Grading Report – Second Quarter 2011

Grandmaster Kim was very pleased with the grading performance by all students this second quarter.

Here are some experiences by some students.

Mark Rolando Polinar
Wilson Zou
Jung Gee Ko
Alex Kan
Vincey Au
Peter Lee

Mark Rolando Polinar (top)

On the first of July I graded to get my 1st Blue belt. It was pretty nerve wracking. I was really hyped to do grading but i was still nervous at the same time. I trained really hard and i believed i could do it.

When i got there, I quickly stretched and revised my yellow 2 pattern, grading kicks and my one-step sparring. Some of the black belts and people in yellow 2 helped me revise everything. I was scared that if i trained too much i was going to go blank when it was my turn so i stopped and just watched everyone else.

So then we started. Master Kim quickly said a brief message to us before we went. Just looking at him was very nerve wracking. I was like shaking for some odd reason. The groups went by from blue to white then yellow 1 and to yellow 2. It was my turn. I was so shocked when the Instructor said my name. I had to say "Yes Sir!' then bow and quickly ran to my position. I almost forgot about it but then i remembered at the last minute. They called me and three other members in the yellow 1 and 2 group. We had to first bow at them. My mind was going crazy and i was shaking. I tried to snap out of the state and be focused on my grading.

I had to go through my pattern, grading kicks and my one-step sparring. From my opinion i think i did really well but i did one mistake in No. 6 but hopefully the blackbelts didn't notice it. We go partnered up for sparring. I was with a friend of mine so we were both nervous. The Instructor told us to stop. Master Kim then called out a Red belt. When he said his name I went crazy in my head. I said to myself "I am going to get injured' because the last time i fought this person I got injured. But oh well. I had to face my fears and face him like a man. So I did. He went so quick at the start i didn't know what just happened but a sudden reaction i did block with my hand. It felt so weird. From the point on, I was getting really confident. I blocked most of his attacks and he blocked my attacks. It was pretty epic. We finally finished sparring. I was so relieved that it was done. The instructor told us to come back into positions and to bow to Master Kim and the rest of the black belts then to our parents.

It was finally over. I had a mini party in my head that's how happy i was. I got some positive feedback from my friends and my dad. They were really happy and enjoyed my fight with the red belt. I was like jumping for joy when they said i did good. I enjoyed grading and sparring with a Red Belt. I can't wait for the next one.

Wilson Zou (top)

I didn’t know if i was ready to grade or not, because i didn’t really know my pattern. I walked into the dojang pretty nervously and did the usual; some stretches then enrolled for grading. After i asked my mates if they knew my pattern but all seemed to not know -.-. From then on, i began to panic a bit. Luckily as the black belts help us to revise the patterns and stances i remembered my pattern as Master Kim once taught me. The feeling was good because i knew i had a good chance of passing now.

After revising, we had a short break and i finished all my ice tea immediately maybe because i was so tired. Everyone sat down and waited for their names to be called for. I wished for the blue belts to be called out first as i wanted to get the grading over and done with. Unfortunately people were called out by ranks like usual. During the wait, i talked to some mates to chill a bit before i went up. Finally it was the blue belt’s turn and i ran towards the grading area after a “Yes, Sir”. We began with some basic punching which was like a warm up. Next came the blue belt kick combos which were reverse, back and sidekicks, which i performed pretty well to my opinion. With my luck, patterns came afterwards and were my most uncertain section of the grading. In my head i kept trying to tell myself to chill and not to worry as i performed my pattern. A sense of relief hit me as i completed the last step of my pattern.

The rest of the grading, including one-step sparring and free sparring were my favourite parts of taekwondo so i reckon i did fine in those aspects. After those were completed, we bowed twice, once to the judges and once to the audience and the blue belts went back to their seats with smiles on their faces as I’m sure no one made major mistakes

Jung Gee Ko (top)

The pressure! I've done it before, and i'll do it again. Grading. But even though ive done it all ten times before, those shaky knees just love to make me feel, and sometime look, like a nervous little whitebelt (no offense intended here, i was a whitebelt too once upon a time)!

