The Schedule Is Set!

I received an email from the school yesterday afternoon listed requirements for testing in April.  Me and another student were listed for the upcoming belt exam.  Pretty tense stuff for me.  If I didn't test in April, I'd have to wait till next October and that would be a long stretch to work on the same content, but I'd know it pretty darn good.

Andy asked me at the end of class if I was ready and I pointed him to Keith.  Keith said no problem.  Andy pointed at the board.  

The board is a whiteboard that has all the people who are going to be testing and their due dates.  It was a bit of shock to see my name up there.  My testing partner is ten, I think.  He knows it all of course.

So now I have 120 days to learn everything else.  In my mind I have to learn the wrist stuff almost in its entirety and the get freshened up on the rest of the one-step sparring.  I'm good up to 12, but not the ones beyond that (there's about four more, I think). 

The requirements are stressing me a bit.  There is an open book test, a closed book test and an oral exam.  I also have to write an essay which is probably my favorite thing.  It's only about four pages though.  Open book isn't too bad, but there is some digging involved.  However, the closed book is pretty frightening to me.  I might be able to pull out some of the Korean words, but definitely not all at this point.  Much to do in the intervening months.

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Today was basics again following by kicking drills.  Another weak point for me.  I can physically do them, but to remember them is another issue.  If no one is calling them then I would have to guess.  Yuck.  

To spice things up Keith placed a water dummy between me and Joe.  This gives a target and helps with distancing, power and targeting.  I was absolutely surprised how much this threw me off.  Joe, who is forty years my junior may look a bit floppy at times brings a huge amount of power.  He regularly moved the dummy a foot in my direction.  I was never able to move it back all the way.  I took a small amount of satisfaction that I was able to do a few fairly well, but it didn't mean much when I started considering the exam again.