The test was like this...Master St. James and Mr. McGee got to the dojang at 5:58. At 6:00 (ish!) they entered the training room. We were all in line, standing at ease, being very quiet. Mr. Berger told us to come to attention, then we bowed to Master St. James and thanked him. We bowed in, said our student creed and then took a moment of silence. Mr. M told us that this was OUR test and that we were going to get started. The black belts lined up in the front row first, so they went to the back of the class. After that, we got busy and started into our techniques. About an hour into it, we did 100 jumping jacks. I didn't stop once this time, which makes me super proud of myself.
We did a lot of technique and then we went right into forms. After the Cho Dan Bo's did their forms, we got to sit down while the black belts did their higher forms. After that, he sent us out to get our sparring gear. We had a few minutes to get it and then we had to race back in. It was a madhouse but we managed. We raced back in and sat down while the black belts did their form. Then we got up and got into sparring formation. We had to do our one steps. He had all of us do our one steps at the same time. That went pretty well. We also had to do our Ho Sin Sul (self defense) and that was a bit of a difficult thing. My partner was in pain. She had hurt her back a few days ago and it was still hurting her. I had to fall for her (should have jumped but didn't). I didn't mind. I did all the Ho Sin Sul falling while she did the technique. I don't mind because I could demonstrate my GREAT falling ability.
We did leg techniques, then we sparred. After the sparring, we got to break boards.
The board breaking is a really COOL thing. We had to write our breaks on an index card and give it to Mr. M when we pre-tested. I did a front snap kick, elbow break, side kick, ridge hand (from above the board, straight down, hitting with the outside of my hand) and an axe kick. I broke almost all of my boards on the first try. The side kick tried to kick me back--I nearly fell when I broke the board but I did it!! I remembered to keop loudly when I broke too. That helped. I felt really good doing it. :)
The last thing was for us to line up again. We listened to Master St. James tell us about spirit. He said that we showed incredible spirit. That was really cool!
After he said his piece, we had a moment of silence, then bowed out--first to Master St. James, then Mr. McGee and the other visiting black belt. Then we bowed to our third and second dans and our first dans. After that, we all turned and bowed to our parents and friends, then left.
I stayed around and got Mr. M to sign my board, then his son (gotta have them both!), and of course my friend Susan! I'm going to keep that board where I can look at it as an inspiration.
Today I have the kama seminar with Master St. James and then afterwards he's teaching the instructors a bong form or two.
Sunday is the banquet to celebrate our belting and get them. Then it's back to work and back to some semblance of normalcy.
