3rd Day- Black Belt Test (Official Test)

Day 3... The Test! Wow!!! What a journey it has been leading to this moment. Everybody, and I mean everybody has sore hamstrings, and back muscles from drilling for absolute perfection. The standard that was set for us was so amazingly high. I watched some of the officials basically tell some of the Black Belt candidates that there was no need for them to test. At least that was what was implied.

I must say that I have some new heroes in my life. One of them is Grandmaster Park Jeong-Beom (pictured), as well as those group of participants testing for 7th Degree. Last night, approaching midnight, there were only a handfull of people still drilling. No surprise, but the ones left in the room were the best out of about 300 people, and most of them were Korean. Their discipline, their focus, their conviction, and their confidence was absolutely amazing. Never in my entire life have I ever seen such a large collection of devoted martial artists. I've seen many martial artists who were outstanding fighters or excellent technicians, but these individuals were on a whole new level. And, the best part about it is... I was a part of it!

This morning, despite the fact that we were all sore, we warmed up, drilled, stretched, rested... warmed up, drilled, stretched, rested, etc. Unfortunately, we were all unsure of our exact moment we would go. Many of us had flexibility that was comprised by tight muscles, so it was important to remain very warm and loose. It would have been detrimental to allow the body to cool down.

We drilled our techniques and poomse over and over again. We critiqued each other and never settled for anything less than perfect. It was stressed to us that we should not hesitate or pause. If we do, our test will be comprimised. The panel of judges were the official Kukkiwon instructors, and didn't want to see anything that was less than perfect.

Waiting for my turn felt like an eternity. I quit watching the people before me since some were cracking under the pressure. The room was filled with high ranking officials from Kukkiwon, as well as The World Taekwondo Federation, let only a few hundred spectators. Some people testing completely froze and couldn't even begin their poomse.

I decided to spend the next 30 minutes visualizing every possible poomse I could do. In practice, I was not always happy with my techniques, but I decided that I must do my best at this point. Every other poomse I would do, in practice, had some small error. Over the next 30 minutes, I visualized myself executing perfect techniques. I self-talked and commanded nothing but excellence, power, and conviction from my subconscious.

My number was called... and I couldn't wait to take the floor. I face the judges with confidence and poise.

Charyut!
Kyung-nae!
Koryo Joonbi!

"Adapt, adapt, adapt...!!!", was what went through my head. The last 32 people started with Taegeuk Pal Jang! Those of you who are martial artists must be thinking, what's the big deal? The big deal is that these judges what to see a poomse beyond what you can ever imagine. Beyond anything that I could ever imagine, up until this weekend! Every starting position, ending position, feet position (to the inch), balance, power, fluidity, with the proper combination of slow and fast movements, etc., etc., etc. Even masters testing for 7th Degree took this very seriously.

Hardly anyone arrived to this Black Belt Test with 100% of the knowledge the judges wanted to see. Even within the past year, their have been HUGE changes in poomse! Changes that needed to be mastered in 2 days, and habits that needed to be broken from over 30 years of training. The alternative is to fail the test.

I am proud to say that I nailed every single poomse as perfect as I could possibly make it. It was as flawless as I could presently make it. I could not have been anymore proud of myself for ending such a challenging journey. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the sparring was a breeze. Funny how things have changed for me. The amount of pefection being demanded by Kukkiwon actually made sparring a walk in the park!

I won't know if I have passed this test for a few weeks. I am not worried one bit, because, if I have failed, I will at least know that I have experienced from this journey. I know that I am strong, both physically and mentally. I know that I am a true master with devotion, and conviction. I know that next time, I will be better.

Respectfully,

Duncan Richardson