Fall 2025 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!

7/22

After my much needed "rest" day yesterday, I got up this morning and did a bunch of requirements before starting the day.  I still have some to do, but my work day is crazy today, I'm going to struggle to find time to eat lunch, let alone do some TKD.  

  5 Hits

7/21

Worked hard over the weekend.   Spent a lot of time on requirements.  Still doing some stuff today, but it's definitely a quieter more relaxed day.  

  0 Hits

7/18

Overslept this morning and didn't get my run in.  So I got that done on my lunch break.  Which means I have to do my other requirements later tonight.   Enjoyed the PMAA class in Harrisburg last night.  

  24 Hits

7/16

Day off from running (and tomorrow too).  Woke up this morning for jump rope, push ups, sit ups, etc.  And I spent my lunch break doing poomsae and self defense.   So far so good at staying on top of it. 

  0 Hits

7/15

Struggled to get out the door this morning.  Got ready to go and flopped on the couch for 10 minutes before dragging myself to the door.  But got out and did 4 miles.  Times are not where I want them at the moment.  I'm confident they'll get there though.  Got back, recovered and did some pushups and situps.  more requirements to work on today but a very strong start.  

  21 Hits

7/14

Solid round of poomsae and self defense during lunch today, I had to look a couple of things up, and have some questions for my mentor, but still good practice.  It's a day off from running.  I do still need to hit the other physical tasks for the day though.

  22 Hits

7/13

Got a 5 mile run in this morning.  Hilly and challenging but glad to get at it.  Time for some poomsae and self defense practice.  

  0 Hits

And so it begins

2nd round of the cycle for me.  I didn't do great with my journals in the spring.  I'm determined to fix that for the fall.  Strong start this morning with a great class led by Master Dege followed up with a needed mentor session.   My weak parts going into this cycle are short sticks and 2nd / 3rd degree self defenses.  I'll be working hard on those to get them up to scratch.  

  19 Hits

Hapkido

The Hapkidos are so hard to practice on your own.  I know them a little better but it still doesn't feel good.  

  148 Hits

Rain day

My youngest is home today since school has been closed, I'm going to try and talk her into doing some TKD with me in the living room.

  171 Hits

3-4

I tried writing out the self defenses today.  It was a challenge, but really made me think about exactly what was happening.  Still struggle with Hapkidos and 2nd dan specials.  

  158 Hits

3-3 Hapkido

Hapkidos are really hard to practice by yourself.  But I got a good few rounds of it.  I'm still not remembering them completely, but I'm getting there (at least on 1 through 4).

  153 Hits

3-2

Late night driving home from Greenville last night, but it was worth it to sleep in my own bed.  Instructors camp was great, special thanks to the Masters that led the various breakout sessions, I enjoyed them a lot.    

  162 Hits

Instructors camp

All packed and ready to leave.  I'll be spending some of the time between now and leaving for Greenville practicing the Hapkidos.  They are by far my weakest part at this point.  

  0 Hits

Allergies!!!!

This weather is making my allergies go crazy.  On the plus side, the warmer temps make an early morning practice in the driveway not so bad.  Taught two classes last night.  Took a beating because the adult class was falls and take downs with lots of demonstrating.  

  145 Hits

Extra teaching

Got a call yesterday for teaching a couple of extra classes last night.  I had already done my regular practice so it pushed my normal monday into another level.

  158 Hits

Saturday

Solid learning and practicing today in both BlackBelt class and my mentee session.  Really happy with how I'm progressing on my curriculum (still not great with 2nd Dan Specials).  Got home, ran some errands did some housework, and then finished up with physical requirements.  Now I'll be spending the evening watching opening weekend of MLS.  

  159 Hits

Overslept

I overslept this morning and couldn't get my daily pre-work practice in.  I'll have to do it during my lunch hour today.  

  172 Hits

Jump Rope

I'm jumping rope, almost daily, and I don't feel like I'm getting any better.  It's like swimming for me.  I swim laps 3 days a week in the summer, and by the end of summer I'm no faster and it's still just as hard.  I'm doing this jump rope and I still miss jump a lot, I'm not getting faster, etc, etc.  I'll keep going, but it's very frustrating. 

  128 Hits

Tough start to the day

Woke up pretty sore from chopping up the tree yesterday.  Really made the first rounds of pushups and situps hard today.  I'm not sure how much I'll get today.  Poomsae and Self-defense were done really, really slowly.  Worked on my stances and hand placement.

  180 Hits

No physical requirements today

A 50+ foot tree fell in the yard last night while we were out to dinner (no injuries or damages).  I'll get my workout stripping, chopping, and moving it today (thank goodness for a bank holiday) so I don't see myself doing any pushups, situps, etc.  

  188 Hits

Today's practice

A great small group practice today.  2ish hours of practicing and helping (and a healthy dose of joking around too).  I feel a lot more confident with 2nd and 3rd 1-steps now as well.        

  167 Hits

Tough morning

Really stiff and sore after last night's sparring and black belt classes.  I normally do a few rounds of push ups and sit ups as well as poomsae and self defense practice early in the morning.  Today I just stretched for 30 minutes.  Felt great, but will have to spend time tonight on all of the requirements.  

  133 Hits

Slacker

I've been doing the work, but slacking on journaling and data entry.  I need to focus on that improvement.  

  123 Hits

1/29 - a break

Took a break monday and tuesday from the physical portion of the requirements (pushups, sit ups, etc).  Getting back into it today has been hard, but it was worth it.  I taught two classes last night and did a session with my mentee.  Overall, very successful.  

  136 Hits

Requirements

I made a list of all the requirements that I could think of today.  Then I marked each one with 4 possible values:  Blank, Know, Comfortable, Confident.  Blank means I don't know it and need to learn it. Know means I know it but I'm not good at it (have to go slow, think about the next move, etc) Comfortable means that I know it but I still might turn the wrong way, or use the wrong hand/foot/stance/etc, and have to correct myself. Confident means I am confident I can do it mistake free.  While we all still make mistakes, this is about how I feel in my knowledge.  I went through everything today as I practiced and made my marks.  This has given me a very good base on understanding not just what I need to work on, but how much I might need to work on a particular thing.

  116 Hits

1/26 - First post

I'm behind on my journaling and data entry.  Spent about 2 hours working with another candidate today on poomsae and self defense.  It was a very successful session.

  182 Hits