But that doesnt compare to what happens to my mind. BLANK! Oh no! I even forgot how to do that kick that i was soo good at yesterday! And why does this all happen while the master, the senior blackbelts and in fact the whole dojang watches?

Because i love it. Grading is such an incredible experience where i can show what i've got, alongside all my friends, with the promise of getting better with each grading! Yes, my mind and my body feel like philadelphia cheese, but my gosh, when i look at the whites, the yellows, the blues, and now even the reds while i wait for my turn, i feel a great sense of accomplishment because thats where i came from, and now Im about to do it again!

HWA RANG DO!

Alex Kan (top)

I think everyone who’s been through a grading knows it’s a nerve wracking experience. As soon as I entered the hall, you could see everyone revising and doing last minute practice where normally everyone’s just talking (haha just joking xD) but you can definitely feel the tense atmosphere and all the people in anticipation for the grading.

Before we start, one of the black belts always take us through the basics and then it’s time to sit and wait for your turn. When I’m waiting I swear I start hallucinating and seeing rainbows cause I’m so nervous but it’s still great sitting there watching your peers go through their gradings and seeing how far they’ve progressed since they started. And then all too quickly it’s my turn.

I line up in front of the black belts and Master Kim and they’re staring at the others and I and its kinda intimidating cause their eyes are drilling into your head but I always forget about that once I get started. It always helps to treat it like a normal class and imagine that you’re the only one in the hall and there’s no one there and there’s no pressure. I think my pattern went smoothly, same with my kicks (just lost balance a couple of times xD) and then onto the one step. The first couple of the one step patterns were fine, just messed up a little on my blue belt 7th one step but otherwise there were ok. I think I got a little carried away though cause I kinda threw my friend a little too hard on the floor and yelled a little too enthusiastically (Sorry Kev xD). After the one step, it was free sparring, which I think is one of the highlights of grading. It’s extremely tiring but it’s always fun.

Then it’s it the end of grading. At this point I was crazy tired but I was satisfied with my effort. AND TO ALL WHO GRADED, CONGRATZ AND GOOD LUCK NEXT GRADING XD!!!!

Vincey Au (top)

When I walked into the Blacktown branch of HRD, I was amazed at the number of people there. I was quite nervous since I hadn't trained as much in that week as I normally did and therefore didn't feel ready. We were split into our colour belt groups, where we practiced our pattern and grading kicks. This was a good refresher and helped me make sure I was doing everything right.

When 7pm came around, everyone except the judges sat down at one end of the room, while the judges sat down on the other. The first grading was of blue belts; at this point I noticed the laaaaarge amount of yellow belts as opposed to any other colour. [Also had a short panic when I realised I forgot to fill out a form for grading. =.=]The gradings went through, cycling through white belts, to junior yellow belts. I was quite nervous at this stage, because I was being overly paranoid that the judges may have missed my form or something. Steven then came over and asked if I had handed in a form, where I really just thinking, crap. At that point, Master Kim called out my name, and I was still thinking crap, because I really wasn't expected to be called out yet.

I responded with 'Yes sir!' and ran to the grading area. We started off with pattern, which I messed up in the middle. Whoops. It was hard to return to the correct step because all the other people grading with me were Yellow 2s, and they had a different pattern. We proceeded to single kicks, I think. We did jumping side kick, turning kick, and reverse turning kick, on both feet, before we combined it in a combination. I managed to fall over - I don't even know how that happened - during my single reverse turning kick. We proceeded to one step sparring, which was kind of awkward because my partner was this little boy with what seemed like stick arms. Finally, we proceeded to free sparring. Honestly, I don't remember much here, except that we bowed to the judges, then to spectators and sat back down.

The gradings continued to cycle through from the end of yellow belt, to red belts to the most entertaining black belt gradings. There was definitely a much more active atmosphere with the black belt gradings, especially since they were being pretty cool and ninja breaking the boards while jumping over 500 (minus 498) chairs. At the end, nearing 9pm, we all had Master Kim's talk, bowed to the flags, and watched a mini ceremony of two new black belts.

