Fall 2024 Black Belt Cycle

Candidate Journals

King Tiger Tae Kwon Do Black Belt candidates blog daily about their journey: their thoughts and feelings, their struggles and successes; their pain and their encouragement. Follow along on their journey; words of encouragement are always welcome!

This is my...

This is my last journal. I think I've changed a lot since the cycle began. Now doing my requirements goes along with eating, sleeping and breathing and comes naturally to me. I think I've gotten stronger because I've been able to shoot a basketball farther. I think I've become more responsible but I'm not as responsible as I can be all the time.

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I'm kind o...

I'm kind of nervous about the test on Saturday. I need to practice pushups, v situps and situps. I feel like I'm going to do okay with the curriculum.

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Today I wo...

Today I woke up and went to the Ymca. Then I went home so I could get my requirements done. I also got a black belt class, a hyper pro and a mentor session.

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Today I wo...

Today I woke up and went to the Ymca. Then I went home so I could get my requirements done. I also got a black belt class, a hyper pro and a mentor session.

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I got my r...

I got my requirements done without being distracted today. I'm very proud of myself because I haven't been able to do that lately. I think I need to work on doing my jump rope a lot more because I keep tripping. I also need to work on doing my burpees in a minute.

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I got up a...

I got up at 7:30 to get my requirements done. Then we went to the store. After that I went to basketball practice.

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Last night...

Last night we did the parents night out. it was really fun because we played lots of dodge ball . I raised a lot of money.

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I got up t...

I got up to get my requirements done so we could go to the park. We went to the park with our cousins. I did a lot of running there. Tomorrow we are going to have a parents night out arranged by the Bo Cho Dans at my school to raise money for Levine. If you can come tomorrow please come. It is from 6:00 to 10:00 at the Belmont location.

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I've been ...

I've been able to shoot farther in basketball. I think it's because of my push ups. And I feel like my miles have been shorter and they're becoming easier to do.

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Today was ...

Today was a really fun day. I woke up and got my requirements done so we could go to the Ymca then go to kates skates. I also got a hyper pro today because we did lots of rolls falls and kicks.

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Today in t...

Today in the 6:30 class there was a new family that took their first class. That was because they saw the blow up tiger in the front and they stopped by. But I didn't get a chance to work with them. I worked with another white belt. I helped him with kwan sool in english and korean. I got some more poomsaes in during that time.

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Today I pl...

Today I played in a basketball game and got a medal. I studied a lot for my written test too. It was a good day.

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I got most...

I got most of my exercises done before I went to black belt and sparring class this morning. Sparring class was fun because we did a lot of kicking. But we only got to do a little bit of sparring.

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I did some...

I did some of my requirements outside before it started raining. I was outside with my mom while she was pressure washing. It was different to be outside but I couldn't really get on my knees for things like red belt self defense number 2. So I finished the rest inside.

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I woke up ...

I woke up and got all of my requirements done. I wanted to get them done so I could go to the pool. I'm planning to do the same thing tomorrow.

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I took bot...

I took both an advanced class and a weekday black belt class today. In black belt class we did a lot of extra requirements. We got in a lot of falls, kicks, and push ups.

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Today I fi...

Today I finished my Leadership 2 credits and i got a leadership 1. I struggle with pushups because they take the longest for me to do. The second longest is poomsaes and self defenses. I think I've gotten better at getting my requirements done because at the beginning of the cycle it took me many many hours.

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I really d...

I really didn't want to do my requirements today and then I talked to my mom and she motivated me to get it all done. My plan for myself is to just do it and get it over with. I will try again tomorrow.

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I got some...

I got some of my requirement done at home and went to the Y.  I got all of my push-ups done there.  We went home and I finished my requirements. My cousin Ethan helped me do my physical requirements. He helped me by doing them along side of me.

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I got up a...

I got up at 6:00 today to get my requirements done before we went to Adventure landing. I ran a mile and a half outside this morning and the weather was really nice. I didn't go to any classes.

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I got my r...

I got my requirements done earlier than normal before my friend came over this morning. I did the 4:30 and 5:30 class and got a leadership credit. We did lots of falls and rolls. I hurt my ankle doing a spin fall off of a chair. I'm fine now.

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I really d...

I really didn't want to do my requirements today because my motivation wasn't up at all. I ended up doing more requirements than I usually have to do. I didn't stop because I committed to the cycle and I can't stop now when the cycle hasn't even started. I got a leadership credit today and took black belt class too.

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Master Shi...

Master Shin came back today from vacation and I got a leadership 1 credit. We did something fun today in class that involved falls on a crash mat. It was really fun because even if you didn't want to fall, you had to because you would've gotten hit with the sword.

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Today I di...

Today I did three classes. I learned Pal gwae yi today. It was fun doing black belt class and I got a lot of requirements done. I can't believe that I'm not tired right now.

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Last night...

Last night I had a sleepover and got lots of sleep.  So when I got home I got my requirements done.  I ran a mile and a quarter today really quickly.  I felt really happy that I ran it all so fast.

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I woke up ...

I woke up and got my requirements done in about an hour. I feel a change in my body today. It is that I am aching a little bit.

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I went to ...

I went to class and also got leadership credits. I did my mile at home and it started raining on us. I think the cycle is really hard. I think it's made for us to grow to be more responsible and take more initiative. Taking initiative means instead of waiting for someone else to do something, you should go ahead and do it. Like when you have free time in class you can get some requirements done. I think I should work on that because I don't exactly do that myself. Me and my family were talking at dinner about all of this.

