Coolbellup Grading brings out multitalented students
The Coolbellup students had their opportunity to grade tonight, for their next belt level. I won’t talk much about the general standard of the participants, because they (or you) will get (your) results via email with detailed scores, and possibly remarks and comments. Obviously, once they’re compiled and ready to go.
What I really want to focus on is the diversity of talent amongst the students from Coolbellup. Being mostly Primary School students, I find it quite interesting what they came up with.
At previous gradings, the students are well aware that at the end of the "normal" grading, a question is asked of them.
"What specialty can you do?"
This is for "bonus" points showcasing each individual’s specialty talent that is not ordinarily assessed during grading. Last time, there were only two students, Emily Vickers and Munirah Ahmad Niza, who showed their talent.
This time, students grouped together to combine their efforts in this arena. Preparation time ranged from 3 weeks prior to just 1 week prior, to the grading.
Coolbellup first showcased the talents with a group of 5 performing a "creative" to music to the tune of Flo Rida’s (featuring T. Pain) "Low". The best part is, I had no part in what they created. It came entirely from the students themselves. For a Blue Belt team, I thought it was a great effort. It lasted a little over 2 minutes and provided great entertainment for the examiner and the parents watching on.
That performance was followed by 4 blue belts in a cascading poomsae team. Performing taegeuk 3, the team created the effect of a smooth and continuous "mexican wave". Right from the very start at ‘kyongrye’ bow through to the weird and wonderful ‘ki-hap’ at the end. This idea, I had a long time ago, and was re-ignited recently when Kim Seng made me do it (well, try anyway) in Mandurah class one night.
Not to be left out, Emily Vickers paired up with Jackson Overmars to do a last minute item. I think they had only practised this for only 20 minutes previously. A lot of cart-wheels utilised!
Then to top it off, Coolbellup has multiple students who are learning to play musical instruments at school. Instruments include clarinet, flute and trumpet. However, not all of the music students brought their instruments tonight. The music piece was a simple one, and a suitable one for the situation. A cake was brought out to the tune of "Happy Birthday" being played by the ensemble. Joining in chorus were the other students who remembered to bring their vocal chords. We all knew it was belated, and we sang Happy Birthday to Kim Seng.
Of course, the cake interfered with the all-important feedback from the examiner at the end. So don’t fret, there is plenty of time in normal class to improve on what is lacking.
For the students involved tonight, hopefully you can leave a comment on what your take of tonight’s experience was like. I’d especially like to hear from the students who showed "special talents".
Tags: birthday, creative poomsae, extracurricular
Roy Khoh says:
April 19th, 2008 at 12:50 am
I remember seeing a lot of camera flashes in the room. Are there any quality photos from the grading that can be posted? Or even a video would be good.
If you do, please contact myself or use the “contact” page to let us know.
Stephaniny says:
April 20th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Mum and I were so surprised when we saw that you got to the slightest detail about how funny our creative poomsae was.
Roy Khoh says:
April 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Yes, thanks, it helps that I wrote the article while it was still pretty fresh in my mind.
I noticed I left out further details. Like how you guys got semi-dressed up for it, and the props to go with the theme.
Just remember that it’s compulsory, for red belts up, to do a creative in our gradings. So maybe you want to focus more on the techniques you are good at so you can show them off. There is also a criteria of having a minimum of 75% taekwondo moves.