Peter Lee (top)

It was a day to remember. It was the 1st of July 2011. It was the day of my grading for my 2nd dan black belt. I have done this not once, not twice, not thrice, but 9 times, and still I felt nervous.

During preparations for the grading I was anxious to see how much I have improved since first receiving my black belt, however I was also worried whether I would perform well. To help me relax I was told there was a very high expectation of me, yay...

On grading day I showed up roughly 50min early to get some last minute prep done. Before the actual grading started some of the other black belts and I went through all the things that were expected of us. Both the red belt 3 and black belt pattern and one step sparring from yellow to red. I was nervous since this was the first time I would be graded for a few years and could feel the pressure. The pressure I was feeling was similar to when I was waiting outside the examination hall for my HSC exams. I knew I was ready but there was that small self doubt at the back of my head.

When the grading started I was expecting the usual of white belts starting the grading and working the way up to the black belts. However the first group to be called up wasn't white belts but blue belts. This gave me a shock as I thought that I would be up alot sooner than i wanted to. During the grading of the blue belts my mind was a mess. Trying to calm myself down without my mind going completely blank otherwise i would forget some of the on step sparring. However no matter how hard I tried to calm myself, I could feel my heart racing knowing that I was going to be up sooner rather than later.

Once the blue belts were finished I was expecting the red belts to be up but alas to my utter joy the white belts were called up. This meant that I would have more time to calm myself before I went up. The time and grading went on and I had the same butterflies in my stomach as when I'm on the starting block (swimming) waiting for the buzzer to go off. Once the Yellow belts were nearly over there were just a few red belts seperating me from the impending doom. With the remaining time I had left I called over Jung Gee another black belt who was grading with me and started to warm up. Whilst warming up I realised that I completely forgot that I was told to know a decent number of SELF DEFENCE. Thinking that we had enough time Jung Gee and I started to go over our self defence in the change room. However on number 3 I heard my name being called out so I quickly shouted "YES SIR" and bolted out of the change room as quickly as i can.

Standing up there being graded was a completely different feeling from just being called up to demonstrate.
The watchful eyes of the instructors and Master Kim were petrifying. I knew if I made a mistake they would know immediately. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body.

When I was first called up I was full of confidence. However after the basic punches and patterns I was covered in sweat and physically exhausted. That was when I thought "Crap, I'm so screwed". After the basic punches and pattern came the kicks. I survived that without too much drama, thank god. But then came one step sparring. I knew this would require alot of energy. For my grading I had to do all the one step from yellow to red. At one point I felt so physically exhausted my punch looked more like i just threw it out.

After One step came the real killer, free sparring. It was something I was looking forward to. I felt like I have improved alot over the past few weeks in sparring and wanted to see how much. After my initial sparring partner I was put up against a much more senior black belt with alot more experience than me. The only thing that went through my head at the time was "OMG, I'm gonna get owned". This was when I knew I wouldn't being coming out of this without some sort of injury that would stay with me for at least 2 weeks.
I was right. During the match I felt I was doing fine until I went for a reverse and when my back was exposed I was kicked painfully in the back.

Once sparring was over the easy part came. All we had to do was break a board with a certain kick. The first kick was a jumping side kick over 3 chairs. One Shot, YES. Jumping Back kick. One Shot, YES. Turning kick then a 360. One Shot, YES. By now I was feeling confident since I was able to break everything in one shot however I didnt know the next kick would break my one shotting streak - Jumping Reverse, two attempts.

After breaking, grading was over and was finished off with a few words of wisdom from Master Kim. After grading came to a close I was told by many people that I did well. Hearing this made me happy however on the drive home my asian blood kicked in and I started to complain about myself how I could have done better and that I didn't do as well as I hoped to. What amused me was the feedback from my brothers when i arrived home. Even though they did not come to see me grade when i walked into the house with a limp they both laughed and ran off to my parents room to tell them that I got "OWNED HARD".

I believe that this grading was very fruitful on where my abilities lay and enjoyed being graded and look forward to the next one but I think this one should suffice for a while.