Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Essay #7 - Process Essay - Becoming a Black Belt

Essay #7 - Process Essay

Becoming a Black Belt

Walking down the streets of Harlem, in the early hours of morning.  Groups of black men watching as I meandered through the streets on the first day of class at City College of New York, trying to find my way to my new school.  A police car gracious enough to follow next to me during the most heart-pounding section of my wanderings eased my fears.  This is just one situation that produced in me a desire for safety, a desire to be able to protect myself in any situation.  Ironically, it was only after moving to the peaceful countryside of Maine that I had the opportunity to study martial arts.  I was no longer in an urban environment, but I had brought some of my fears with me from New York, and I jumped at the chance to learn Tae Kwon Do.  Little did I know then what would be involved in the process of becoming a black belt – learning a new martial arts language, practicing and progressing through the ranks, and finally suffering the ordeal that is simply called the black belt test.


Learning a martial art is much like learning to read.  A child must first learn to recognize the letters of the alphabet and to remember their names, and then he or she progresses to putting the letters together, first in order to understand words, then sentences, and finally books.  In the same way, I had to begin by studying the very basic moves and the names of those simple motions, progressing to simple combinations of those moves, then to more complicated forms, and finally to advanced techniques.  Being an “older” student, I remember my kids making fun of me as I struggled with that first martial arts “sentence,” the very basic, first form of Tae Kwon Do, Kata #1.  They thought it was hysterical when their mom repeated the words of each motion into a tape recorder, several times over, and then ran the extension cord outside where there was enough room to go through the routine over, and over, and over again until I finally got it right.  That was my first sentence, the toughest one to learn, but I did it, and it provided the foundation for many moves to come.
 

The next 4 years were spent learning many more Tae Kwon Do techniques.  Each martial art has its own particular emphasis and style.  Tae Kwon Do means the way of the foot and fist.  It uses powerful blocks, strikes, and kicks as a means of self-defense.  It progresses through 10 levels of expertise, each level denoted by a different colored belt, culminating in black belt.  As I tend to do with anything I endeavor, I gave it my all, practicing wherever and whenever I could.  Starting at an older age was definitely a disadvantage.  My teenage daughter, who began taking classes at the same time, was a natural.  She learned things effortlessly and executed each move to perfection in no time.  For me, however, it was a different story.  I had to struggle and fail miserably, struggle and fail with a little more dignity, struggle and almost succeed, struggle and succeed poorly, then finally struggle and succeed well enough to proceed to the next rank, only to begin the process all over again in an effort to continue on the path toward black belt.


At long last, after years of struggling, the day eventually came when my instructor felt I was finally ready to test for my black belt.  Knowing how strenuous the test would be and how little natural muscle I had on my long and lean body, I had been pushing myself for 2 years to build up endurance and upper body strength (an area where I was severely un-gifted.)  That proved to be a really good thing, since the week of my test I was sick for several days, healthy for one, and then suffered a bout of insomnia the night before my big test (a problem I’ve had to deal with for many years before and since.)  When I arrived for my test, I felt more ready for bed than for anything else, but that was not to be.  The black belt test consists of a long, arduous series of events, encompassing everything learned since training began, as well as more push-ups and crunches than seems humanly possible to complete, culminating in continuous sparring with 4-6 different, energetic  black belts.  I didn’t know how I could possibly pass, but there was no way I wasn’t going to do my absolute best to succeed.  Thankfully, right before we began, one of the head judges gave me the best advice possible: whenever feasible, between every move if need be, relax completely.  I took that advice to heart, using every available moment when not in the act of executing a move to rest.  And it worked!  4 ½ hours later I had completed all my requirements, and although my body had been through the worst workout of a lifetime and I even had blood blisters on the bottom of my feet, I felt great!  And, of course, I had that new black belt around my waist to wear as a badge of honor and achievement.


That was 10 years ago, and since that time I’ve been teaching Tae Kwon Do myself, sharing what I’ve learned with others as well as enjoying the excuse to keep up my own skills.  It’s been fun to be part of the almost-hidden, mysterious martial arts community, and to have had an opportunity to go to Canada to help judge a black belt test there.  While I haven’t needed to use the skills I’ve learned in real life applications, it’s definitely made me more aware of potentially dangerous situations as well as ways to avoid putting myself into those situations. I certainly feel that all the learning, and trying, and doing was well worth the effort, and I’m looking forward to continuing to learn, and try, and do even more things in the future.










2 comments:

  1. This is one of those complete, super-competent essays that leaves me little to say and nothing to do, beyond ratifying its quality and offering my assurance that you absolutely know what you are doing with every move you make here in the Way of the Pen and the Qwerty.

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