8-12-09

Some basic drama
Ok honestly I can not recall the last time I had so much drama before a promotional test. Dealing with injury, aches, and pains is a normal part of training for many martial artist who train hard but I have had a sting of many things that have made things difficult. I have been dealing with a spot of pain between my shoulder blades, I am not cetain the root cause of this, however I believe it is more metaphysical then anything else. I have been using Reiki techniques to atleast numb the pain, but I have not been able to heal myself completely.

Taekwondo
I was in too much pain to practice and hit yoga class in the morning, however class itself went well. Wednesday night is the offical black belt class at the main academy and we had close to 42 people in attendance. The class itself was huge and the energy level was extremely high. Jennifer and I managed to speak with both Master Barlow and Master Holding and they both signed our test forms which left us with 10 of the Masters who signed our paper work. There were two other Masters there that we could have asked, however since they do not know us well and have not been to as many black belt classes I did not want to interrupt the conversations they were in to ask them to sign my paper work. I think it would have been rude to interrupt them when they were talking with others.

Class itself went well enough. I suffered through 45ish minutes with a migraine that pounded away. If a person was hoping to attend class tonight to gain insight into the the tests this weekend I think they left class broken hearted. Grand Master Kim worked us hard enough through basics and during the seperate rank training we just went though Koryo and were dismissed. Jennifer was already done working with Grand Master Kim when I was dismissed and we left class early. I spoke with on of the higher ranks to explain why I was leaving and I am certain that message was passed along to Grand Master Kim. Grand Master Kim is understanding when people need to come a bit late or leave early due to work or other commitments but I do not like walking in to class late or leaving early which is why I normally try to talk with a Master or Jr. Master when I need to do this. By the time we left however Grand Master Kim was working with those groups.

Thoughts for Thursday/Friday
I am going to take advantage of the light class on Thursday. Jr. Master Peshca may work us through some light basics but it will be a pretest day so there will not be sparring or anything of that nature. I could miss class, however I like going to pretest days and calling out test when possible. I attempt to give a test that may be a little difficult but not impossible. I figure if I give them a pretest that is just above their level then the actual test will not be as difficult for them.

I am also planning on a light forms practice session with Jennifer and anyone of the West Branch who sticks around to work on perfecting the small things. We should also work on some breaking but that will depend on who stays.

Friday Plan
It is a tradition for me to only have a light practice the day before the test and take advantage of the hot tube, reiki treatment and rest. I need to be at the main academy on Friday in attendance for the test to hold boards and sparring so I will need to get home early and get as much sleep as possible because odds are Jennifer and I will not get any sleep between the Friday and the Saturday test due to our work hours so sleeping and resting as much as possible on friday is important.

The Test is Saturday and I feel good about it. I am certainly not perfect but I have worked hard and feel as prepared as possible. If Jennifer and I can get some sleep between the Friday/Saturday test that would be a good thing but I am not planning on it. I need to be at the main academy between 1:30-2:00pm so it is possible if things go well we will get 4 hours of sleep but again we can not count on it.

Opps I am also about to create a new website to replace the martial artist site. For some reason the site is not showing the adjustments I made and I think it may be easier to create a new site then wait for site admin to get back to me. It will have 90% of what I have now but there will be some differances between the sites. I do not know, perhaps working on the new site will give me the release I need to keeping lose the next few days. I guess we will see what happens.

TKD Dragon