Candidate Journals

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

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.

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.  

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).

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.    

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.  

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.  

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.

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.  

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.  

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. 

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.

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.  

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.        

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.  

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

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.  

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.

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.