Saturday, March 10, 2007

Tang Soo Do...Alaskan Style!

Testing for Brown Belt at the Do Jang last night! The evening (2.5 hour test) began with the basics.
Fight stance...floor exercises next.
More floor exercises...side kick
My son and his buddy being tested on one-step sparring.
Showing off the 'flying' side kick.

My son is setting up his double breaks. The first break, called 'Jumping Front Kick', required him to kick once, jump and then break the board with the other leg. The board on the right that would be above his head. The second break, called 'Knife Hand' is what is in the picture. He had successful breaks on both boards! Woohoo!

The last picture represents what is called IN NAE (which is Korean for endurance) and is the most difficult part of the test. They are in constant movement which involves sit-up, push-ups, 6 point squat thrusts, jumping jacks and punches. They are pushed over their limits basically and have to keep going. Kyle hit a wall and started shaking and almost couldn't keep going, but pushed through it and did keep going and made it through his test. Monday he will find out if he is a Brown Belt in Tang Soo Do. We believe he did just fine! We are very proud of him and his Tang Soo Do team members! They are over halfway to being Black Belts!

2 comments:

Kathy in WA said...

Awesome action shots! My cousins all studied martial arts and even got my aunt to work at it for a while. I was always VERY impressed that she would try it. She's my mom's twin and I could NOT imagine my mom doing any kind of martial arts. :)

Congrats to your son for being almost a black belt. Hard work!

Emily said...

Love the pictures! It looks like your son really knows what he is doing! Awesome!