Black Belt Testing

Warning: This is going to be a long post. It's probably waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much information for casual readers. Feel free to skim. This is mostly for me, personally, to record these memories.

At my studio, we begin preparing for Black Belt Testing six months in advance. We have an additional class each week (Black Belt Prep) and spend another hour or so each week preparing our self defense demonstrations. Here was an example of a normal weekly schedule for me during this period:

This 6-month period is spent mainly in reviewing and passing off curriculum. Our black belt test is cumulative, meaning that we are tested on everything we have learned from white belt to black (as opposed to just one rank's worth of curriculum, which is how our color belt tests are set up). And of course, the techniques must be performed at a black belt level. Each student has a card listing all the curriculum they are responsible for passing off. You can tell that by the end of testing, these cards are well-loved! (Or perhaps much-despised...)

I'll admit, there are some parts of the curriculum that are NOT my favorite. I love poomsae, and I love self defense. But we also have a tricks & flips requirement, and I tell you what, learning how to do handstands and roundoffs felt a lot like banging my head against the wall. But I finally got everything passed off. Halle-freaking-lujah.

Black Belt Testing is divided into two "phases" which take place two weeks apart. Phase 1 was on Saturday January 17th, and took about 8 hours to complete. It is closed, meaning only the candidates and the board are present, no parents or any kind of audience. It brings a different kind of intensity and focus.

We were tested on EVERYTHING. Phase 1 included all the curriculum on our card except for board breaking and our self defense demonstrations. The schedule was something like this:

9:00am Meditation & bow in
9:15am 2nd/3rd/4th degree candidates - Kicks, Kick Combos, Tricks & Flips, Weapons. 1st degree candidates - Poomsae
10:30am 2nd/3rd/4th - Poomsae + Open forms, 1st - Kicks & Kick Combos
11:30am Self Defense
12:30pm 4th degree candidate (me!) Specialty curriculum presentation
12:45pm Lunch
1:15pm Sport Poomsae specialty presentation
1:45pm Q&A for 2nd/3rd/4th degree candidates
2:00pm Endurance
3:00-5:00pm Prep for Phase 2

All in all, I felt like I performed well at Phase 1. My kicking felt pretty good, which was a relief. I suffered a groin tear a few months ago, and a lot of my kicks have been pretty sketchy for me up until the last few weeks, when I've finally healed up. Tricks and flips were my weakest performance. I did not pass off my headstand or my handstand, and had to pass them off again the following week. (Not a huge surprise.) Weapons went well, although I got bonked on the head with an escrima stick, which was a little disconcerting.

Poomsae is one of my favorite parts of taekwondo, and I was really looking forward to this performance. I did quite well on my earlier forms, but when I got to my rank form, I started feeling a little dizzy, probably due to a combination of the hit to the head and not sleeping well the night before. (Nerves!) I was sad that my Pyongwon was not super great, as I had been working very hard on it.

I made up for it a bit later with my open form. (Aka freestyle poomsae.) I've been working on this form for over a year now. Is it perfect? No. But it feels pretty awesome to perform. My goal is to start developing some higher level kicks and maybe some (gah) flips and get this form to a point where I could compete with it.

The rest of the day was good. The specialty stuff went well, self defense went well, and I endured the endurance well. :) We have six specific endurance requirements (see below). We were timed/counted at the beginning of our six-month cycle. Then about halfway through we did it again, and had to beat our initial score. At Phase 1, we had to beat our scores again. I beat everything except the banana, which is usually my best one. (I was pretty tired by that point.) But I beat it in class the week after. My worst one is always the mile run, but I beat my previous time, and I was happy with that. My final scores/times were as follows:

Roundhouse kicks in 1 minute - 142
Leg lifts in 1 minute - 34
Knuckle pushups without stop - 30
Banana - 1:52
Buddha - 1:40
Mile Run - 11:26

On to Phase 2! So, while Phase 1 is an intensive exam, Phase 2 is designed more as a performance, a show. It is open to the public. Our master instructors select the best things that happened at Phase 1 to display again for everyone at Phase 2, and then we are tested on board breaking and our self defense demonstrations.

