Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Red Belt Success!


Last night the Randolph Blue Wave TKD clan traveled up to the Burlington Blue Wave Dojang for a great night of testing. Once a student has reached 3rd Gup (Blue Belt with Red Stripe), they must test outside of their home dojang. Gerry was notified last week that he would be testing in Burlington for his RED belt. This is a huge deal because earning your Red Belt leaves you only 2 tests away from BLACK BELT! It also means testing in front of a formidable panel of Black BeltsTesting is really hard physically and pretty intense emotionally. Here's a quick vid. of Gerry's Board Breaking and Sparring segments. You can see that he kicked Master White and Miss Essig when he tried to break. It looked painful. Gerry apologized after the testing. He did an amazing job during his testing! He was very focused and looked great!!

I get the sense that being a Red Belt is kind of like pledging for a fraternity. Master White was telling the dojang last night that lots and lots of people quit TKD as Red Belts and that students have to stay focused and determined to make it all the way. They often have to drop and do push-ups for whatever reason a Black Belt comes up with. They also fetch the Black Belts their coffee, serve ice cream to 350 people at Summer Camp and do other types of scrub work.

I can't wait for the day that my three boys test for their Black Belt. Although Austen and Peter weren't quite ready for this testing, they are working really hard to earn the right to test before the Fall. Gerry has said that his goal is to test with the boys for Black Belt. Big congrats to Sonja and Mike who also earned their Red Belts and Ramsey who earned her Red Stripe! Huge congratulations to Gerry for his outstanding job!! We are all so proud of you!!!

Meanwhile, I will test (with Ella?) for my yellow stripe on Tues 7.29. I'm nervous, but I totally love the personal challenge that TKD is making me face. TKD couldn't possibly be any further out of my comfort zone and I am totally into it.

6 comments:

Suds to Love said...

Wow, congrats to Gerry for his red belt! Good luck on your test.

Sakai Family said...

Congratulations to Gerry for his red belt! This is a very big deal!!

Sue and Tessie
:)

Sherrie said...

On a totally different note, I'm enjoying your pamplemousse in the shower as of late! Mmmmm! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

I am so impressed with the moves! Congrats to Gerry and good luck to you and Ella!

Gerry Tallman said...

Thanks, Heather, for being SO VERY encouraging to me and to Austen and Peter in our TKD. It feels great to get the red belt and I am psyched to watch you test for yellow stripe on Tuesday!

Carrie Garvin said...

Just a WOW~ that is a BIG deal! And best of luck to you & Ella~ I'm so impressed.