Little A Jr. Black Belt Test

Welcome to a moment that took two years to get too. While being in Korea, Little A had the chance to learn taekwondo, but not just a martial art, but a martial art from two 8th degree blackbelts. That's right, two eighth degree black belts, Master Kahn on the left, and Master Moon on the right, who also happen to the VP and President of the Taekwondo association of South Korea (like the whole country). So Korea has their own national Taekwondo competition team, literally the best in the world, and their trainers teach here on base at Osan, to kids as young as 3.

Little A has tested so many times over the last 2 years, sometime even monthly, and with twice weekly practices she has progressed in her confidence and form to reach this special day: Jr Black Belt. Under the stipulations of associated, she is allowed to only progress to this rank below twelve, where at that point she can finally test for Black Belt.

We went to the competition center, where well over 350 kids were testing for their higher level belts. They all came and practiced, and then 12 at a time they competed together for the same high level. Little A was very nervous, but excited because she understood want it meant to get to this point: hard work, a lot of memorizing and practice. She was ready!

So the competition was an all day event. You can imagine competition teams from all over, and despite the volume of students, in typical Korean style they did an amazing job being on schedule. These were the testing members for this round from Osan. 

So Little A had to memorize multiple forms of the test, and then they would randomly pull two of them from a hat which would be the two forms for that day. They were then given chances to practice, and then as a group they would compete together performing those two forms, in addition to some individual moves they had to do. She did so good, and she passed!

The next week at her class, she was allowed to test for the final form, as well as break her boards and finalize her exam. This is a more private setting, with all of her classmates being able to cheer her on when she was able to show them all her moves. Then she got her very special black belt, which as you see if a mixture of read and black with her own name sewn in Korean!

Taekwondo has taught her so much: self confidence, discipline, memorization skills, respect, hard work, progressive success; invaluable lessons for anyone to learn. We are so proud of her!

-Kevin