mlah

so tonight i finally made it in to the gitmo tkd class. all of last week i hunted for it.

they had a hard cardio / calisthenics class today, which is just what i need. this is the longest i’ve gone in 3 + years without working out reliably.

i’m a little sore and it feels good.
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so i drove to austin yesterday for a little tournament action. i did not compete. i was originally planning on it, but the whole rib injury thing precluded my participation.

too bad too. there were actually 3 guys there in my age/belt/weight category. it could have been fun.

so let me tell you one major difference between texas and maryland so far.

it’s full contact.

no, all y’all up there in md, don’t come down here and kick my ass. i’m just calling ‘em like i see ‘em.
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shortly after i started taekwondo, i started taking aerobic kickboxing as well. i wasn’t really intent on learning anything in there, i just wanted the cardio workout.

my school at the time taught aerobic kickboxing for anne arundel community college, so there were a lot of college students in there.

i didn’t know. they were just chicks taking class. after a few cycles of students, i figured it out.

but the real thing i figured out was to stay in the front of the class.
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i am in so much pain.

this is the most pain i have felt from almost exactly three years of martial arts classes.
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that’s right.

it’s creeping up on that time again.

some news for my readers, the ustu (U.S. Taekwondo Union) has been re-named the USAT.

same organization though. new president. he used to run the volleyball part of the olympic committee.

i hope he does well for us
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can y’all believe i have another belt test already?

friday night, 6-8 pm, i test for red/black belt.

i don’t know what to think of it. i mean, at my old school i was already eyeing black belt. well, i was a red belt and just training up for the black belt test. 1 more form, and a lot of stamina were my only real obstacles. there was some other stuff too, but the stamina, and knuckle push-ups were all that was scaring me.
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yeah, i got my belt tonight.

dot stole my thunder. she tested for black belt like three years ago, or something. she had a couple of things she needed to do / complete before chien would award her the black belt. she completed the last of those just in time to get her black belt on the same night i got my red.

rats. i’ve been teasing her forever that i’d make black belt before she did.

i just lost.

congratulations to her though. she walked the walk, and can now talk the talk. she earned her belt.

now, some of you may be a little confused by my last entry.
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well, my belt test is over. i think i passed. wouldn’t say anything too much for fear of jinxing myself. yeah. i’m superstitious like that.

i did better in some areas than i thought i would, and worse in others.

the speed kicks were what i expected, but worse. normally, chien evaluates all students in one area before moving to the next area. ie, everyone does their blocks and stances, then everybody will do their strikes, then forms, etc. but since mine was a red belt test, he decided to make it a bit more difficult.
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tomorrow is a big day. i take a red belt test. should be very rough. the speed kicks scare me the most. only 15 seconds, per kick per leg. which i think works out to 2 and a half minutes of non stop kicking. timed and counted.

i know my forms. but you can bet i’ll goof on at least one and have to repeat it.

i know my strikes. jumping back side kick, and jumping back spin kicks will be real pains in the ass as always.

i know my stances and blocks but will definitely go through all of those again in the morning.
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well, i’m back

as a school, we did well, and we did not so well.

forms. i think the karate kid movies calls them ‘kata’. i got second place.

out of two.

and i still got a trophy. just not too many 33-39 year old, male, blue belts in maryland who want to compete. and it wasn’t close. i got beaten rather soundly. i don’t know why. i nailed my form. no wobbles, no mess ups. i got beaten.

at first i just chalked it up to the judges not liking me. then i noticed a trend. lots of the people from our school were losing.
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well, it’s the morning. here i sit all dressed in white, drinking lots of water. taking some tylenol, reading the morning news and blogs. getting ready to go pick up dot for the short trek up to essex community college on the north side of baltimore.

dot will be a judge at todays events.

i’ll be fighting.

i’m tense.

i have to finish packing my video camera. clothes, and stop and get some gatorade and water. it’ll be a long day. i’ll compete in forms around 10:30. and fight around 3:30. and that’s an early guess. it could be as early as 1. as late as 9.

i’ve fitted a new clear mouthpiece as per new rules from ustu. put my xs energy drink in my bag. a change of clothes. (that’s an outfit for you girls). listening to the prodigy…..

hopefully my new video camera will do a much better job with still pics, and y’all will get some good ones.

pics will come. video for some others.

i have a tournament in the morning.

i’m competing in both forms and sparring as usual.

pictures to come.

ever wonder what it takes to get a black belt? if you haven’t ever taken martial arts, you probably don’t have a real clear idea. lots of work? of course, but how much do you think is a lot?

2+ years for me so far. i’m a blue belt. i work out for an hour 4 days a week, and have a 2 hour extra workout on saturday morning. yesterday morning we did 20 windsprints. then we ran a hill for 10 minutes. i’m 38. that was just a quarter of our workout.
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yeah, we’re schizo like that…

the medals to the right are mine, more pictures will follow. i have to rip my video in as mpegs and then capture some stills, so there will hopefully be a decent pic of me in action. don’t hold your breathe!

my school, Vuongs TKD, did very well. i don’t know if it was the biggest showing he ever had for a tournament, but there were 6 adults alone. 15-20 kids came and fought as well. i’ll post a total medal count when i can tally the stats.

i won in sparring, out of three people. that means i’m state champ, and qualify for nationals again. want to know something funny? top three performers in each division qualify, so in actuality, all three of us qualified for nationals.

i came in third in sparring. out of three. i like to call that last. and yep. i qualified for nationals there too.

we had a lot of matches between students from our own school, which is lamentable. we spar each other all the time. we go to these tournaments hoping for a new opponent. someone you can try all your devious little tricks on, and then kick them in the head!

we had three boys in particular, all around 8, and blue belts. so they were in the same division. total of 5 in their division. our school came in 1,2,3 in sparring and forms. that’s good, but it also means we were fighting ourselves….. and that’s no fun.

but speaking of kicks to the melon….
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well, for those of y’all who don’t know me personally, i take taekwondo. i practice a lot. i’ve even started to teach a little, only the little kids, and the lower belts at that.

we have a tournament this saturday. it’s actually the maryland senior state championships. i’ll be competing in the forms and sparring competitions. as long as i finish at least third, i’ll qualify for nationals.

no the picture is not me. i got the photo from the USTU. it is the national governing body for U.S. tkd participation in the olympics.

for those of y’all who are local, the competition is at essex community college, northeast of baltimore. should run from 10 ’til around 6. i expect to do my form around 10:30, and spar around 4:30.

wish me luck and i’ll keep y’all posted here. want to know more about it? check out ‘my taekwondo school’ to the left in my favorite sites.