Black Belt Test

Last Saturday was my son's black belt test in tae kwon do. He has waited a long time for this test and it was finally here. He started tae kwon do in January 2008, right after he turned five. He loved it. It fit with his personality perfectly. All the self discipline, all the rules, and all the steps you had to memorize. About six months into the lessons, he wanted to quit. We told him he would have to finish out the session we had paid for and he would have tell Master Lee he wanted to quit and why. He didn't want to have to tell Master Lee he wanted to quit, so he persevered. That was it. He was in it for the long haul.

Master Lee conducts belt tests every couple of months. A couple of times my son wasn't ready to test. He didn't know all his forms. We decided it would be best to wait rather get a belt he didn't deserve. The officer started tae kwon do lessons too, but had to quit because of back problems. My son didn't quit then either. So three years and four months after he began, my son was going to test for his black belt.

Master Lee also gave us a written test my son had to know. It had multiple choice, true/false, matching, and (short answer) essay questions. The officer and I had to look up all the information on the Internet. We didn't know any of the answers. So after hours of work on the test (mostly done by the officer), we had the test completed. The officer went over the test with my son several times. That's all it took. He knew all of the answers. He wanted to know all the information just in case Master Lee decided to ask him a question during the black belt. We couldn't believe he memorized it all.

My son has a friend, Stephen, that has taken lessons the whole time my son has. They started out as white belts together. Stephen got his black belt in February. After that, my son was very motivated to get his black belt.

I invited family and one family friend to come to his test. It started at 11 a.m. so of course we arrived at 10:30 a.m. to get "good seats". However, the room was already filling up. There were about 15-20 lower belts testing and 6 people testing for black belts or higher degree black belts. That's a lot of people testing!! And that's a lot of people jammed into the place watching.

For the first three hours, the lower belts test. My son was asked to demonstrate several forms for the white and yellow belts.

He also had to spar a two of the lower belts at the same time. He loved it. He takes it easy on them, but he loves being able to spar more than one person at a time. He's the little one in the red chest guard in the middle.

He and two other lower belts had to spar a 10 year old black belt. There was one point where the black belt got in a couple of really nice combination kicks on my son.

My son turned right around and did a nice combination kick on the black belt. He's the red belt with the red chest guard kicking the black belt in the blue chest guard.

It was pretty warm in the studio and some of the younger kids got a little bored watching the three hour test. It was a long time to sit through to wait for the black belts. Finally, it was my son's turn to test.

He tested with another red belt/black strip who was testing for his black belt and four other black belts who were testing for another degree.

Can you see him? He's the smallest one in the group that is standing. He's way back in the corner. These are all the black belts and the other red belt who were testing. The picture below is my son and Eric, the other red belt that was testing for black belt.

They had to do 100 roundhouse kicks, 50 sit-ups (which my son couldn't do), and 100 jumping jacks to warm up. I don't think Master Lee really counted them, but he wanted all the boys/men to doing them as fast as they could in the allotted time. My son had to demonstrate he knew his forms. He had a little trouble at the beginning because he was watching the other red belt. However, he corrected himself and got back on track.

He had to spar an adult black belt, Chuck (one of the judges). He did pretty good even if his kicks only went up to the man's lower stomach.

At one point one of the black belts was sparring three of the other black belts. He was pretty tired, so Master Lee told my son to "jump in and rescue him". The other black belts didn't see him jump in. My son ran and kicked one of them in the rear and then ran to the other side of the studio. Basically he was a distraction. Everyone laughed because he was so small compared to everyone else. He had a lot of fun doing that.

After the sparring, it was time to break boards. He had to do four corners. There were guys holding boards at four corners and he had to go around and break them all with different jumps. He had to do a spinning hook kick, a switch tornado kick, a jump turning back kick, and a running jump front snap kick. He also had to break a board with a knifehand. He missed the first time, but got it on the second time. I think that's the only time he turn himself. The pictures are dark, but you can see him.

By the time the test was finished, four hours had passed. At the end of the test, everyone lined up. Master Lee called all the red belts and black belts to the front to put on their new black belts. A black belt named, Jimi put on my son's belt. He was so happy to get the black belt.

It was a lot of work to get there, but he put in all the time and effort. He is already talking about how long it will take him to get the other 8 degrees. :)

Thank you to all the family who came and sat through the test, picked up the pizza for lunch, got the house ready for all of us when we came back, and who supported my son. We love you!