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It was a c...

It was a cloudy day again. I got up and did my poomsaes and then went bowling. I learned Pal Gwe Yi in black belt class.

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Today I up...

Today I upped my numbers and it was really hard. I'm not used to doing more of everything. I felt really proud of myself at the end of the day for doing a lot. Even though I upped my numbers, I still did more than I was supposed to. For example I was supposed to do 150 pushups but I ended up doing 245.  I want to thank Ms. Pam for helping me get some poomsaes and leadership during class. Class was really fun too because we did a game at the end. It was like the jeopardy game that we used to do.

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Today was ...

Today was a cloudy day overall and it was a perfect day to stay inside and do requirements, so in the morning before church I got all of it done. For other exercise I went to my basketball practice and game. I made my first shot in a game! I felt really good. My friend got the medal for the week and I was really happy for him.

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I think my...

I think my favorite class is the hyper pro class because that's where we do the most falling and rolling. But today we practiced 540 kicks. Master Mitchell said that I did good. Black belt class was fun because we did some fun jump kicks. Wang ho 1 became a little bit easier for me.

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Today at t...

Today at the Y track a mile seemed really long because it was a big track. I went really slow because my legs were tired. I also didn't want to do it. I'm having an easier time with my poomsaes and self defenses because I don't have to stop as much as I used to.

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Today I ha...

Today I had to get my requirements done really fast. I had to do this because my friend was coming over and we were going to my cousins house. Today was an overall fun day.

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I woke up ...

I woke up at 6:20 and got most of requirements done because I wanted to go to my friend's house. I went to class too. I really like doing the spin falls and dive rolls. I feel really good about the cycle today. I got my exercises done and I didn't get distracted.

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Today I go...

Today I got most of my requirements done before going to the pool. Then I helped with a class at Belmont, then I went to Master Evins' school for Black belt class. I feel like today I got my requirements done faster. I really want to thank Master Shin, Master Evins, my mom, my dad and my sister for helping me get through the cycle.

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Empathy

Today I finished my empathy training essay. I went without my right arm. I'm proud of myself because I still finished a mentee session and all of my requirements with one arm, except for pull-ups. Master Shin told me that the cycle would be done before I know it, and I would breeze through it. It made me realize that I should just get it done so I can just finish it.

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I feel rea...

I feel really excited about getting my black belt finally but I don't really want to do any of the requirements. But I have to anyway. I think I have to do all of these requirements because Master Evins wants us to earn this black belt, not just studying a few things and getting our belt. He wants us to actually do work to earn it. I was proud of myself today for doing all of my pushups and situps in one sitting, and I did two miles with my dad.

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Tired

Today I took three classes in a row and it was really really tiring! I took hyper pro, black belt class, and sparring class. I learned pal gwe 1, wang ho 1, and the rest of basic form 3.

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Friends

Today our friends came over so I had to get all of my requirements done in the morning. It was kind of hard because there was not a lot of time to get them done because I had just come from a sleepover.

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Day 20

Today I woke up and got all of the exercises done so I can have fun at my birthday party later. I went running with my sister and then we both did some pushups together. My goal is to do more random acts of kindesses today.

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Struggle

I was struggling a little bit this morning with my requirements. I didn't want to do them. I was tired. Then I finally did them. My mom told me that when I grow up I can put on my college application that I'm a black belt when I was 9 years old. After she said that I decided to do my requirements. Plus I wanted to play Xbox.

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Pool

I did my running and pull-ups at the Y today. After swimming for two hours we went home and I got straight to work on my requirements. We did spin falls at black belt class. I thought it was really cool because we had to jump over two body shields and still do a spin fall.

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Mentee

I discovered that mentee sessions are easy.  Before I did it I felt really nervous because the person I am mentoring is older than me but is a lower rank.  It went really well because it wasn't so hard after all.   Next time we're going to work on self defenses and stances.

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Track day

Today we went to the track at a school.  I got some miles done, some pushups on the grass, some pull-ups on the playground.  I also did burpees there.

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Poomsaes

7/5:  Today poomsaes were easier because at the beginning I thought they were really long but now it's getting easier because I'm getting used to doing them.  

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Visitors

7/4:  Today I woke up at 7:30 and got part of my requirements done even though we had company.  I got the rest of them done later on and played the rest of the day.  It's harder when you have company because I want to do things with them.

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Cramp

7/3:  I started my requirements later today.  I had a hard time running my mile because I tried to run the whole time and keep up with my sister on her bike, and I ended up getting a cramp so I had to walk the rest of the time.

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No electronics

7/2:  Today I got up at 5:30 again and got most of my exercises done.  I want to get up early so I have time to play the rest of the day.  My mom's rule is that I can't have any electronics before my requirements are done.  I think that's really fair because I would get distracted.

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Early start

7/1:  Today I got up at 5:30 to get my exercises done.  I challenged myself by watching my cousin play on my ipod by doing all of my requirements.  I felt really good about it because I got all my requirements done and I didn't let myself down.

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Faster today

6/30:  It is my Day 2.  I got done a lot quicker because I didn't have somebody beside me to joke around with.  Yesterday I was distracted by my sister.  But she was trying to help me.

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First day

6/29: Today was my first real day because I was on a cruise and didn't do very much last week.  It was very challenging.  The most challenging was my poomsaes and self defenses because that took the longest time for me.  And I have to write this on a program because my name isn't on the king tiger web yet.

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