Amanda Takes Off...

When I got to class tonight, TempMaster said, "Amanda, today testing, OK?" I said, "OK." After all, I certainly wasn't testing since a) he never told me and b) more importantly, I'm not his student.

All the black belts came up first. They did some punching, some combination kicks, and a couple forms. They had to do 50 push ups and 40 sit ups. Then they did some back bridges, plain, then one-legged. Ace farted in the middle of raising his left leg and even TempMaster started laughing. Poor kid got teased for the rest of the night for that.

I was listening carefully during the combo kicks, trying to hear the Korean words for my own test next month. I pretty much understood what they were supposed to do before they started doing it.

Then he called up White Belt, Purple Belt, Brown Belt and me. I looked at him, What?

I was not at all comfortable with the idea of "testing" at this studio since it's not mine, but I couldn't think of any face-saving, kibun-preserving way to say this. Furthermore, I figured any "testing" as his studio was either a) studio etiquette, everyone "tests" but only a few are really testing or b) intended as practice for my test, and c) in any case good for me. So I stood up and went with it.

Meanwhile, while I'd been waiting, my foot had fallen asleep. I tried tapping it against the floor in 주춤서기 stance while we were punching, but it didn't work, which made doing our kicks (plain, no combos) a bit difficult. We did Il, Oh, and Pal Jang. Purple and I were the only ones doing Pal Jang. Brown did Yuk Jang while we were doing Pal and White sat out. I tried to go slowly so she could sort of keep up, but I quickly realized that waiting for her was only going to screw me up and I need to be able to ignore what other people are doing. When I kiyap-ed on the returning kick, HR's eyes turned into saucers. We had been made to restart the form since neither of us kiyap-ed on the first jump (I missed it because I was trying to figure out if we were supposed to be doing the form together) and still I was the only one kiyap-ing.

Then we did the sit ups, push ups, and back bridges. I thought I did well, but I was still the last one done with the sit ups and push ups. Rather than beat myself up, I thought of what Pia once said, "You've got to remember you've got ten years on most of these kids. You're not 17 anymore." Well, yes. My 28 Korean years old self was up there with a 21 year old, a 15 year old, and a 14 year old. When I was 14 Korean age, I did the most sit ups in one minute in my entire gym class, beating not only the girls but all of the boys as well.

Then Master had Purple Belt and me spar. I thought he said no-contact, but I guess he said light-contact since she hit me a few times. While she did well, she didn't have nearly the same spunk she did when we sparred with gear on. I wanted to shake her, "Come on! Kick my butt like you did before!"

We all sat down and TempMaster critiqued HR, Ace, and Purple Belt. After class Sabumnim explained that they were the only three testing. Ah, so I was being used for numbers and as Purple's female counterpart.

It was interesting to see how this studio tested. My own studio is always forms and something else, kicks or sparring or both, or something else random—whatever he decides he wants to test you on. My American studio (past a certain belt) was always poomse, sparring, breaking, three steps, and one-steps. While aspects of taekwondo are the same across the board, so much is dependent on the instructor.

I think it was good for me—to be listening for the Korean, to be told random forms, to get Pal Jang in under a "testing setting" outside of my studio. After all, that's what I'll be doing soon enough.