It's been a long time since I took the time to update my personal blog. I guess I've spent so much time with my jobs as youth pastor and taekwondo instructor, doing the school web page, our family blog, and other things to really get a grip on this one. Time for that to stop.
I see that I left off at the Songahm World Championships, so let me start by saying that I went there and had a good time. I went there with the intention to do my best and that is what I did. I finished 9th in the world in my division for weapons. Also, my point total gave me the title of State Champion for Texas.
The funny thing was, I found out later that it was amazing that I competed in the championship at all. I had taken the Ground Fighting class with Sr. Master Arcemont (a great teacher) and had an amazing time learning some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques. The second day of the class, my partner landed on top of me pretty hard. It hurt, but I didn't think anything of it because I was so sore already.
The day before the weapons competition, I noticed that it hurt to breathe deeply and to turn my body to my left. I wondered about it but it seemed fine, so I kept going, even competing with Bahng Mahng Ee in the weapons Top Ten competition.
Then while at youth camp (which I'll post on later) I realized that all my soreness had gone away, but the pain in my side was not. So when I got home, I went to the doctor and realized that I had a cracked upper rib. After a bit of healing time, I was back to training.
So after a year plus of waiting, training, waiting, and more training, I will testing for second degree black belt tomorrow night. So far everything has been going great. My form looks the best it has ever looked. I have had no problems with the board breaking in class. This means that I have to keep myself under control and just go out there to do what I have already done in the school. As one instructor told me once, it's time to go out there and claim my belt!
