Big Nick's Black Belt Grading....

[MJS]

Congrats Sarah!!!!!!!! artyon: :cheers:

Mike

 

[Flatlander]

Good stuff, Sarah. Way to do it up. :asian:

 

[shesulsa]

Sarah, we knew you could do it! RIGHTEOUS!!!

 

[kenpo tiger]

I just noticed this thread too. Not ignoring you all.

Biggie (betcha missed my saying that to you all this time!) - you kick some major butt, boy. No doubt in my mind you'll pass. The largest part of being a black belt is in your heart and mind. The rest is just details.

Sarah. Also no doubt in my mind you'll pass.

BUT - just in case -- :samurai: artyon:

 

[bignick]

congrats sarah...

well...probably won't be on until sunday or later...so i'll talk to everyone then...

 

[TigerWoman]

Way to go Sarah!!! Now ice your knee and be kind to it.

Go Big Nick--I know you will do well tomorrow, so enjoy the moment--albeit the looonnng moment. Sleep!!!!! TW

 

[terryl965]

nice job sarah,ice those knees and get back in there.

 

[bignick]

I figure I'd write a little "journal" entry for any that may be slightly interested.

So, to truly get a feel for the whole situation, you need to start at the night before. Well, the night before my test I relaxed with a couple friends and watched a movie. Finally crawled into bed around 11-11:30. Nervous as could be so I had some trouble getting to sleep...probably fell asleep a little after midnight. Now, for those that don't know, I'm a junior in college and still live in the dorms. So, of course, some idiot pulled the fire alarm at 2:50 in the morning. I was not a very happy boy. While standing outside I was talking to my buddy and told him it just "had to be tonight, just had to be." I figured might as well put my time to good use and started practicing outside. We were let back into the building aroud 3:20. I didn't fall asleep again until after 4 a.m. Woke up at 6:50 a.m. and got ready, had a solid breakfast and headed out. Got to the school around 7:45 and just rested for a bit. Check in started at 8:30. After everybody had checked in we started with the written test. Again, I'm a college student so I take tests for a living. SO, the written portion was no big deal. Around 10ish we moved onto the physical test. It started with a timed run, just under a mile. From there we went right into situps and pushups in a minute. After some windsprints and a million footwork drills we cooled down with some flexibility tests. We got about an hour break for "lunch" at 11:30. The technique part of the test started at 1:00. My friend and I just stayed at the school and relaxed and tried to stay warmed up. When one o'clock rolled around we started with forms and moved on to all types of kicking combinations, one steps, and hogu drills. When that was finished we got to the easy part and one of my favorites, breaking. The required break was triple roundhouse, one foot, three different boards without setting down. From there we had various breaks we could chose from. I did 3 board forearm, 3 board knifehand, 2 board 360 axe kick, 3 board front kick, and double front kick(one board each foot, jump and break both at same time). All breaks were held by people and there were no spacers. Got all my breaks and when I was done there was such a feeling of relief/accomplishment. I think I finally left the school sometime around 5:30. UNOFFICIALLY, I think I passed, and my instructor said he didn't think I needed to retest on anything, but he wasn't running the test so I can't take that as a 100% guarantee. I'll find that out within a couple of days and from there it's just the public demonstration in January.

 

[BrandiJo]

wow ....thats alot to do ...im glad i have a while to wait for my black belt

 

[TigerWoman]

Big Nick, congrats on doing such a great job! On interrupted sleep too.
I think the triple round kick would have been hard for me and the double front impossible. That's awesome.--you had a lot of breaks/boards required. For rec. black, we just have 5 for guys, 4 for women. I think you must have left out the sparring part, though. But maybe the all the running etc. took that in place. I'm sure you are glad that is over. Fantastic job! TW

 

[bignick]

Yes, the breaking was fun. There are exceptions made for people that have problems with jumping. For the double front they can kick one and without setting down jump and kick the other. The head instructor came up to me before we started and joked that we could probably skip the hand techniques for me. I told him that we should at least go through the motions. No I didn't leave the sparring out, my school usually doesn't do sparring for tests. I have seen it but we don't focus on competition so we don't usually spend time testing people on how they spar. It does happen and we were all ready for it, had all our gear, but it didn't happen this time.

 

[TigerWoman]

Well your test was longer than usual and just as physical from what it sounds. Our sparring just ends up in people getting hurt, then we have to do our breaks afterward when we are absolutely spent. He goes until we can't go on literally. I couldn't will my legs to go up at the end, in fact, one leg gave a little and I stumbled. Not many can do all their breaks then--mostly the big guys.

I would have had to do that double jump one at a time, can't get it to belt level at the same time. Now we should have a party for you. artyon: artyon: TW

 

[Sarah]

Well done Nick, you must be so glad that is it all done!

Cant wait to see some photos when you have your award ceremony.

 

[bignick]

There are a couple of cool pics that someone got while I was breaking, when I get a copy of them I'll try and get them up somewhere. In the picture of my 360 axe kick break i'm doing the splits standing up, I couldn't believe it was actually me...

 

[The Kai]

Sounds like a tough test, I'm sure you did fine

Todd

 

[shesulsa]

Way cool, Nick! I'm sure you're glad it's over. Sounds like it is well-deserving of the rank.

YOU SO TOTALLY ROCK!!

Welcome

JKN Georgia

 

[Lisa]

Congrats Nick, can't wait to see the pics

 

[Flatlander]

Good work, Nick. Much respect,

:asian:
Dan

 

[Zepp]

Good job Sarah! Keep up the training.

Nick, that sounds like one hard test. You rule dude!

Congrats to both of you. :cheers:

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Now THAT is a test!

Good job. Hope the results are favorable.



Regards,


Steve