fighting gravity

« Thankful | Main | Dead Computer? »

December 03, 2004

Orange Belt

I started taking Tae Kwon Do this semester, and, being the end of the semester, yesterday was belt promotion tests for us beginners.

Right before Fall Break (which is a really funny concept to most graduate students), I went through my first promotion test and passed from White Belt to Yellow Belt. Now, White Belt is what they give to all students who shell out $40 and buy the uniform. It is only there to hold your uniform in place (and to remind you how lousy you are at this martial arts thing). The Yellow Belt isn't much more prestigious. They give that to basically anyone who has stuck around long enough and who can remember that punching uses the hands and kicking uses the feet. The Yellow Belt basically qualifies you to defend yourself from an attacker who doesn't move at all (which really defeats the whole purpose of self defense).

Then we get to the Orange Belt. This is the first belt where they admit that they don't just hand out to anyone. You actually have to prove you know something (albeit not very much). I know and can use a whole bunch of kicks (Front, Side, Roundhouse, Turnaround, Hook, Axe, and lots of variations) and punches (not too many because this is Tae Kwon Do and we know that the legs can do a whole lot more damage than our flimsy arms). The Orange Belt basically qualifies you to defend yourself from an attacker who may or may not give you a nasty look.

The culmination of the Orange Belt test was a board breaking challenge. We stack two boards together and used a Side Kick to break them. There's no other way to say this, but breaking boards with your bare feet is really fun. I thought I was cool stuff when I broke a single board on my Yellow Belt test, but let me tell you, two boards is much cooler. Surprisingly enough, it was much easier to get through two boards this time than it was one board last time. I guess that means I'm getting better.

On a slightly related note, here is something Kristen showed Meadow and I. First, go read this page. Only after that, go read this page.

Posted by davidg at December 3, 2004 06:56 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://atlblogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2845

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Orange Belt:

Comments

Congratulations! You'll have to show Kate some Tae Kwon Do moves this weekend. When she was a newborn and still had newborn reflexes, I was sure she had a future as a ninja... perhaps it will all come back to her if she starts training soon!

Posted by: kristen at December 9, 2004 11:57 AM

Hah! It did post after all. Hilarious.

Posted by: kristen at December 13, 2004 12:01 AM

Post a comment