Tae Kwan Do Test

...after 16 months and about 210 classes, Kobe and I tested for our Purple Belts this afternoon and passed; not easily however. Kobe woke up this morning with a fever and coughing. After a healthy dose of kid's motrine, he was feeling well enough to take his test (no make ups allowed, if you miss test day, you're waiting two months until the next test). Kobe broke his board on the first try and I hit the very top edge of the board stack on my first try (yeah, adrenaline was high), took a deep breath, corrected and made a good break on my second try. Both passed and received our purple belts, will find out our final scores in a week or so.

Since there were four students taking the black belt pre-test, Ken, just rolled in the driveway here at 3:00, and since Kobe is sick, we decided to pass on the Kendo tourney. Man, the men testing for black belt have to break three 1" thick boards w a hand strike and four boards w a kick. I felt lucky near the end that I was selected to be part of the three person team to match up against the black belts when they had to demonstrate their 3 vs 1 fighting techniques. Yep, I'm fast.... I gotta punch, strike, and kick three different brown belts in the back, I did take one pretty good kick to the ribs, but I partially blocked it so I'm okay. I did note when the Master said "Start!" all three immediately ran away from me, not the other two opponents, they ran toward them (even though the other two were higher ranks than I). I think in real life, if I were a D&D character, I'd be a rogue, as after the first match, I immediately ran behind my allies, circling around behind the pre-black belt; got behind them every time. I feel good.

How'd the Kendo tourney go?

Tournement went until 6pm...
Jorren got 3rd place for 10-12 year olds and he got 2nd place for team matches. His team had a really good shot at 1st place... They were tied going into the final match when the team captain dislocated his shoulder and had to go to the hospital.

Challen is now in the 16-40 bracket... It's a lot tougher that what he's use to. He got eliminated in the first round. His team match didn't go so well either. Looks like he has some work to do.

...send Mr. Joren Mills our sincere congratulations. That is just outstanding. Tell Joren to not feel too bad about the team match... I've been right were he has. In 1986 the 15 man Paint-Ball Team I was on was at the Canadian Nationals and we were in the final match of the day. We knew due to point standings that if we won, we would place 1st and take the Campionship, if we lost, we would place 3rd. We were playing against the "A" Team of the hosting field. We had no "bench" players and we had to play the final game down two players (sprained ankle and another guy was dehydrated and throwing up) who could only play defense; they sat down near our base, we covered them with some branches and we left them there as part of the defenders.

Mick and Ross were there right next to me...3rd place, don't feel bad in the least.