lulflo
Blue Belt
I have been training in HRD for four and a half years now and have been doing my best to maintain through the belts. White belt was nice because I was able to memorize the information relatively easy. I did have trouble with my motor skills, but who doesn't.
Orange belt was a step in the right direction, adding on to what I already knew, but I was already feeling the pain because of my training situation. I didn't have a partner to train with except my teacher. I have that test on video, I can look back (through the gaps of my hands over my eyes) and see all the errors I committed and forge ahead to the next belt test on tape.
Yellow belt was awesome, I wasn't. Again, the misfortune of a student with only his teacher in a 10x10' room to train in. I am very fortunate to have such a great technician as my teacher, however there is no way I would utilize my broken technique on him and risk not having a teacher with both wrists in tact. So on to the tape. Wow, that was just dreadful. I am glad that guy is still my friend, and that I passed that test even with what took place..the techniques I chose to utilize. Let me digress, I was very happy when doing forms, basic eight, kick tests, weapons forms and ki breathing exercises, and not even so much hesitation on the sam bo da ryun and il bo da ryun, but ho shin won sul(son mak sul), that was disgraceful...
So now hesitantly I arrive at green belt. I actually have a student come and train with me, we get to practice all the techniques together, but because of the limited space in the micro dojang, there is just no way to go full on and follow through with the techniques. Nevertheless, I continue on, once a week at my teacher's house and do my best to follow the guidelines I am given, void of application in a real sense, but I still get to test out to purple belt. Now this is the test I would use to show someone a sample of my participation in this art, I trained with a partner for a majority of the time before my exhibition and he was really naturally talented. That was great.
So after green belt testing, I began having trouble remembering all the new stuff I would be taught. My teacher moved two and a half hours away and I could only see him once a month, if even that - so I just trained harder on the stuff I already knew. Again, the issue is that I don't have anyone to train with. I talked to my teacher and told him that I have a friend who would like to learn HRD and was given the blessing to show him white belt, basically to practice my stuff and allow my friend to train with me. I ended up with a couple of people that would train with me and then they were able to get more information when they would come with me and train with my teacher, so now I have some people to train with.
Well it was two years later before I tested again and I had the material for both purple and blue belt so I was going to test for brown belt. That was what happened and I passed, it was really tough though and there was a time or two during the testing that I was not sure what the outcome would be, but again I made it. A true testament to the heart of the warrior that I am trying to become.
So now again, looking at the tape through veiled eyes, I am at the crossroads once again, in competition with myself to have a successful outcome with my red belt test. I feel great with regards to forms, weapons forms and, well that is about all. It's those darn techniques again, no students or locations or time for that matter to get it all dialed in as I would hope to, 7 kicks in 3 seconds -done it once so far, basic tests, huff, puff, huff, puff, need to work on those. I have about 3 weeks to get er' done, wish me luck.
Farang - Larry
Orange belt was a step in the right direction, adding on to what I already knew, but I was already feeling the pain because of my training situation. I didn't have a partner to train with except my teacher. I have that test on video, I can look back (through the gaps of my hands over my eyes) and see all the errors I committed and forge ahead to the next belt test on tape.
Yellow belt was awesome, I wasn't. Again, the misfortune of a student with only his teacher in a 10x10' room to train in. I am very fortunate to have such a great technician as my teacher, however there is no way I would utilize my broken technique on him and risk not having a teacher with both wrists in tact. So on to the tape. Wow, that was just dreadful. I am glad that guy is still my friend, and that I passed that test even with what took place..the techniques I chose to utilize. Let me digress, I was very happy when doing forms, basic eight, kick tests, weapons forms and ki breathing exercises, and not even so much hesitation on the sam bo da ryun and il bo da ryun, but ho shin won sul(son mak sul), that was disgraceful...
So now hesitantly I arrive at green belt. I actually have a student come and train with me, we get to practice all the techniques together, but because of the limited space in the micro dojang, there is just no way to go full on and follow through with the techniques. Nevertheless, I continue on, once a week at my teacher's house and do my best to follow the guidelines I am given, void of application in a real sense, but I still get to test out to purple belt. Now this is the test I would use to show someone a sample of my participation in this art, I trained with a partner for a majority of the time before my exhibition and he was really naturally talented. That was great.
So after green belt testing, I began having trouble remembering all the new stuff I would be taught. My teacher moved two and a half hours away and I could only see him once a month, if even that - so I just trained harder on the stuff I already knew. Again, the issue is that I don't have anyone to train with. I talked to my teacher and told him that I have a friend who would like to learn HRD and was given the blessing to show him white belt, basically to practice my stuff and allow my friend to train with me. I ended up with a couple of people that would train with me and then they were able to get more information when they would come with me and train with my teacher, so now I have some people to train with.
Well it was two years later before I tested again and I had the material for both purple and blue belt so I was going to test for brown belt. That was what happened and I passed, it was really tough though and there was a time or two during the testing that I was not sure what the outcome would be, but again I made it. A true testament to the heart of the warrior that I am trying to become.
So now again, looking at the tape through veiled eyes, I am at the crossroads once again, in competition with myself to have a successful outcome with my red belt test. I feel great with regards to forms, weapons forms and, well that is about all. It's those darn techniques again, no students or locations or time for that matter to get it all dialed in as I would hope to, 7 kicks in 3 seconds -done it once so far, basic tests, huff, puff, huff, puff, need to work on those. I have about 3 weeks to get er' done, wish me luck.
Farang - Larry