The schedule yesterday was something like this:

12:00pm - Demo Team rehearsal
1:00pm - Black Belt Candidates rehearsal
2:30pm - Doors Open (candidates are cloistered in the back)
3:00-6:00pm - Phase 2
6:30-8:30pm Awards Banquet

The rehearsals went very well, and we were feeling solid by the time everything was ready to get started. I was nervous, but mostly just excited. I love testing. It has such an incredible energy!

Candidates ready to get started!

The program for Phase 2 was as follows:

• Master Sorenson's Welcome
• "Beyond Force" Demonstration Team
• Introduction of the visiting Master Instructors
• Introduction of the Black Belt Candidates
• Breakfalls display
• Self defense display by the 2nd/3rd/4th degree candidates
• Kicking display by the 1st degree candidates
• Weapons display by the 2nd/3rd/4th degree candidates
• Group Forms
• Olympic Sparring specialty performance
• Free Sparring
• Landon's open form
• Impromptu forms by 3rd/4th degree candidates
• Self defense team demonstrations
• Superhuman (Cameron, Claire, Ashleigh, Anna)
• Beyond Fighters (Lexi, Ty, Kiril, Becca)
• LandRiJaTon (Landon, Ricardo, James, Peyton)
• Good Guys, Inc. (me, James, Mara, Molly)
• INTERMISSION
• Kicking display
• My open form
• Board Breaking

So...right after the Demonstration Team, the lights went out. We lost power in about half the building. There was light in one corner of the floor, and we still had the sound system, thank goodness. But it made for an interesting twist!

My dad video taped the event, however, I found out at intermission that our SD card was, bizarrely, completely full. I sent Dad to the store to purchase a new one for us, and he was quick, but we did miss some in the recording, including the last pieces of my self defense demo, the kicking display, and my open form. I'm trying to see if anyone else has recordings of these pieces. At any rate, I've uploaded the videos I have to YouTube, which you can view here.


As I mentioned, a lot of the things performed were repeats from Phase 1, but organized in a presentable fashion. We also had group forms, which are kind of like team poomsae, but we're allowed to change directions, order, and timing, just for fun. I really enjoyed my group form (Shipjin) with James and Mara. James and I also were called upon for impromptu forms, selected for us on the spot. My form was Taebeck, which I'll admit, is not my favorite. I was very proud of James's Keumgang, which was excellent.

Our self defense demo was AWESOME. I love self defense. It makes me feel so...powerful. I loved my self defense group this year. The last time I tested, I was with a group of teenagers. It was fun, because they had a lot of energy and great ideas. But it was nice this time to work with peers, rather than students. Especially my sweet husband, who put up with my punching, kicking, and throwing him all the time. :)

And then there was board breaking. At our studio, we use a grading system developed by our own Master Page for breaking. Candidates are divided by weight class, and each weight class has a designated "average board size" which is the size you should be able to break with an "average" break. Then, each and every technique used for breaking has been assigned a point value based on their difficulty. "Average" breaks are worth .5, and they go up and down from there. Some techniques are allowed a downgrade in board size without penalty, because of the part of the body used (ie a spear hand) or the increased difficulty of the technique. There are also independent variables that increase the value of a given break, such as blindfolding, decreased support (like holding with one hand, with fingertips, self holding, or tossing in the air), successive techniques (ie multiple kicks without setting the foot down in between), and for the 2nd and 3rd degree candidates, impromptu breaking. These points are all calculated to reach the candidate's "potential score", then in addition, there are 2 possible points determined by the judges for Presentation, based on speed, accuracy of technique, flow, intensity, and entertainment value. Penalties are given for multiple attempts, changing techniques, partial breaks (in multi-board techniques) or failing to break at all.

The requirement for 1st Degree candidates is to prepare a routine of 10 breaks. The 2nd Degree candidates are required to plan 5 breaks, and then are presented with 5 impromptu breaks at testing. 3rd Degree candidates (aka my husband) are given 10 impromptu breaks. And 4th Degree candidates such as myself are allowed to prepare 10 breaks, but each technique must be at least a .65 difficulty (which are fairly difficult breaks).

I went to great lengths leading up to testing in order to drop a weight class. I made it by the skin of my teeth (so proud!) I was pretty tickled, because dropping a weight class bumped my potential score up to 10.45, which is the highest potential score we've ever had.

