Friday, December 17, 2010

Black Stripe Test 1b

After getting my notes on Tuesday night I was really struck with a case of the nerves for the Thursday observation.  I went to class early as usual and started vacuuming after I changed.  I thought I might as well take advantage of the OCD and anxiety and put it to good use.  Teacher could tell I was ramping up and pulled me aside to do some very light sparring.  After about two minutes he said, “now do it with breathing.”  Ha ha. 

He told me before class that I could continue teaching the kids class until I improved.  Since I was fairly anxious I immediately starting reading into that.  I figured that meant I wasn’t going to get the belt tonight because I had to grow so much more.

The class went smoothly and in retrospect I’d say that I tried very hard to put the notes Teacher gave me into action.  Afterword he gave me some more notes, but it started with the fact that I had, in deed, improved vastly.  He added that I needed to refine a few areas and, frankly, I knew when I blew it most of the time.  Thankfully the kids didn’t seem to mind or notice when I’d flub something.  Teacher, I think, I was mostly focused on my ability to control the class and still move forward. 
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I’ve been fighting some intense pain in my right hip as a result of some bad falls on Tuesday which were exacerbated with our kneeling to standing kick exercises.  Ironically a low stance eases the pressure on my hip, but ibuprofen is really the best prevention and treatment.  Of course I forgot to take that before class in my fit of anxiousness.

Of course we do those very same kicks last night and I was accompanied in my discomfort by others who weren’t quite healed up as well. 

We did some “return to basics” type exercises that really worked on using the hips to initiate turns and then went on to two-step sparring.  At the end of class one of the new students was tested for his first green stripe and frankly looked better than most of us when we did ours. 

At the bow-out Teacher says, “Congrats to new guy on his green tip and everyone give Tater a round of applause on his first black tip.” 

Wait, what? 

I blushed furiously and then everyone clapped.  Which was immediately followed by comments like, “Did I miss something?” and “hunh?”

After class bowed out I had to explain to folks about the observations and teaching the kids class were the requirement. 

I practically skipped out.  I got home, swept my wife off her feet, drank two glasses of wine and promptly went to bed and snored loudly.  As befits the man on his way to the 1 in a 1000. 

2 comments:

BSM said...

Congrats on the pass! I too suffered from test anxiety - esp when forms were involved.

That is one of the downsides to a system with belts. They seem to put a lot of drama to it.

Potatoe Fist said...

I should say that he really doesn't put any drama into it - it's all me. The first couple of classes I did were fine until I had to start looking at my own behavior.

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