Testing and being pleasantly surprised

I took my test for 2^nd degree brown belt last Saturday.  Unsurprisingly, I passed.  Honestly, I should have tested a year ago, but I was feeling so sick that I didn't do much.  Testing was out of the question.  One more brown-belt level to go and then it is on to black belt testing.  I expect to test in either February or April of next year, so long as my health holds up.  I could probably justify testing earlier than that, but I think I will feel more confident with a little bit more time to prepare.  With all of the running around I have to do for the boys and work responsibilities as well as my health issues that still aren't quite fully resolved, I just don't practice nearly as much as I ought.

In the build up to this test, I've been working on my forms: memorization and technique.  Even while I was sick, I've been spending a lot of time on a more relaxed body posture throughout my shoulders, back, and hips.  I still have a long way to go, but I have made significant improvements, which showed during my test.  For the next test, I plan to work on my kicks.  I intend to leave focusing on my sparring technique until after I pass to 1^st degree brown belt leading up to my black-belt testing.

Ironically, while I didn't work a lot on my kicks and I did spend significant effort on my forms leading into this last test, it was in my forms that I made a most annoying error and in my kicks that I shined.  The error is of no moment, other than in improving how I handle such an event in the future and in building the muscle memory to avoid such an error in the future.  I also held my own on my free-sparring and even enjoyed it.  Since I always face it with dread, this was gratifying.  It gives me hope that eventually it will come more naturally.

The kicks were unexpectedly good.  I had to do two jump wheel-kicks each leg.  After my first trial, I got a positive reaction from the crowd.  I was pleasantly surprised but I noticed that I needed to make a correction:  I had neglected to keep my eyes back, and I landed a little two far forward (or something).  I made the correction and successfully accomplished four jump-wheel kicks, hitting the target each time.  I never imagined that I would do so well, particularly on this kick.  Mr. Mark even complimented me on how nice they were.  He credited it to being relaxed. 

It is encouraging to see how much progress I have made even though I haven't been able to practice much.  Heck, I haven't even been able to make it to class much over the last 15 months.  By all rights, I should have made a complete fool of myself.  The fact that I didn't is a credit to the mental effort I have put forward as well as a consequence of the effort I have put toward working on my flexibility, posture, and relaxation.  None of that has been easy, but the evidence of this last test shows that it has been working out.