Black Beltish

I felt black beltish yesterday evening.

I'd brought my test application and my checkbook to pay for the test. Master Hughes told me about the Black Belt Club at our school and invited me to join it. I think I will. They get a red uniform (and/or workout pants with "Black Belt Club" on them), free boards to break, discount on future tests. They used to have parties and dinners together--maybe they will again.

I was asked to start class, which was fine. Though teaching at TKD is a bit of a busman's holiday, I don't mind. I did the standard warm up stuff plus some work on front kicks (I'd heard Ms. Pryor reminding someone to chamber their kick, so I thought maybe we needed to work on those.)

During sparring, I was mostly paired up with children, so got to work on teaching some more. At the end, I was paired up with Ms. Pryor, who seems to be pushing me to move to the next level in sparring. I'm glad.

I'd like to spend some time getting some one-on-one sparring coaching with her. Maybe after the test . . . or maybe even before! I want to work on speed, new combinations, and learning to anticipate openings so I can land the point more often. I love sparring.

We often end with flying side kicks; we did yesterday, too. Again, I was having trouble seeing the bag--what's with that? I don't have trouble if I do a flying side kick into a pad that someone's holding--or a board. But there's something about that heavy bag--the way it has no feet!

So after I had trouble, I went up and just looked at it from the side while people jumped. I think Ms. Pryor thought I was crazy. But that helped me be able to see where I needed to jump, and the next jump was spot on.

We celebrated Master Hughes's birthday, too, a bit late! It made me wish I'd replaced my camera by now . . . maybe I'll have one by the time of the test.