Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Just In Case You're Wondering.....

.....I have not been abducted by FIDE space aliens.  I've been away for a few days and the space between tournaments was 11 days.  My mind has not been on chess lately.  I'm busy trying to get a handle on all the stuff I need to do for my November Black Belt test.  Here are a couple of pictures from our 5 hour boot camp last Saturday. What I love about Tae Kwon Do is being able to yell at the top of my lungs, and not have people look at me like I'm strange.

Start of a running drill.  Sometimes I would like to scream like that when I blunder.

Can I kick my opponent under the table like that?


 3 tapes down, one to go.  

Tonight I did the 3rd of 4 preliminary tests before the Black Belt test in November.  Each of the yellow tapes on my belt represent a test leading up to black belt. The first one I got a year ago.  Then I had the hiatus due to my inability to talk and walk down stairs simultaneously. When I fell on my back month I could help to think "Here we go again! It will be another 6 months."  However the back is doing better.  When does it hurt the most? When I'm sitting atbthe chess board.

I will be glad when this is done.  Between having to read books, write a book report, and write an essay, I feel like I'm in school again.  At least I'll get a break from that stuff.  However becoming a Black Belt doesn't mean it's really over.  I'll start learning new things the moment I'm promoted.  However I won't be stressing so much over everything I'm trying to do right now.

I will get back to some chess games in a bit.  I realized I never did finish up my NYS Championship report, and then there are the misadventures of another Thankless Thursday.

6 comments:

chessx said...

After seeing these photos,if we where playing a game and you said to me "no you touched this piece first now move it" i think i would do as you say,even if you where wrong!!!!

Polly said...

Chess: You're safe because part of the Tae Kwon Do student creed states "...never be abusive or offensive." So I can't abuse the rules like that. :-)

From the patzer said...

Why is it that you wear a blue kimono (or how is the called?) and the rest of the class a white one?

Liquid Egg Product said...

In the hapkido school I went to, black belt meant "Congratulations, you've learned the basics, time for some real stuff." It might be the same case here?

Congrats on getting to a point wear you can at least test for BB. I never got so far.

LinuxGuy said...

I can't believe John Hillery died. It was less than a year ago that I was in a big tournament in Los Angeles that he was running. He seemed perfectly fine to me. What a smart, funny guy he was.

It's weird to see that his USCF ratings history profile says "Deceased" on it. Didn't really seem like he was 58 years old.

I don't know how he died, but it just makes me want to cut back on my cholesterol or something.

http://main.uschess.org/forums//content/view/10685/601

Polly said...

Tiger: The blue dobak (taekwondo uniform.) is because of the program I'm in. There are few programs that have different color uniforms.

LEP: You're exactly right. 1st degree Black Belt is only the start. It means I've mastered the curriculum of the color belts, but now the journey really begins.

Linux: I blew me away about John. He was regular reader here, and we've had a few spirited discussions on things we've disagreed on.