Hoping for Checker Belt! Fingers Crossed!

This past Sunday Braxton tested for his checker Belt.  It is pretty comparable to an adult Black belt, they just give the children their checker belt for one year before they can test again for their junior black belt, (they do half steps for kids).The adults get theirs right away.  This will be the highest belt that Braxton will be able to achieve while here in Korea.  This has been his goal since he first started.   We were told that the test would be fast, but we weren't prepared for this fast.  We don't know how Master Song arranges things, but his American kids are always first to test here.  He must tell them that they may need extra time if they don't understand the commands given due to the language barrier.  The entire test was given in Korean and the kids were just instructed to follow the others and stay quite.  They were given hand cues as to what number of form that they were supposed to perform for the judge.  As far as there being a language barrier from the bleachers you couldn't tell. 

                                            This is how Braxton looked the day of his test. 

 

He had to wear this tag to identify who he was.  We had to give a copy of his passport so that everything would be official on the records here.  Korean Tae kwon Do is recognized anywhere around the world.  Some places in the states don't have the same rankings as there are here and Braxton has told us that there have been kids that in the states have comparable belts as he has, but Master Song has dropped them down about 2-3 belts as they don't know the same things that the kids here have been taught. 

 

Just about to enter Champion Stadium.  All of the Warrior kids who were going to be testing. 

Michael, Kanaan, Warner, Braxton and Katie

The kid in the middle is already a black belt he is just testing for a higher level.  From here on out, these kids will have to test here with the officials of the Tae kwon Do Federation in in Korea. 

 

Can you find Braxton?  He is in the back, third to the bottom. 

 

 

This reminded me of Karate Kid the movie.  There are even more kids behind Braxton in the bleachers waiting to test. The boys in the black uniforms at the bottom took each group of testers to the next area.  Braxton said they tried to talk to him in Korean and were expecting him to respond, but he didn't understand anything. 

 

 

 

 

 

Braxton and his group were taken to register.  Their coach was not allowed to enter the rink with the kids they are on their own.

 

 

From here they are being checked to see if the kids match their pictures and if they are who they say they are. 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting to start the test.  Braxton is in the back at the top of the picture.  They had to relearn all of ther=ir forms from white belt on up to where they are now as in this test they will be asked to perform three forms randomly.  If they don't perform well then they fail. 

 

 

 

 

This is the first form that the kids demonstrated.  It was form 8.  It is the only form that they were guaranteed to have as this is the form for the belt that they are on now. 

 

 

 

 

Second station

Here you can see all of the mats that Braxton will have to go to.  There are only four.

 

 

 

 

Third station

 

 

 

 

Final station sparring.  Braxton is in the blue head gear closet to the man standing. The kids were told that they would be sparring against Korean kids and that they wouldn't show any mercy and that they need to give it their all and not hold back.  I was a little worried as the two Korean children who were testing with them looked to be teenagers of about 15-16. Braxton is the oldest in his group at 10 and the other three are 9.  Not a fair competition.  But when it came to the sparring they were able to spar each other. 

 

 

I missed all of Braxton's sparring video as I thought that I was recording when I wasn't.  He knocked the boy down two times during the test. 

 

 

 

 

Braxton and his group walking away after completing the test.  All in all we were supposed to show up at the test at 9am and the test began at 10 am.  Braxton and I left the testing area at 10:10am.  I was shocked at how quickly things happened.  He did a great job!  We are so proud of him!  After his test was when we found out that Braxton still has about two more weeks before he knows the results of this test.  Uggg! More waiting.