I purposely didn’t write about my latest grading until after i had finished it. Why? Because i was absolutely dreading it, so much so that i almost pulled out of grading all together and still have the PM I was going to send Master James informing him I wasn’t grading saved on my computer. But I am really pleased that I did grade after all, as looking back it was a great day. I woke up at exactly twenty two minutes past five, which is pretty typical on a grading day and I spent another hour or so going through my top two forms in my head, step by step whilst staring at my ceiling. We got to the Dojang at about half twelve and had a quick clean and tidy before everyone else started to materialize. We knew that there was going to be a fair crowd coming from Falmouth, but when they turned up there were bloody hundreds of them! Well around fifteen or so actually, but along with us Kamborn folk (pounds fist against chest) the whole place was teeming like Pool market on a Sunday afternoon. It was obvious from the start that myself and my Red Belt companions would be grading at the end, but it was when Master James told me that he had to do one of his green belt gradings on his own, I started thinking that it was going to be me up there alone in front of all those people which worked wonders for the old nerves.
All of the male white belts had one of the hardest lower rank physicals I have witnessed in my relatively short time and were subjected to all of the usual favorites, SOS, full burpees, all the press up variations – normal, diamond, etc with sprinting, jumping jacks all thrown in for fun. Such was the intensity of it all two of them had to rush to the toilet to release the contents of their stomach, which I have never actually seen before despite hearing the stories, I actually thought I was going to throw up at my last grading but managed to keep it down. Anyway as predicted I was left thinking “What the hell is my physical going to be like!”.
The remaining 10th gup’s were three young ladies, one of which had suffered some nasty bruising earlier in the day so the heat was turned down slightly for them, but that means nothing when it comes to basics, forms etc. Afterwards the three orange belts had their punishment which included a similar physical with a few more of each killer exercise thrown in and much tougher basics. I volunteered myself to lend a hand with the Il Soo Sik and Ho Sin Sool which was a welcome relief on my knees which were aching like mad having been sat cross legged at the back for almost two hours.
After a quick break at about three o’ clock it was time for my annihilation. Luckily the comments made earlier about grading alone turned out to be either forgotten or just mind games (i’m thinking the latter) and I graded alongside the three Red Belts. Due to the exhaustion and pain my memory is a little hazy but this is how I vaguely remember it;
Physical
Press ups – 10 normal, 10 reverse hand, 10 diamond. Three sets of each.
Sit ups – 10 normal, 10 double crunches, 10 Jack knives. Three sets of each
Sprinting on the spot – several bursts of 15 – 20 seconds
Jumping Jacks – Lost count
Capoera Pressups x 30
Punches in Kee Mahk Jaseeh – 1000*
* We were asked to do 1000 but when I got to about 200 or so Master James said to Ben “When they are done you can tell them to stop”, but luckily for us he mis-understood and told us to stop prematurely, brilliant! …. uhh I mean… ah gutted, I really wanted to finish all those punches.
Basics
Ahp Mee Ro Cha Kee (Jun Dan, San Dan), Cap Kwon Kong Kyuk, Peet Cha Kee, (Ha Dan, Jun Dan, San Dan) Ssang Soo Do Mah Kee, Tollyo Cha Kee (Jun dan, San Dan), (Ha Dan, Jun Dan) Soo Do Mah Kee, Ahneso Pakuero Cha Kee, Pahkeso Ahnuero Cha Kee, Pal Koop Kong Kyuk, Dwe Bahl Edan Ahp Cha Kee, Yup Cha Kee (Jun Dan, San Dan), Edan Yup Cha Kee.
Unfortunately half way through I managed to accentuate a hamstring injury I picked up during last weeks Friday class, which left my left leg feeling pretty uncomfortable for the remainder of the grading..
Hyung
Pyung Ahn Sam Dan, Pyung Ahn Ee Dan, Pyung Ahn Cho Dan.
I had a few ‘issues’ with my forms a couple of weeks ago but from what i remember I don’t think I made any drastic errors here, although I still have problems with the last few moves in Pyung Ahn Ee Dan and also the final three or four moves in Pyung Ahn Sam Dan. This doesn’t bode well for me as I had a very sneaky look at Pyung Ahn Sa Dan last night and that looks bloody impossible!
Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun
Again a little bit sloppy like last time, but I guess when you are that tired it is going to make it that little bit harder especially my last two which involve three quick kicks. I can never seem to get my distancing right for the final punch, either leaving myself to close or too short which I can pretty much guarantee I would have been marked down for.
Ho Sin Sool
I messed up one of my two onto one grabs a few times, eventually getting it right in the end. Apart from that I thought I was better with my self defence this time around, which was something I desperately wanted to improve from the last grading. I had some positive feedback about my Ho Sin Sool afterwards from a couple of people, so hopefully I picked up a few brownie points in this section.
Ja Yu Dae Ryun
First I fought little Zena who was told to “go in hard” and subsequently awarded me with several hard smacks in the eye and mouth region. If that wasn’t hard enough I then had to fight the two Dan grades, Mr Leonard, Mr Jones who were also not in the mood for nicities. I did try and give as good as I got, which was my mentallity last time and cost me a couple of ribs, but via a miracle worthy of the parting of the seas I managed to escape injury and when I noticed one of them checking his nose for blood afterwards I was quietly pleased!
Terminology
I was asked to name the ten articles of faith and the eight key concepts which I think I got right apart from a complete mind freeze which caused me to miss Shin Chook. I suffered a similar lapse of rational thought when babbling about the meaning of the Pyung Ahn Hyung and felt very stupid and ashamed when I had to rapidly correct myself after blurting out the first thing that came into my head. Apparently it was Funichoshi who created the Pinan forms!!! (doh!)
Kyok Pa
Luckily I had the chance to redeem myself with my board break which was a roundhouse kick. I had the daunting pressure of knowing that everyone else had broken thier board on the first attempt, and couldn’t help praying that mine would go through first time too. Luckily it did and was spared any further embaressment although it really hurt!
After the grading we had an additional half an hour where we did some fun (!?) drills inflicting Master James favourite pain exercises on each other which i’m sure some of the newer guys really enjoyed. I had a really good laugh with one of the Falmouth White belts (Adam I think) where we beat the crap out of each other! Fantastic!!! Also had a good laugh with Jo during the takedown exercises, throwing each other around and twisting each others limbs into very distorted and uncomfortable positions. Myself and a few friends went for a couple of drinks in the evening, but I was exhausted and just couldn’t get into the spirit and struggled to keep my eyes open. All in all I am very pleased that it is all over for a few months at least and can now focus my attention on having a really nice Christmas. I have decided to have a real crack at enjoyng the festive period this year and having put up all of the decorations on my last day off and pretty much got my Christmas shopping finished, I am feeling a lot more happy and chilled out.
