Peel Region Grading – 5 April 2009
Spectators and participants alike sat through a longer than usual taekwondo grading this Sunday April 5, 2009. Scheduled start time was 13:00 hours in the afternoon and we all got in shortly after and the grading concluded just before 17:00 hours.
There were two students (one from Mandurah-Falcon and one from Coolbellup) going for their black belts. As expected, their grading was the longest and occupied a substantial amount of time. It provided a great opportunity for the lower ranks and new members to watch and observe the requirements to reach black belt standards.
Quite a number of graders succumbed to the pressure of it all and performed beneath their ability – forgetting steps in poomsae (patterns) here and there (remember the IQ article?), freezing up and uncertainty showing up in their faces at other times. That’s the beauty of having gradings. It creates a more anxious environment for the practitioner to PERFORM! Much like a heightened, escalated tension that may arise if an "incident" were ever to occur.
Hopefully, from watching some of the higher belts go through their motions, you can realise that reaching that goal (of getting your black belt) is not going to be a breeze. Sure, on paper, it appears to be straight-forward and simple, just not necessarily easy.
Congratulations to those who received awards on the grading day:
Senior grading: Best – Olivia Cable (Mandurah-Falcon); Encouragement – Neb Meletovic (Rockingham) and Marcus Hegedus (Mandurah)
Junior grading: Best – Amira Ahmad Niza (Coolbellup); Encourgament – Finley Edgar (Mandruah)
Book prizes: Skip Sommerville (senior, Mandurah); Nicole Capener (junior, Halls Head)
For those of you wanting to find out the results of your grading, you will need to wait and find out from your club instructor. Remember, if you have the Taekwondo Australia Grading Book, you can find out immediately after the grading if you had brought in and submitted the book to the examiner on the day. Remember it for next time.
Kim Seng says:
April 15th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I have added some photos of the April grading that were taken by Mira Seng and Roy Khoh. If you have some exciting photos please send them in for editing and inclusion.
Roy Khoh says:
April 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I have added a video for the black belt graders. The link is in the article or go straight there clicking here.
It is available to current ATA-WA members only.
If you haven’t already done so, then register inside our forum and we’ll give you access shortly after, if you are a member.