That said, I will tell you straight up, that I was terribly disappointed in my breaking. I had two jump back kicks, one blindfolded on three 12x12's, and one on a freestanding cinderbrick. I have done both of these breaks successfully in the last six months. Jump back kicks are normally my best kick. And that made it all the more frustrating that I was unable to complete either.

I still got the highest presentation score of the test. And I was pleased with the rest of my breaks. It just was such a disappointing note to end on. I do have to complete the breaks before Master Sorenson will submit my Kukkiwon certification, so I'll be attempting them again in the next week or two, hopefully with much greater success.

Anyway, that wrapped up testing. Half an hour or so later, we moved over for the Awards Banquet. This is probably my favorite part of our black belt testings. I know not everyone does such a to-do, but I love it.

We started with thank you speeches. Each candidate is given a few minutes to express gratitude to anyone who has helped them along the journey to Black Belt. I was up first. I only got a little way through before the tears started. I have been so incredibly blessed by the people in my life, who help me and cheer me on. And I'll tell you, there is nothing more rewarding than being called up by my students and receiving their thanks after black belt testing. The notes they write mean so, so much to me, and I hang on to them forever.

Next, Master Sorenson briefly recognized each of the 2nd/3rd/4th degree candidates for their Specialties. At our school, after earning your 1st degree, you get to choose for yourself a Specialty. With special permission, you can do more than one. Specialties are an additional class each week, with curriculum and tournament requirements specific to each one. We get small colored stripes on the side of our belts to signify which specialties we have completed. This testing, I specialized in Sport Poomsae, Demo Team, and Breaking.

Then they presented the prizes for the 100 Challenge, which is an optional part of testing that consists of doing all of your required poomsae 100 times, with an instructor's evaluation after each set of 25. It's immensely time consuming, but it makes a HUGE difference in the quality of the poomsae. The prize for the first-time completion is a medallion; the second time one completes it, a keychain. (No one has completed it more than twice as of yet, as we only instituted it a few years ago.) James and I both completed the 100 Challenge this year, James for the first time, I for the second.

And then it was time for the awards. This is the part that I anticipated the most. Every year at Black Belt Testing, the masters give out swords to the Best Testers, in the categories of specialty performance, board breaking, kicking, poomsae, and self defense demonstration. If called for, they also occasionally will give out a best tester overall (which has only been awarded twice before). Lastly, the most prized award (and the largest sword) is our Martial Arts Spirit Award, which is voted on by the candidates themselves, for the one in the group who has shown the truest spirit of a martial artist, who has been kind, helpful, and inspiring to the others in the group, and who has shown indomitable spirit through the challenges of testing.

The Specialty Performance sword was awarded to Lexi Wallace, for her specialties in Sparring and Demo Team. Lexi has fought at Nationals the last couple of years and worked very, very hard. James might have been a tiny bit disappointed not to win this one, but we were both very happy for Lexi.

Best Board Breaking was already known to be going to Landon Jenkins, who earned the highest score during breaking. He did an awesome job, especially considering half his breaks were impromptu. Well deserved.

Best Kicking went to Rebecca Linford, one of my students, and I was not at all surprised. I had predicted beforehand to James that Becca would win this one. She has stellar technique and intensity. (And she works incredibly hard.) I was thrilled for her.

Best Poomsae was given to my James. I will admit to you that my heart dropped when they announced it. I had my heart set on this award. That said, I was also very glad for James, who has worked incredibly hard on his poomsae and who did remarkably well at testing.

James, Molly, Mara and I won the Best Self Defense Demonstration award. We were delighted! I have won this award every time I have tested. :)

And then Master Sorenson announced that they were giving a Best Tester Overall award, which they presented to me. I was rather surprised, and immensely gratified.

Lastly, the Martial Arts Spirit Award. Ma'am talked at length about how this award is the most special to her, because it truly represents the things that she values most about our discipline. And to my great honor, I was presented with this award as well. I cannot tell you how deeply moved I was. The fact that my fellow candidates had selected me for this particular recognition brought me to tears. I feel emotional right now, just thinking about it again. It means the world to me.

