Date: Feb 11, 2018
Today is a big day for Jay. After 2 years of hard work, he is ready to take the 2nd Poom to 3rd Poom grading. He has worked so hard for the past few weeks practising all the 10 patterns, self-defence, sparing, etc. The highlight of this blog got to be Jay’s kicking a knife and the flying knife hit the instructor face during grading. Hahahahahaha
Jay, may the force be with you!
When he arrived at the Liang Court branch, Master Rivas wanted four of them to practise the self-defence once more. He wanted to make sure all of them do their routines properly.
Now, it is his partner’s turn. There are only four of them taking the grading for 2nd -> 3rd poom. If they passed, they will get their 3rd poom belt. This is equivalent to 3rd Dan for adult. (黑带三段)
Poom belt is children black belt. When they reach 15 years old, they will fill in a form and convert their poom belt certificates to black belt certificates. Then, 1 year later, they will convert the 2nd poom belt to 2nd Dan black belt. And after that, by 18 years old, which is 2 years after the 2nd Dan, then they can convert their 3rd poom belt to 3rd Dan black belt.
This time, the grading is at J.H.Kim Liang Court branch. They have to rent the next door cooking school area to be the extra location for grading. There are 3 STF (Singapore Taekwondo Foundation) examiners coming to grade for all JH.Kim school students.
Jay and his friends will be graded in this cooking school location. And we get to see what they were doing. 🙂 That is why this is the first time I can capture his grading on video.
The first test. 3 rounds of contactless sparring. Jay sparring with Theresa. He has to show the use of multiple kick combos. Wow, it is quite entertaining.
Next is the test of 2nd poom pattern – Keumgang Poomsae. Usually, the examiner test 2-by-2, but this time round, he tested all four students together. The examiner must be tired liao. hahaha
He spent a lot of time practising this as to improve his balancing standing with one leg.
The third test is the 1st poom pattern – Koryo Poomsae. Jay and his friends perform it very well.
Then, the examiner gets to pick one of the eight Pre-Poom Poomsae pattern. He needs to choose 2 of it to test the student, but somehow, he only asked them to do one set. The 7th pattern – Taegeuk TChil Jang Poomsae (red belt, taegeuk 7).
This is one of Jay’s favourite poomsae. And he perform it very well. Must show strength. Must show stability. Must show power.
In case you want to know what are the Poomsae names..
- Taegeuk Il Jang (WHITE BELT)
- Taegeuk Yi Jang (YELLOW BELT)
- Taegeuk Sam Jang (GREEN BELT)
- Taegeuk Sah Jang (GREEN BELT)
- Taegeuk Oh Jang (BLUE BELT)
- Taegeuk Yuk Jang (BLUE BELT)
- Taegeuk TChil Jang (RED BELT)
- Taegeuk Pal Jang (SENIOR-RED BELT)
- Koryo (1st Dan/Poom Black Belt)
- Keumgang (2nd Dan/Poom Black Belt)
- Taebaek (3rd Dan/Poom Black Belt)
- Pyongwon (4th Dan/Poom Black Belt)
- Sipjin (5th Dan Black Belt)
- Jitae (6th Dan Black Belt)
- Cheonkwon (7th Dan Black Belt)
- Hansu (8th Dan Black Belt)
- Ilyeo (9th Dan Black Belt)
Next is the test of self-defence. His partner Theresa goes first.
She can kick very high.
I call this 被女人打 (beaten by girl) test.
Now, it is Jay’s turn. This is 打女人 test.
They are tested on 5 styles of self defence facing bad guy with weapon (i.e. knife).
Watch the 3rd style, when Theresa attack from front with a knife, Jay needs to kick the knife away, and look at how he kick the knife, and how Theresa let go of the knife, and how the knife flew away high. What is not captured is that flying knife hit the face of one of the instructor there assisting the examiner. No wonder I was wondering why they bow and apologising to the instructor. Hahahaha
But I love these test. It is like acting class. hahaha
The last part of the grading is the interviewing part. Where examiners asking the students one by one a few questions.
Jay says one of the questions is “Will you be a judge of Taekwondo competition when you grow up?” Jay answered “I don’t know yet.” hahahaha short and sweet. hahahaha
He told me that he saw the examiners signing all four blue cards while he and his friends walking out the room.
So, I am guessing, all four of them has passed this grading. And all four of them are now 3rd poom.
He is 11 years old now. Another 8 months then, he turns 12. So, from now until Oct 8, 2021 before he turns 15 years old. He has 3 years to work on getting his 4th Dan.
Oh ya, he is not wearing his uniform. This size 160 is borrowed uniform. Need to wash and give back to the school. Because he has grew up very fast within the last two years.
Next will be Kay’s turn 1st -> 2nd poom belt. His grading is in May. So, now, he has to learn all the patterns and practising it almost every day. And since Jay just finished his test, he can teach Kay.
He looks quite good in this borrowed uniform.
Look at his old uniform (size 150). Hahaha the sleeve is so short. hahaha
Learning Taekwondo is good for them. Learning self defence is good for them too especially for Kay. Kay is very small size in body build. So, easily get bullied. Jay is getting fitter day by day. Kay learned how to protect himself too.