Grading Report – Fourth Quarter 2011
Grandmaster Kim was very pleased with the grading performance by all students this fourth quarter.
Here are some experiences by some students.
Keunwoo Song (top)
I felt really nervous and scared because I didn’t know my one step sparing 8,9,10. After grading I felt really happy because it was finished. I was thinking I was going to do something wrong. It was freaky and scary when the instructor and other black belt were looking at me. They just said to have fun.
Apet Baltejian (top)
I was really, really nervous throughout the whole day. The car trip would have to be the worst part of that day, remembering all the 1 steps, pattern and the kicks. Having butterflies in my stomach and a headache made it much worse. When I got to the gym, Karen made it worse for me by saying "some people have failed grading before." When they called out my name, I was still nervous but at the same time, I was brave. The emotions were all mixed. There was some fear, I was anxious, nervous, worried, and uneased.
After grading I was relieved and felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders :L The scary part were the spectators all having their eyes on me but I just tried to think of it as a normal training lesson. Obviously that didn't work well. Everyone's advice was just to kick butt and do your best. The positive things people said just boosted my confidence. After the grading, everyone was proud of me - except for the part I kicked Mark in the face during free-sparring. Without the preparation of the day before and without the help of Steven and Andrew, I think my performance would have been terrible.
Learning Saw (top)
I was really panicky throughout the day of grading. Throughout the school day, I texted my friends and told them how nervous I was. They gave my words of encouragement and told me not to worry. Even when I got home, and changed into taekwondo uniform, I went straight to revise the one step sparring and the pattern.
I was supposed to grade after training and I got really anxious throughout training. The instructor trained us pretty hard during training. The rigorous training got me really tired. We were doing some kick and punch combination when Master Steven told us to get ready to grade. I got really jumpy and drank a lot of water.
During grading, I tried my best but I think I screwed up some moves. It was really nerve wrecking with the instructors and other color belts looking at me. It felt like there were so many pairs of eyes staring at me at the same time. I got really nervous when I had to spar! I wasn’t good at sparring and I didn’t know what kicks I should do next. But I just tried and did the kicks that we learnt in that lesson and those that I was better at.
Right after grading ended, all the thoughts that ran through my mind was like “Man! I screwed up big time! “I felt so bad! ): But I guess it was still an attempt that I tried my best in. The other black belts and color belts came over and told me it was good.
As much as I felt that I kind of screwed up grading, I was glad I did grading and tried my best. I'm really thankful to all my instructors that taught me in the past few months.