And finally, we had our Rank Advancement Ceremony. The new 1st degrees received their black belts - yay! - along with certificates, a graduation ring, and other paraphernalia. I absolutely love watching their faces when they get that belt--the last belt they'll ever wear (if they don't outgrow it/change their name like I did when I got married/etc). The rest of us actually get our belts taken away at the end of the night, because Master Sorenson just adds a new stripe to our current belt. The 2nd degrees, who already have a ring, are given a tanto and a small gift relating to their specialty. 3rd degrees, who are considered now on their way toward Mastery, are given a set of books suited for instructors. And new Master Instructors receive gifts on a case-by-case basis--in my case, a beautiful Sport Poomsae competition uniform, which I was tickled to receive.

We finished the night with a bow and a group hug. I felt like I was glowing with affection and pride for my group of BLACK BELTS. It was an absolutely incredible day, the culmination of months--years, really--of dedication and perseverance, with so much reward at the end of all.

Black Belt Overnighter

At our Taekwondo studio, we have a 6-month preparatory period preceding our annual black belt test, which takes place in January. We call it the "testing cycle" and each year we kickoff the cycle with the Black Belt Overnighter.

I've had the opportunity attend the Overnighter many times, both as a coach and as a testing candidate. Though we do generally the same things each time, I thought this year was especially enjoyable! That's partially because I'm a candidate this year (I always find it more fun to be testing, personally!) and partially because I'm testing with James! (James is testing for his 3rd Degree, and I'm testing for 4th.)

We started at 2:00pm last Friday afternoon. After a brief welcome from our master instructor, Master Sorenson, we launched right into our conditioning requirements. For our black belt test, we have six endurance drills that we are required to perform:

1. Roundhouse Kicks in 1 minute.  (100 minimum)
2. Knuckle pushups without pause. (10 minimum)
3. Banana [lay flat on the floor, lift feet, shoulder blades and arms ~6 inches off the floor] (60 seconds minimum)
4. Buddha [squat with thighs parallel to the floor] (60 seconds minimum)
5. Leg lifts in 1 minute. [laying on floor, lift straight legs vertical and back] (20 minimum)
6. Mile run (12 minute maximum)

I was anxious about meeting the conditioning requirements. Though the minimum requirements are not overly challenging (we set a base at the Overnighter, and then have to beat our scores about once a month until Black Belt Testing), my overall fitness is still recovering from having a baby three months ago. So, overall, I was fairly pleased with what I achieved at the Overnighter:

Roundhouse Kicks in 1 minute: I got 127 (James got 137)
Knuckle pushups: I got 21 (James got 40)
Banana: I got 1:05, which was the top time of our group (James 1:04)
Buddha: I got :54, so not quite the minimum required. (James got 1:44, the top time)
Leg lifts: I got 28 (James 34)
Mile run: I ran in 11:41 (James 7:25)

This gave us a baseline to work from. I'm excited to see how much I can progress as my body continues to recover, and I work hard over the next six months!

After the conditioning requirements, we did some housekeeping things, then I got to give a presentation on Meditation, to help everyone prepare for our meditation the following day (more on that below). I thought the presentation went well, though it's hard to tell how much the young guys absorbed. (Our youngest candidates this year are 10 years old.)

From there we went to the ropes course! This is always a highlight of the overnighter. We go to CLAS Ropes in Provo and do the high ropes. Not only is it a blast, but it also serves as a metaphor for overcoming fears/challenges, and working as a team.

James climbing to new heights!

Valerie on the zipline

Joel hanging out at the ropes course

This year, I got to do the giant swing, the zipline, and we all finished with an activity called Eskimo Blanket (see the video!)

We left the ropes course at 9pm and headed back the studio. I settled Joel down for the night, then we stayed up playing games for awhile (I continued my personal tradition of teaching everyone to play Blackjack). James and I went to bed around 1am, but some of the kids stayed up until 3 or so.

Master Page woke us all at 5am. We grabbed a "trail breakfast" and headed up Provo Canyon for our traditional sunrise hike to Stewart Falls. I wore Joel on the way up to the falls, which wasn't too bad, except for a couple of rocky bits where my balance was questionable. Once there, we each crossed under the waterfall in a metaphor of becoming a black belt. Then we settled down to meditate. The kids testing for 1st degree meditated for half an hour, 2nd degree for an hour, James for an hour and a half, and I got to meditate for two hours. The first hour or so wasn't super productive for me, because of the baby. (Note to self: leave babies behind for future meditations!) But he fell asleep in my arms, which thankfully allowed me to get into the mode. Once James was done, he came and stole the baby, and hiked down with Joel while I finished.

