Belt Testing

It was testing for my ATA boys last night and it was a great night!

 Father and son in line, waiting to start. 

 Joey showing off his boxing moves.

 Peter doing his weapon routine. 

 Joey doing his weapon.

 Peter's form. It was fun to watch him do something he has wanted to do for a long time. 

 Joey doing his form.

 Yes, I believe Joey had his tongue out for this portion of his form. Silly kid.

 If you look closely in the mirror you can see just how high Joey was kicking.

 Both of these pictures show really high kicks. Joey could barely kick above his waist about a year ago. He has come so far and learned to push his body to do hard things.

 Peter even got a chance to do some sparring though technically he will not spar with equipment for a few more months. He is moving so fast he is a blur! I was impressed with his high kick too since he is not the most flexible person I have ever met. Way to go dear!

 And the board breaks that caused us trouble last time. 

He practiced in class the day before with wood boards and finally broke all 3 on his first try! He was so elated. Even better is that we had cut his wood boards too big and so they were harder to break but he did it. This gave him the confidence boost he needed to break smaller boards at testing without a bit of trouble!

Above is his hammer fist!

 Round kick

 The elbow strike which was his nemesis for the last 2 months but he went right through! 

Watch the video below. He was so excited he screamed so loud! I wish I could have captured his face but I was at a bad angle- priceless.

 Peter's new belt. It was really fun to see Peter achieve something new that he has wanted to do for a long time. I have not seen a smile of satisfaction on his face like that since he earned his Wood Badge beads for Scouts.

 Joey was so happy about this. He was the first student to sign up at this school when it opened. He came having taken class for awhile in Las Vegas but due to differences in how the programs were run they had him start over again several belts lower than he was.  Either way they said he was their first "home grown" 2nd degree black belt.

 The first degree belt has American Taekwondo Association written on it in Korean.

 A second degree belt is personalized by your instructor. Joey's instructor left unexpectedly in January but since he was supposed to get this in December Mr. Coleman (old instructor) had picked the words to go on it. The two symbols are confidence and victory. Very fitting for Joey. He has had to learn to believe in himself and what his is capable of doing. 

 The girl on the right also earned her 2nd degree. 

Peter, Master Pechacek (6th degree and school owner and instructor until a permanent one can be found) and Joseph Moroni Rabner (that is how he presented himself to the judges-love that kid!).

It really is exciting to see a kid smash through a 9 inch board!