My Tae Kwon Do black belt exam was yesterday. I have already written about everything that is asked in this exam. I have to fight several times (there were several matches, if I'm not mistaken I had to fight three times against one opponent and three times against two opponents), besides all techniques from all colored belts. And, of course, the most exciting part for the audience, the breaking techniques. Believe me, the breaking is the less complicated part of the black belt exam. Below you can see some pictures from this very important moment of my life.
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Figure 1: Exam starting.
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Figure 2: One of the forms I had to perform. Here you see a movement from Te Guk Pal Jang (the name of this position is Orun Bum Sagui Sonal Montong Maki and this picture was taken on the exact moment I started the next movement, Orun Bal Ap Tchagui).
The pictures from the fights and step-sparrings weren't good because the movements are too dynamic. So let's go to the breaking techniques. The masters asked for two breakings with kicks: to break a 0.78" (2 cm) thick wooden board with a jumping side kick, jumping over three colleagues and to break to break a 0.78" (2 cm) thick wooden board posted more or less 7.5-feet (2.3 meters) high with a jumping front kick. The masters also asked for a hand breaking technique, and this kind of technique is far harder, since it is necessary to break in a single movement a pile of seven French red clay roof tiles. I broke the boards and tiles at my first attempt! Some pictures below aren't so good because I have to take them out from a MPEG movie a friend of mine made and was already dark.
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Figure 3: Preparation for breaking the tiles.
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Figure 4: Breaking seven tiles with the palm of my hand.
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Figure 5: Broken tiles.
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Figure 6: Breaking a 0.78"-thick wooden board with a side kick jumping over three colleagues.
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Figure 7: Breaking a 0.78"-thick wooden board posted more or less 7.5-feet high with a jumping front kick.
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Figure 8: My master, Renato Ribeiro, 5th dan black belt, and me at the end of the examination.
