Black Belt Test

Today the 27th of June I had my grading or test for black belt.

In Haidong Gumdo this test consists of

1. A poomsae or kata called Shimsang Gumbap
2. 20 finger pushups
3. Breaking a piece of wood with your sword.

The finger pushups were easy and the wood was surprisingly easy to break.
Unfortunately when performing Shimsang Gumbap I was nervous and I forgot what the next move was!
Considering I have walked through the entire sequence 5 times a day for the last two weeks, this was rather annoying.
So I had to start again and this time I finished without too many mistakes.

On July 9th I have to travel to another dojang to do the wood break again. This time the wood will be of a much better quality, i.e. harder If I break it then I will be a black belt. I only get two chances at doing this so I had better not stuff up.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot, normally a test costs 20,000 won. The black belt test costs 220,000 won !
So I better not fail.

While training for this test I have managed to get two “tennis elbows” !

This is the problem area on my arms. Sports like fencing or Gumdo put a lot of stress the muscles in your forearms.
What I can’t figure out is why now? I trained much harder when I started Gumdo. Is it my diet or am I just too old?

I also had a knee problem but it has resolved itself But the tennis elbow is a problem.
Originally it was only my left arm, but now it has moved to my right arm!
So I will take a break from Gumdo this week and see a doctor for treatment options. I want to get it fixed whilst I am in Korea b/c it is so cheap here for physiotherapy and Oriental medicine.
So if I successfully pass my black belt test then I shall stop training. Since I only have two months left in Korea, that means no more Gumdo training.
If I am presented with an opportunity to do Gumdo in Australia I would like to do so. But first I need to lose weight and build up strength and flexibility.