Another Graduation/testing practice

Tonight's class was fairly uneventful for the most part. Friday night classes follow ATA Extreme classes, and with the exception of Mr. A, is comprised mostly of the higher ranking (and more capable) teen leaders of the school. It's kinda fun to watch them. And they are really put through it by Mr. Lee, who is an ATA Extreme teacher. He's very nice, kinda cute, but very tough. I have a hard enough time when he's taught regular classes. The last time I took one of his classes, I couldn't move the next day, and I was coughing up a storm due to my asthma being agitated THAT much. But Mr. A took over the class tonight, so it wasn't too bad. I forgot part of my form, or just blanked out for a minute, but I'm sure I'll be fine by Wednesday. I was supposed to practice ssang-jeh-bahng for graduation, but I just skipped it. I did help to hold boards for those who have to break for graduation. I'm not sure if with purple or blue belt if I have to start breaking for graduation/testing or not. If it's a front kick with my plastic board, that's a cinch. That's the one break I can do with my eyes closed. :-) The others need work, but they are coming along. I was looking at part of the Brown Belt form that we'll be doing for the next cycle, and it shows that you have to break, and you have to do either a elbow and front kick break, or an elbow and side kick break. That's an easy one to figure out-- option #1, of course! I wonder if you get more credit doing the other one though? I guess I'll find out when I get to that level for sure. It's very confusing when you are doing forms that are 2 levels ahead of where you actually are, that's for sure!

Anyway, I digress. Sparring is fine. One 9 year old whom I had to spar tries to hard, if that makes sense. He's too concerned about trying to do the fancy reverse spin kick that I bop him in the side or chest in the meantime and can kick him in the head (figuratively speaking) a few times. He's a higher rank than me, so despite my size, he should be able to figuratively beat me to a pulp. From my experience in tournament sparring, you have to just go for it. The judges aren't impressed by fancy kicks or form in how you do it. As long as you make a legal hit, that's all that counts. I held my own just doing a lot of round kicks and side kicks and flat out punches against 2nd degrees just doing that. Granted, I think my repetoire is getting better with some repeat kicks and crescent kicks. I don't have the speed to do spin kicks, and I know it. But this kid has to get that kick. I always notice that he's too caught up in the details sometimes. It's good to pay attention to them, but really. If you don't move up right away, it's not the end of the world. But then again, to a nine year old, it might be THAT important to him. He's also of Indian descent, and not to make an ethnic slur, because this isn't, but Indians tend to have a tendency to feel they have to do everything the best and perfectly, that there's a cultural pressure to have to be the best. I have a LOT of Indian neighbors, and they admit this themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if he had some pressure from the outside as well. Poor kid.

Oh well. Hopefully the rain will let up for us to go have our TKD picnic and watergun fight tomorrow. We'll see. It should be fun should it go through.