My little boy is a Black Belt!
Posted by kheon Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:11:00 GMT
Yesterday my son tested for his black belt in Tae Kwon Do and what a test it was. We arrived at the Academy by 7:30AM in order to be ready for the testing at 8AM. The test ran for five hours with no breaks except the occasional water break (five minutes max).
My son is only seven years old. It was a very grueling test, as throughout the span of five hours they did 1000 pushups, 1000 situps, ran one mile and did about 2000 kicks. He broke five sets of boards, a 30-step form, a 30-second musical form that he had to create on his own and various memorization tests.
He was a champ too. It tested not only his strength and endurance but also his dedication, perseverance, and commitment. On more then one occassion my wife and I caught him fighting back tears; rightfully deserved tears but nevertheless he blinked them back and kept going. He made us very proud.
Seven years old and he’s a First Degree Black Belt. They call it a “Juniors” black belt but regardless he is considered a black belt and can now begin training as an adult, towards an “Adult” black belt and will begin classes with other black belts on Tuesday.
A huge congrats to him. I also owe my loving wife a big thanks. It was originally my idea to enroll my boy three years ago and she has been supportive throughout the entire process and is a huge reason he was as prepared as he was. Being an at home mom allowed her to work with him daily, something she has been doing now constantly for the past two months.