The Giant Checklist

I think I've pointed out in the last several posts that the content I've been getting at the school has been like drinking from a firehose.  All over the board and lots of it.  I didn't think of addressing it; assuming that was the nature of the class structure.  

At the beginning of class yesterday Collette Sabom Nim (Teacher Elder) addressed the issue verbatim.  She and Andy had been spit-balling about how to handle my situation.  

After reading the manual I realized the pressure is on them to vouch for me, so they ended up giving me a check list of all the requirements for all the ranks.  This seemed like a good idea to me as I'm struggling with the Korean and the difference in strikes, blocks and kicks.  

So we ran through all the requirements connected to getting the 9th gup.  Four hand techniques, three foot and some one-step sparring.  

I didn't think it would be a big deal, figuring this would correspond with a white belt in traditional karate.  Wrong. I managed to get all the blocks and strikes incorrect due to their chamber position being different from what I was used to.  That just got worse because I couldn't get the terminology straight.  At one point I was getting embarrassed, but Collette was always cool and supportive.

Next came the kicks.  Although there are only three in the requirements, Collette ran me threw about seven or eight.  No surprises here, but like the other things the simple differences through me off.  I was pleased by my remaining flexibility which allowed my kicks in the front to go pretty high, but anything roundhouse was horrible.  It takes me a lot of effort to go head height so I lose balance easily.  Back to being embarrassed again.  

We moved on to wrist grabs, which took too long for me to remember correctly and finally ended up on sparring.  There were three students, a 10 year old, a 16 year old and me.  Then they introduced a wrinkle - two on one.  The attempt being that we learn how to line up to attacks.  I was abysmal at this.  I couldn't attack over the 10 year old so the 16 year old would pick away at us.  Exhausting and hilarious.  It's a good training exercise.