. I know this Saturday will be a very difficult day for me because I will be testing for the right to be a full black belt for not only Kim’s Academy, but also for the Kukkiwan. I am sure the Masters are going to call out all imperfections and for lack of a better term this test will be very trying on all aspects of my triquatra. I believe my skills are up to par and if I can handle the shark attack at basic combat training then this Saturday should not be so bad.

2 Month possible Goal Setting

I am working with the assumption that I will be preparing for the October pretest. I am not doing this because I think I am perfect or assuming something I have not right to think, instead I am using the power of positive thinking.

The next two months will be a bit different for me. I am going to work with the feedback I gain from The Masters, My primary instructors, as well as my secondary instructors and upper ranks that I train with. It is also time for me to start preparing for competitive practice again. I do not plan on attending sparring classes every Sunday, however I am going to take advantage of the books I picked up and start working on drills to help me prepare for sparring class starting in November. This means a great deal of dojan time working on techniques as well as a increase in cardio training. I will hit the sparring days at the west branch but I am not planning on hitting sparring class at the main academy yet. I feel bad because I do want to hit classes with Master Louis at the Main Academy but between work hours and now black belt testing it has not worked out very often. Our work may be getting lighter starting in November but I am not 100% sure yet.

I will take the next two months to make sure I am prepared for the Oct. black belt test as well as getting physically and mentally prepared for sparring classes at the main academy. This does not seem extremely concrete, however I am sure after next Saturday I will have more information to go with.