Just got back from an exhausting 10 hour grading test for my 1st degree black belt in Taekwon-Do. I made it!!! Yey!
Party tonight!
The Taekwon-Do (for those interested) I practice is not the olympic kind (WTF) or your american version (ATA) but traditional Taekwon-Do (ITF).
Cheers everyone!
Congratulations, Henke! that is a major life’s accomplishment, man!
10-hour TEST? 
-Paul
Thanks Paul! I feel great.
I should mention that it wasn’t 10 hours of active time, everyone doesn’t do stuff all the time so there was a lot of sitting. But I’m pretty exhausted anyway.
I was tested in techniques (extremely exhausting part of the test where they command you to execute techniques at a very high tempo), patterns (for me this included 9 of the 24 traditional patterns in Taekwon-Do), Patterned sparring (difficult to explain), regular sparring (fighting using ITF competition rules), sparring against multiple opponents (needless to say, this is kind of hard), self defence (fighting using all techniques in Taekwon-Do, including grappling, sweeps, throws, pressure points and all other techniques that are too dangerous to use in competition, tested under controlled forms), board breaking (you have to break wooden boards with different techniques that the examinator choose for you), and theoretical test (you are tested in the theory of Taekwon-Do).
I’m exhausted, but very happy I made it.
Congrats, Henke! That is a lot of work after a long commitment.
My middle son will be trying for his black belt soon, probably in the spring, after school lightens up a bit.
Jordan
Congrats on your success in Take-My-Dough. What a relief for you. Finally you will be able to keep your pants up. 
djm
Congradulations Henke, believe me I know what that test is like. I was 47 when I got mine and instead of breaking boards like everyone else that day I was presented with a big hunk of concrete, and a large smile on the face of my teacher. But I made it. The ITF is very tuff and you are to be commended for sticking with it. I had to do most of my compeeting in WTF because that is all there was. The last time I fought was about 9 years ago. I wanted to be the oldest qualifier for the nationals which meant I had to take state. It was a nasty ternament but when it was all over I had qualified. I packed up my gear and never fought again. Brutal ternament. I was 49 then. Again way to go.
Take care
Tom
Wow, congrats!
Remind me to never pick a fight with you! 
Thanks guys.
Tom. It’s usually a good thing when they demand more of you, and it’s usually an insult to the other practitioners A good instructor would not ask something impossible of the students (only close to impossible sometimes 
), which means that they thought you kept a high standard when they asked you to do something harder than the others.
No concrete for us though. Just 1 inch wooden boards, lots of difficult kicks though. It’s faily easy to use enough force to break those boards, it’s using enough power and still hit it fairly close to the middle where it will break easiest, when you have to do, say, a flying hook kick (Twimyo Goro Chagi) that’s hard.
So Tom, have you quit training alltogether, or have you just quit compeeting?
Alas Henke my exposure to agent orange in Vietnam began to manifest itself in my body about that time in a disease called periferal neuropothy. I lost all feeling in my feet and lower legs and am unable to use many of those muscles. I had to learn how to walk without falling down or using any of those muscles involved in this disease. It is now starting to involve my arms and hands so playing the flute is about as athletic as I get now a days. Though I can still get out of the way of most of the horses I work with if I have to.
Take care
Tom
Congratulations. I could still take you, though.
Dale
I couldn’t get a belt; consequently my trousers kept
falling down and I shifted to BlackJack. Lost my
pants there, too.
Man, that sounds like a nightmare Tom. How does the prognosis look for a disease like that? Hope you get better.
Dale, I wouldn’t argue with that. Looks like you’re packing more than a 1 inch board round that waistline
Well if it is a nightmare it is the least of my nightmares. You must remember I live in the U.S. which has become a living nightmare for those of us that love and respect life. As far as I know this disease doesnt get better. So I dont dwell on it much. I can still ride a horse and work and play with draft horses and thats enough for me right now. Though I still want to be a fireman when I grow up 
Take care
Tom
Right. Not uncommon among us:
Congrats. Great job.
Blackbeer, I’m impressed that you did those things in your late 40’s. It shows it’s never too late to improve yourself.
Congrats Henke!
Now we know who has to lead the way home from late night sessions downtown. 
Dont fear if it gets rough, I’ll be behind your back cheering you on
/MarcusR
Came to think of it, how wide-spread is Martial Arts practicing among whistle/flute/pipe folks in the ITM community? I mean, if we ever need to really defend our art from bodhran/banjo/fiddle players. Bodhran players are obviously the worst since they are always armed with beaters. Luckily, we do practice defence against armed opponents in TKD.
No worries folks, I’ll defend you all
I’ve seen mention of martial arts practice here and there on this board. Seems fairly wide spread, yes?
I play the fife, a very martial Art.
I’ll take your puny black belt against platoon of my civil war era platoon with flint locks any time!
Actually, my wife and I were in Shotokan for three years before our work life conflicted with the class times. Now we are in a generic Jujitsu school with a shiny new white belt.
We are defending ourselves against an ever expanding belt size!
My wife and I have thought about starting tai chi. (In your 60s you don’t start TKD). At the gym where we work out each day there is a chinese community group that meets 3 days a week and they have classes in tai chi. It looks like it would be a great way to work out. My son in law has a black belt in TKD and was an instuctor. My grandson has a red belt but he gave it up.
Ron
Ron, Tai-Chi seems like a wonderful idea. I’ve acctually thought about starting something similar myself, because there is one thing I miss with my Taekwon-Do training, we don’t do a lot of internal stuff. Taekwon-Do is a very external art. Sure there is a lot of internal training that goes with it and is baked into everything, but not much all out Chi training.
My temporary solution is Hapki-Do (another Korean martial art). I’ve found a club nearby here so me and another guy who took the black belt at the same time as I did are going to try it out after the holiday. I hope it’s a good club. Hapki-Do seems like a good compliment to TKD training. It emphasizes body throws and joint locks and stuff over kicking and punching, although they do that as well (TKD is the exact opposite, we emphasize kicking and punching over throws, locks, sweeps, etc. Allthough we do those as well). And I think the Chi (or Ki, or Qi) training will do me good as a martial artist.
Anyone have experience with Hapki-Do?
I.D.10-t: Nothing bad with starting over with another art.