Congratulations! You know, as much as I rarely thought about belt colors along the way, it was pretty cool looking down at the new color on the last few.
I'm with you. The only ones I got excited for were getting rid of the white belt (so when people asked what belt I had I didn't sound like a total beginner who couldn't fight), my brown belt (I felt like I was almost there), and my black belt (that's what I chased for 3.5 years).
Sorry, I forgot to congratulate you. Keep up the hard work. You truly inspire me. Your enthusiasm is definitely refreshing and contagious! This thread is easily one of my favorites here.
The only other color that mattered to me was purple, and maybe more than brown, because that's where you get the last of the core curriculum. So folks in an NGA dojo know that someone wearing purple is almost done receiving the core curriculum (not done learning, just done getting the curriculum).I'm with you. The only ones I got excited for were getting rid of the white belt (so when people asked what belt I had I didn't sound like a total beginner who couldn't fight), my brown belt (I felt like I was almost there), and my black belt (that's what I chased for 3.5 years).
The other ones weren't any big deal to me.
My second time around, none of them were nor will be. Well, maybe 3rd and 4th dan will be. Why? I don't know. Sandan and yondan just sound cool to me
Good suggestion. There was a lot of oral and written testing for my black belt. I took care of all that while rehabbing from knee surgery.You're more likely to injure yourself when you're sick, so get well before you go back to class. You can use the recuperation time to read about taekwondo.
Or if your school requires an essay for the black-belt test, start working on your essay!
You're more likely to injure yourself when you're sick, so get well before you go back to class. You can use the recuperation time to read about taekwondo.
Or if your school requires an essay for the black-belt test, start working on your essay!
Sorry for the late post, well done!
With 1 Jang, you end up 3 Apseogi widths back. How far that is depends on the width of your Apseogi. If your Apseogi is correct as per the WTF/KKW definitions, it has very little width and you end up losing only 3 heel widths. Which is easy to fudge with a slightly longer Apkubi forwards and a slightly shorter one back home. The differences in stance length become imperceptible - 3/4 of a heel width adjustment per Apkubi.It is somewhat of a myth that if you perform all your stances correctly, you will wind up exactly on the starting spot for all Taegeuk forms. The classic example is Taegeuk Il Jang, for which it is very easy to demonstrate that this cannot possibly be true. Almost every turn in the form pushes you "backwards"; so it is inevitable that if you perform every stance correctly, you will wind up behind the starting spot. In the following diagram, the length of each "one stride" line is precisely the same, so you can clearly see how each turn pushes you to the rear.
Here's one way to handle that: when you first start on the path to returning to your starting spot, going back down the stem of the floor pattern, take a quick glance at where your starting spot was, and adjust the length of your stances on the return trip so that you'll finish on the starting spot. That's one of the tricks that's used by competitive sports poomsae athletes: keeping an eye on the starting spot, they shorten or lengthen their stances as needed during the return trip to finish at the starting spot.
Make sure you are turning on the ball of the stationary foot and not the heel, and Apkkoaseogi between the Wesanteulmakkis is horizontal and not diagonal.
Congratulations!
Good work, and congratulations!