No, not sleeping. James eases his back during his one-and-a-half hour meditation.

Stewart Falls

Valerie during meditation

After the hike, we headed back to the studio, had brunch, then started working on our self defense demonstrations. James and I are super excited about our SD demo this year, not least because we get to be on a team together (with Mara and Molly!) These demos are one of the best parts of Black Belt Testing, and definitely the part that I have learned the most from, in the past.

And that was it! It was a great kickoff for testing. James and I are totally stoked to be testing together, and look forward to this exciting journey we have before us!

Our Ninja Nursery

Early in our pregnancy, James and I went out to dinner, and the wait time was 40 minutes or more, so we wandered down to Babies R Us to idle away the time. It was amusing; we scoped out cribs and rocking chairs and enjoyed the giddiness of prospective parenthood. At one point, we walked along looking at the bedding sets for cribs. James commented that all the little boy stuff seemed to either be cutesy animals or sports, neither of which he particularly cared for.

Some time later, when we began discussing what we wanted to do with Baby J's room, we talked about some different color schemes we could go with, but we kept feeling dissatisfied with our options. Footballs and whatnot were definitely out. I was thinking that I could resign myself to puppy dogs, but James was not satisfied with this, and I definitely was craving something a little more...unique. And through the course of our brainstorming, we found it.

Ninjas.

We began in January with painting the room. We had settled on red and black, but I feared that if the entire room was painted these colors, it would be overwhelming. So we decided to paint the top half of the room red, leave the bottom half the tan it was already, with a thick black stripe through the middle.

Getting started (the view from the door)

Getting started (the view of the door)

First coat of red

Now for the black stripe

We were anxious pulling the tape off, but it looked great! This picture doesn't do it justice.

It was amazing to me how much the color added warmth to the room. However, even though I wanted to hang out in the room all the time, it wasn't very comfortable with the uncovered window. (I don't like feeling like I'm in a fishbowl!) So next I approached my mother about making some curtains. (My mother is a curtain-making wizard.)

Turns out, Mom had already found some ninja-themed fabric online. She'd been hoping to find something less expensive, but nothing had turned up, and this particular fabric was just too perfect to pass up. In short order, the window was measured, the fabric purchased, the design decided, and Mom set to work. A few days later, this joyousness joined us:

Isn't this fabric perfect?

 
One of the most important parts of the nursery for me was a chair. Seeing as how I'm going to spend a lot of my time nursing, I wanted to create a comfortable space in the baby's room. I think I tried out every chair at RC Willey looking for "the one." You have to understand, because I'm short, a lot of chairs aren't that well suited for me--you know, I wanted to be able to have my feet touch the ground, which is sometimes a challenge! But I did find a chair that I loved (and it was on clearance, even better!) and though I was worried (rightfully) about the color clashing, I could not deny that this was the right chair for me. So we brought it home.

Fortunately, some of the color issue was mediated by the arrival of our next addition:

There is just something about having a crib in the room that really makes it start to feel like a nursery. Our beautiful crib came as a gift from James's mother, for which we are incredibly grateful!

Next came a purchase of our own, to match the crib:

The dresser, having been shipped from Amazon, was somewhat of an adventure to put together. LOTS of pieces. But it came together perfectly, and we love it!

The next addition (one of my top favorites!) came from Patrick & Shaylee, our brother- and sister-in-law, as a baby shower gift. Could not be more perfect for our ninja nursery!

But the best part of all came this week. A few months ago, I asked my dear friend Ashley Stubbs, an incredible artist, if she would be willing to create ninja "chibis" on the walls of our nursery. To my delight, she took on the project with great enthusiasm! On Wednesday she came over and drew the ninjas on the walls, and today we undertook the painting of them.

The fabulous Ashley Stubbs!

And here you can see the finished pieces:

"Ninja star guy"

"Ninja Guardian" peering over the edge of the crib

"Swingy guy"

"Kicky guy"

And behold, the finished product at last! I tried to get a couple of different angles so you could take in the full effect. =)

We are absolutely in love with our ninja nursery! Now it's time for our ninja baby to show up!!