I have been learning lots of new things at Taekwondo over the last couple of months. The pace has really picked up as well so it is quite a workout.
To progress from blue belt (1 tip) to purple belt, I have had to learn three patterns/poomse and lots of board breaks/gyokpa. For patterns, I learnt Sa Jang, O Jang and Yuk Jang. Yuk Jang is definitely my favourite at the moment.
Board breaking has been a lot of fun. We practise with re-breakable plastic boards, but we use treated pine boards in the graduations. The pine boards we use are 1.8cm thick which is thicker than the standard. Depending on the strike being used, the board dimensions for adults are 27cm x 27cm or about 18cm x 27cm (I think). It gets a little harder where there are knots in the wood because they don't break as easily. On the flip side though, some boards can get small rot lines which makes it easier to break. Because I grade with the other instructors, I tend to get the knotted boards that everyone else rejects from their graduations.
Other than the three patterns, I have done 12 board breaks in the last two weeks for my purple belt grading. Last week I did right and left hand strike and right and left down kick. Last night I did right and left jumping ball kick and right and left punch break (don't want to do that too often :)). Tonight, I finished off the breaks with right and left knife-hand strike and right and left jumping down kick. After all that, I have only come away with one sore knuckle (punch break with a knotted board plus my fist angle was ever so slightly off). I am really looking forward to flying side kick breaks, but I think I have to wait until red belt for that. I am probably not to far away from that though.
I have really enjoyed the last couple of months of learning and training with new techniques and moves. Tonight was the payoff because I was awarded purple belt.
It has been interesting reading Sara Ford's blog (she is about to go for black belt in Karate). It's been great to read other peoples experience with other martial arts and gradings. I would like to read other tech bloggers who are into martial arts, but there don't seem to be many around. If you know of any, let me know.
My club has also launched its site. If you are interested in Taekwondo in Canberra (Australia), check out the Lantern site.
Tags: Taekwondo