Hello again!
The past couple of weeks have been interesting.
Week 17 was the final week of school holidays, we trained basics in order to help our new people out and had most of the lessons committed to fitness/cardio.
I have to admit it was a little tough getting through week 17. There was so much running I can hardly remember what training we did during the week.
There is a girl who has been training with us for a few weeks whom I teach basics/patterns before class begins. I helped her get ready to grade by perfecting her technique. Reminding her to square her shoulders and keep a strong stance. She passed onto 9th grade and I have now started to help her perfect her next pattern Chon-Ji.
In week 18 I have been arriving to class earlier than usual, so that I can get more practice in. It's hard to practice patterns in the small space of one's bedroom.
I take patterns very seriously, I'm not sure why but they feel like the most important thing to me and I want them to be perfect.
Instructor Greg told me in Monday's lesson that my forward stance needs to be longer and so this is what I have been focusing on for the past week.
We had a new person join us this week, a middle aged man who hasn't done TKD before. On Wednesday night he came up to me and said "Are you preparing for a grading or something" and I said "No, why is that?"
"Because I see you practicing all the time and you're always the first one here."
"Oh, that?" I said "No, I just want to get it right, you know?"
He then told me when the next grading would be, I'm not sure how he found out but it is in September!
So soon!
I now have something to work towards but am nervous that I won't be ready. The next grading means I will be the highest I have ever been in TKD before. It has been my goal for a very long time, a green belt still sits up high in my room as an incentive and I am so close and am so excited.
In NZ, after I left my first club to join another, I was denied the chance to grade to green belt by the new instructor and it hurt me in a way it might hurt the younger kids. I just wanted that new belt. I wanted to be better than everyone else.
But that isn't the way I see it anymore.
I don't see the next belt as something I SHOULD have or that I need to be better than others. I see the next rank meaning I have finally EARNED the right to wear the next belt. That i finally have the skills needed grade on.
My long term goal in TKD is to eventually earn the right to wear a black belt, become an instructor and one day teach classes in my own dojang with my own students. It is something I have wanted to do since I started and I don't intend to give up on this goal.
I am excited for the coming weeks of training and hopefully I will be able to perfect my skills before the next grading.
Thanks again for reading my story.
-Kirstine
The past couple of weeks have been interesting.
Week 17 was the final week of school holidays, we trained basics in order to help our new people out and had most of the lessons committed to fitness/cardio.
I have to admit it was a little tough getting through week 17. There was so much running I can hardly remember what training we did during the week.
There is a girl who has been training with us for a few weeks whom I teach basics/patterns before class begins. I helped her get ready to grade by perfecting her technique. Reminding her to square her shoulders and keep a strong stance. She passed onto 9th grade and I have now started to help her perfect her next pattern Chon-Ji.
In week 18 I have been arriving to class earlier than usual, so that I can get more practice in. It's hard to practice patterns in the small space of one's bedroom.
I take patterns very seriously, I'm not sure why but they feel like the most important thing to me and I want them to be perfect.
Instructor Greg told me in Monday's lesson that my forward stance needs to be longer and so this is what I have been focusing on for the past week.
We had a new person join us this week, a middle aged man who hasn't done TKD before. On Wednesday night he came up to me and said "Are you preparing for a grading or something" and I said "No, why is that?"
"Because I see you practicing all the time and you're always the first one here."
"Oh, that?" I said "No, I just want to get it right, you know?"
He then told me when the next grading would be, I'm not sure how he found out but it is in September!
So soon!
I now have something to work towards but am nervous that I won't be ready. The next grading means I will be the highest I have ever been in TKD before. It has been my goal for a very long time, a green belt still sits up high in my room as an incentive and I am so close and am so excited.
In NZ, after I left my first club to join another, I was denied the chance to grade to green belt by the new instructor and it hurt me in a way it might hurt the younger kids. I just wanted that new belt. I wanted to be better than everyone else.
But that isn't the way I see it anymore.
I don't see the next belt as something I SHOULD have or that I need to be better than others. I see the next rank meaning I have finally EARNED the right to wear the next belt. That i finally have the skills needed grade on.
My long term goal in TKD is to eventually earn the right to wear a black belt, become an instructor and one day teach classes in my own dojang with my own students. It is something I have wanted to do since I started and I don't intend to give up on this goal.
I am excited for the coming weeks of training and hopefully I will be able to perfect my skills before the next grading.
Thanks again for reading my story.
-Kirstine
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