As we get into the summer months of the year, people's focus is shifting towards the August grading and the bigger competitions that happen this side of the year. Last year, the Hatfield competition saw more people than ever before, and I expect that people will be wanting to go again and beat their last performance. This August grading is often one of the biggest gradings that happens, and this year is no exception, with at least 3 of them all grading for a big belt and getting closer to black belt the more time that's spent.
Week One
This week was a realisation for many that they could grade and that the grading was getting closer. As many still have main chunks of content to learn, I prioritised helping them understand the new content, and when instructed to, I go through the patterns with them.
Week Two
In Week Two, we did a lot of sparring. I, for one, am glad that we got to do some sparring, as we don’t tend to do sparring that often and it’s good to be able to help others with their sparring, as arguable this is what the vast majority of people attend a martial arts class for (self- defence).
Not only did we do 1V1 sparring in rotations, but we also did a bit of tag sparring where I had to stay in the whole time, as one of my teammates had no gear on and the other was incredibly nervous when going up against someone twice their size.
I overall enjoyed the sparring as it was great fun, good exercise, and made me realise just how small I actually am :).
Week Three
Week three was mainly spent on my pattern work. If some of you have been reading this series from the beginning, then you’ll know that I'm not doing Taekwondo for self-defence or for the ability to overwhelm others. I’m here to learn, understand, accept and improve myself.
This is why I enjoy patterns and why I tend to only compete in the patterns category at competitions (like the Hatfield one). Throughout my time here so far, one piece of feedback that I have is that my breathing can sometimes lag behind the impact of the move, making it seem disconnected at some point. When I was doing patterns, I tended to focus solely on that point and try and place emphasis on my breathing to ensure that it remained constant and in time. But as a wise man once said “Do, without doing”, the concept of Wu Wei is one that i’ve read upon a lot recently and i felt that it played a role during one time that I was performing my patterns. I wasn’t thinking about the moves, nor was a looking at anything in particular, I wasn’t trying to do, I was simply doing.
It’s hard to explain, but in that single moment i realised that everything i was trying to achieve was there, it was present in that one moment. I will continue to improve my pattern performance at my own rate and will continue to do the best I can to support those on their own journeys.
Week Four
Week four was mainly spent doing some tip testing and generally helping others learn the content they needed for their next grading. We also spent some time running through theory by doing patterns. He would ask us questions about the stances, moves, and what they are in Korean to test our knowledge. Overall, it was a good experience to see just how much I had retained from not doing too much manual studying in the evenings.
Tip Testing
Tip testing is still going on with many people having tips now and are slowly building up towards being able to grade. With me going to so many lessons, probably way too many for my own good, I already have my three tips, but I’m constantly looking for things to improve on. I may have shown them that I know it, but have I shown them that I can do it?
Upcoming August Grading
My grading will be in August, so I still have a little while to go before I have to worry about grading, but time sure has flown, it’s now almost been 2 years since I joined!
“We never know just how important a moment is, until it becomes a memory”
That about covers it for this addition to my Taekwondo blog journey. I hope you enjoyed it or learn something from it, I look forward to the next one!!
Stay tuned, stay disciplined, and I'll see you next time!
