Blue Belt Blues
Mar. 10th, 2013 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseMy instructors at Kuk Sool Wan were finally able to corner me and make me test. Damn their black belt, ninja skillz, anyway! Their evil trick was to offer to level up Mason at the same time, knowing full well that I'd show up if only to bring him to a test. Mason is now a blue belt, red stripe, and I'm a blue belt. For reference, in our local KSW dojon it goes: white, white/yellow stripe, yellow, yellow/blue stripe, blue, blue/red stripe, red.... (some don't award stripe promotions, we do.) Pictures will follow on promotion day. We don't have our belts and stripes yet because that part of testing always took ten times longer and it's already a gruelling two hours of sweaty hell.
This guy apparently thinks I'm ready:
I only listen to him because he scares me and reminds me of this guy:
The testing was weirdly fun for me this time and I'm entirely convinced it had to do with the "name game." One of the things about my dojon that I have always, ALWAYS adored is their fondness for games, even if some of the games really do flash me back in a post-traumatic stress way to 3rd grade gym class (aka "state sponsored terrorism," as Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes would say). One of the games we play in class is a version of bombariment, which I remember reducing me to tears in grade school. Seriously.
But, at tests, the head instructor (see above) goes down the ranks and expects that everyone there knows everyone else's name (first name only, thank fate!) However, this usually means that before the test, everyone--even people who have known each other for YEARS--suddenly freak out and start introducing themselves to everyone else. We were a large crowd, and so it was hillarious the various ways people tried to make sure you remembered their names. I know my name is unusual and hard to prounce even when you know it, so I told the very little kids to think of someone who tells a lot of LIES and add a DUH! Lie-DUH. For adults, I used ASL to spell out the letters--with the thought that if they were looking at me (which everyone is when it's your turn to be named,) I'd simply spell it out for them when the head instructor was looking at them. Cheating, yes, but it gets us out of crunches.
Of course, under pressure a lot of people forget even their very best friend...or their own names.
But, the head instructor noticed that we were all very dillegently introducing ourselves and giving each other surprise pop quizes on the names of people testing AND the instructors (because since we normally just refer to a lot of the instructors as ma'am or sir, it super easy to never learn their names.) So, he instituted a kind of horrifying "fun" thing we had to do that involved jumping down, doing a kind of push up, hopping back and jumping up in the air WHEN WE GOT IT RIGHT. Hard to describe, but... weirdly invigorating. The first time we did it, I found myself jumping in the air and shouting "Yay!" at the end which inspired everyone else to make similar happy noises. And, since we'd all done a pretty good job with the introductions, there was a lot of joyful jumping and yelling "Yay!" right before the test.
It put me in a good mood.
Which may have been the clever plan all along....
And we test with all ages, so it was really cute at one point because there was this TINY boy at the beginning of the white belt ranks who Sa Bum Nim (the head instructor) actually picked up and held over his head so people could see who needed to be named.
This is the other thing that keeps me coming back to my dojon. All the instructors clearly adore the little ones and they kind of dote on them in a super sweet way, given how F*CKING SCARY THEY ALL ARE.
As someone taking a belt test, I was also required to pass a written test. I know I got my name right and the name of my martial art, but a good indication of the rest would be my answer to "What is Community?" I answered, "An excellent TV show."
And yet they passed me.
I love them.
This guy apparently thinks I'm ready:
I only listen to him because he scares me and reminds me of this guy:
The testing was weirdly fun for me this time and I'm entirely convinced it had to do with the "name game." One of the things about my dojon that I have always, ALWAYS adored is their fondness for games, even if some of the games really do flash me back in a post-traumatic stress way to 3rd grade gym class (aka "state sponsored terrorism," as Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes would say). One of the games we play in class is a version of bombariment, which I remember reducing me to tears in grade school. Seriously.
But, at tests, the head instructor (see above) goes down the ranks and expects that everyone there knows everyone else's name (first name only, thank fate!) However, this usually means that before the test, everyone--even people who have known each other for YEARS--suddenly freak out and start introducing themselves to everyone else. We were a large crowd, and so it was hillarious the various ways people tried to make sure you remembered their names. I know my name is unusual and hard to prounce even when you know it, so I told the very little kids to think of someone who tells a lot of LIES and add a DUH! Lie-DUH. For adults, I used ASL to spell out the letters--with the thought that if they were looking at me (which everyone is when it's your turn to be named,) I'd simply spell it out for them when the head instructor was looking at them. Cheating, yes, but it gets us out of crunches.
Of course, under pressure a lot of people forget even their very best friend...or their own names.
But, the head instructor noticed that we were all very dillegently introducing ourselves and giving each other surprise pop quizes on the names of people testing AND the instructors (because since we normally just refer to a lot of the instructors as ma'am or sir, it super easy to never learn their names.) So, he instituted a kind of horrifying "fun" thing we had to do that involved jumping down, doing a kind of push up, hopping back and jumping up in the air WHEN WE GOT IT RIGHT. Hard to describe, but... weirdly invigorating. The first time we did it, I found myself jumping in the air and shouting "Yay!" at the end which inspired everyone else to make similar happy noises. And, since we'd all done a pretty good job with the introductions, there was a lot of joyful jumping and yelling "Yay!" right before the test.
It put me in a good mood.
Which may have been the clever plan all along....
And we test with all ages, so it was really cute at one point because there was this TINY boy at the beginning of the white belt ranks who Sa Bum Nim (the head instructor) actually picked up and held over his head so people could see who needed to be named.
This is the other thing that keeps me coming back to my dojon. All the instructors clearly adore the little ones and they kind of dote on them in a super sweet way, given how F*CKING SCARY THEY ALL ARE.
As someone taking a belt test, I was also required to pass a written test. I know I got my name right and the name of my martial art, but a good indication of the rest would be my answer to "What is Community?" I answered, "An excellent TV show."
And yet they passed me.
I love them.
Blue Belt Test
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