The Martial Artist

This week is going to be a intense week for me. The week of a promotional pretest is usually great personal training times but odd class times. I can honestly say that I have done all the I could do, and I am proud of where I am at the moment. I had a few issues the last couple of weeks of this cycle but any martial artist can tell you that such things happen which is why good planning is important and doing what you can do when those issues come up is also important. `

Issues I faced

A couple of dentist appoints that lead to light practice and no classes, but honestly this was not as bad as it could have been. I love going to Taekwondo classes but if I had a choice of missing class or missing practice I actually would go with missing class. In class the instructor needs to keep things focused so all individuals get something out of the class, this means that yes everyone does get something that they need from class but not everything. Practice time is important because it gives the individual the time they need to work on their strengths and weaknesses. It also means that if the individual is excelling in one area they can work on other areas they are not so good in.

Hyper extending my elbow was a injury I was stressed about. This lead to me missing 3 days of classes and practice sessions. I was a bit stressed about missing those days but I came back strong the next week and things were fine. I am thankful that I am a Reiki Master and that my skills in the healing arts have been pretty good thus far if not I am confident that I would have missed more classes and practice sessions then I would care to think of.

I did miss one class by choice but honestly I do keep track of my attendance and missing a couple classes a year is actually healthy for the individual. If you average 6-10 classes a week and you choice to take a day off to hang out with friends and family then well that is not a bad thing and honestly we need to remember that our friends and family support us in our training and taking a day off every now and again to be with those intervals is not bad.

Where I am now

I have no delusions of thinking I will do perfect on my 1st dan pretest, anyone foolish enough to think this walking in is a bit over confident and as soon as they come across a combination that gives them issues they will fall apart on the test. I do believe I have a good grasp on the techniques, 1 steps and poomse they can call out on the test. I also believe that my endorance is strong so if a cardio instructor calls the test I think I will be prepared, especially since my primary instructor is a cardio focused instructor I think this does give me help in that area. On the Danbo test Master Holding called out the test and he ran us hard and fast but thankfully my cardio did not show issues until the last 2 minutes of the test and he is known for being one of the toughest instructors within Kim?s Academy. I am a bit nervous about my breaking techniques but I believe I will be fine by the time the test comes up. The only think I will need to remember is that with my eyes the distances are not what they appear and if I need to do a back kick I need to break with my left leg because my right eye throughs things off to the left and breaking is difficult when I am doing jumping spinning breaking with that leg. This is because of my eyes not because of poor technique and I am getting better at judging that issue then I used to be now that I know that is the issue.

Training Smart

Cramming may have worked well in high school, however in the dojan things are not that simple. Martial arts is not like high school biology where you learn a couple of chapters then you start something completely different so if you did not do well in chapters 1 -3 by the time you get to chapter 4 you get a clean start. In Taekwondo and just about every other styles what you learn at white belt level is as important if not more then what you learn at black belt level. You practice old techniques because advanced techniques are normally nothing more then taking basics and adding a few steps. Advanced kicking combinations are nothing more then basic kicks put together in odd order so you need to make sure you are working on your basics or your advanced combinations will look like trash.

Classes and Practice Sessions

I am only going to hit 5 solid classes this week and perhaps one class at the south branch when they work on breaking. I will hit both black belt classes, both classes at my branch on Tuesdays, and the beginner class on Thursday. We will have our color belt pretest that Thursday and I am fairly confident that I will be allowed to call out most of the pretests. Depending on timing they may have a black belt pretest on Thursday but this does not normally happen since I was already giving my paper work and so forth. Now my instructor could always take my paper work and set it on fire but I can not think of anything that I have done that would require him to do that. I am thankful that I have a great instructor who knows that when I miss classes there is a good reason for missing them and even when I miss classes because of other none injury/doctor/denstist related issues there is a reason for that to. I think part of that is because he knows that I attend the black belt classes regularly enough that if I miss one the schools Grand Master will ask why I was not there and if I missed classes for a few weeks straight I think they may send out a search party for my body. I also hit other branches for more training and to help improve my weaknesses.

Practice this week will be fairly calm. Actually I wrote out a simple training plan for my practice sessions and I think it would be easier to post that then try to explain it. For the most part however I plan on working my basics and combinations that are certainly going to show up on my test as well as all my poomse 10 times each. The only thing I am not going to be working on is my own self defense practices or competitive practice sessions. Yes sparring will be part of the test but it will be controlled sparring and knocking out or injuring sparring partners due to excessive force may get a few of the Masters to jump the table and teach a lesson in humility in the middle of the best test. I may arrange a light sparring practice with my wife and a couple classmates to work on some 2 on 1 practice that could be part of the test but again this would be extremely controlled. The people I have in mind are all testing for different black belt levels and this could be part of the test so a light practice session on it would be a good thing. I am not sure if one steps will be on the 1st dan test but I am going to make sure I work on them just incase. The only issue I have with them is different instructors call them by different numbers so this may be a bit tricky. The last thing I am gong to focus on for the week is hitting the books and making sure I remember which element is with which form and how many steps each form has, I should also review the history of Taekwondo and work on answers for questions about the tenets of Taekwondo and how I apply them to my life.

In any  event I feel good where i am right now and as long as I do not do anything foolish or recless to get myself injured I am certain that this will be a good week for me.