I tested and passed my test for 3rd Dan in the World Traditional Hapkido Federation last night and my brother passed his Chodan test. Today I feel very OLD, sore and bruised, of course being thrown off the matts onto the concrete floor has nothing to do with it,or the pressure point attacks to my jaw, LOL the test was non stop in a room with no AC, for about 2 1/2 hrs, but I loved every painfull minute of it
Congrats, Mr. Redfield, and I can totally sympathize with the feeling old part. I'll be testing for 7th gup in about 2 hours, and I managed to screw up my ankle but good last night. People claim that 40 is the new 30, but if 40 feels anything like 38 does right now, it's a huge freakin' lie. ;-)
How long have you been training in your various arts, anyhow? I really wish I'd started my training about 10 years earlier!
40 is the new 30? **** I missed that boat too, haha I'm 43
let's see
I was in Judo in the 70's till green belt, tried "American Karate" in 80/81 or so, no rank was mostly just getting pounded on by meatballs with ducktaped canvas pads,sweatshirts and karate pants, learned a little though, started TSD in 85/86 till about 89 started it again in 95 and got serious, started Hapkido around,99 I love my TSD but Hapkido is like totally HoSinSool with nasty throws chokes and other fun stuff, I think of it as the Dark Side of the Force, we even wear black uniforms LOL,
Good Luck on your test, I usually do best with a little injury, probly cuz I usually have one, LOL, lets hear how it went!!
Test ran nearly 3 1/2 hours, as it was a makeup exam. So we had white, orange, and green belts all testing, and two green belts going for red belt, therefore they were doing pretty much every techinique they've ever learned. Not to mention one of them, a kid who's moving away in a week or two, who didn't know what the heck he was doing, and my instructor gave him a "going away present" by letting him keep redoing Every. Single. Thing. Every form. Every one step. While we sat anjo for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes! Agh!
But still, it was an awesome experince. And now, it's Miller (well, Shiner Bock...) time.
Tang Soo!
Gregg
P.S. A fellow student of mine is gong to be moving to NC in the next couple of months and I let her parents know to look you up. She's planning on continnuing to study TSD, and I think they'd like to stick with MGK if possible. Not sure where they'll be living in relation to Wake Forest, but figured I'd pass your info along to them. Maybe it'll help to increase your student body!
I still haven't found out when I'll be allowed to retest for red belt. I've been trying to be mellow about it, and concentrate on improving my skills, which is the real point of the exercise.
Thanks, DragonLady! Glad to hear you found yourself a new dojang as well -- best of luck on your retest. As for me, I'm just counting the months until 6th gup -- my goal was green belt by the end of this year, and that's certainly looking likely. I figure as long as i don't break anything I should be nicely on schedule.
Hey, if y'all are interested I've got some pics from the test up on my Flickr page -- check 'em out:
One thing that I've realized is this: I can tell I'm learning our art better because I can spot tons of things wrong with my own technique in pretty much every picture! Sigh....