Seeing Red

It’s the morning after the day before, the day before being a very big one for me, my grading which would potentially see me work my way toward a red belt and Senior status.

I was really relaxed in the lead-up to the day which is unusual for me, the nerves normally really hit me a day or two before and give me some bad sleep. But no, Saturday was nice and relaxed, we used some vouchers we had stashed away to go to the local spa and have a swim, sauna and jacuzzi, and in the evening I put my feet up and read by the fire. That night I slept like a baby, but woke up at 7 the next morning in a fit of nerves. I couldn’t remember anything, couldn’t figure out how long things would take me to get ready, I couldn’t even think what to eat. I got Mrs Adam to give me a test on my terminology and history and set out to the University campus where the grading was to be held.

There was a big turn-out again, the Falmouth Uni class had seven students grading which was great to see, the other clubs made up the remainder of eight others. The kids had their grading first and it was immediately obvious the whole day wasn’t to be taken lightly when the first girl up was told to sit back down after being called up, as she failed to either shout ‘Yes sir!’ or run to her mark, both of which were explicitly asked. All credit to them though, after a quick pep talk at the grading bench they stepped their games up, and the girl grading from her junior green belt had to spar both me and my brother – first in turn and then together. She stepped her game up and fought as well as she ever had, it was great to see. The 10th gups took their turn next, followed by the large group of 9th gups from the Uni. Some of us got a chance to stay a little loose and warm by getting up and helping as an attacked for the ho sin sool and il soo sik dae ryun parts of their testing, which was an absolute blessing. We all get a warm up at the start of the day, but two hours sat on a cold floor cross-legged soon takes the heat out of your muscles. Not that I really had any cause to worry about being too cold.

Myself, my brother and one of our friends were called up for the final grading of the day. The club’s two 1st gups took the physical part of their Dan test the day before (the Dan grading consists of a normal physical testing and a written exam) and were hurting from it. These are the guys who are used by the grading panel to take us through our physical beasting at the start of our testing – I knew trouble was coming our way. I don’t remember much from the beasting part apart from the sound of my own gasping for breath, having to have my eyes shut for much of it as the sweat was pouring into my eyes and stinging, and the pain from the crunches. I remember being in agony during a set of fifty squats and one of the demonstrators telling me to remember what I was doing it all for, and I did remember and it helped. Apparently our instructor had decided that we shouldn’t be left standing still for a second from start to finish, so from there it was straight into something else (I honestly can’t remember what order we did things in). The sparring was three continuous fights and the Dan canditates we fought were pulling no punches, I think they must have been told to go hard, I certainly felt it. Once again I had a little incident or two during my Bo form (bong hyung il bu), taking a groove out of a pillar doing a front strike and nearly taking out one of the lights. I was expecting to be able to recollect the testing perfectly today, but I really can’t remember much about it at all. I just remember being breathless and in pain for just about the entire time. The terminology and history questions and breaks at the end were welcome relief indeed. I was asked to do two breaks (breaking – kyok pa), firstly a back kick – which for once I nailed and sent half the board flying back into the mirrors – and secondly a knife hand strike, which is really one of the easiest breaks I could have been asked to do.

The grading ended and we still had the hall for another 90 minutes, so we had a full lesson straight after(!). We concentrated on some of the less usual stuff, like takedowns and instant releases, followed by a lot of sparring drills and then some bouts to end the day. I drove home on complete autopilot, I have no idea how I got back once I’d arrived. It hadn’t even occurred to me at the time that I didn’t know if I’d passed or not.

I treated myself to a hot meal and a hotter shower, then met a few of the guys for a very quick drink at our usual haunt to talk about the day and just relax for an hour. I treated myself to a pint of local ale, my first beer of any kind for around a month or so, it tasted especially good. We were sat around talking when my instructor suddenly mentioned that my brother and I should be on the lookout for new uniforms, because everyone had passed. This was welcome, brilliant news. For my brother it meant he’d successfully double-graded (a single grade would only have added a new tag to his belt, a double meant a red belt and red trimmed dobok), it also meant that I hadn’t failed, I passed my grading! As if that wasn’t good enough, I then got told that I had successfully double graded too. I’m still pretty shocked and very pleased, not to mention very proud.

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(could I be more hidden away?)

I’m now a 2nd gup in Tang Soo Do. How on Earth that’s happened I have no idea. It was only five minutes ago I was watching the red belts taking portions of classes and not even contemplating how long it would take to get to that level. But I’m here now all the same. In fact, just as I was typing this something occured to me – If the two Dan candidates are successful and make it to Cho Dan, I’ll be the most senior gup grade at the club…. what’s going on?! My next grading won’t be for a good while now, and I have masses of stuff to work on and learn in between now and then. Most notably in my opinion is the fact that I have to learn not only the most awkward of the Pyung Ahn forms – Pyung Ahn Oh Dan – but one of the most complex and forms most representative of TSD – Bassai. Some schools of TSD and Karate use two forms of it, Bassai Sho and Bassai Dai, with the ‘sho’ version being cut-down and very short, we only use what would be the ‘dai’ version (dai meaning greater or great). I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me for the next year or so.

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