Levi Berger – Age 16 , Lake Stevens High.
For the past three years I have been a member of Tigers Black Belt Academy in Lake Stevens Washington.
Before those three years started it never pop up into my mind to get up on a Tuesday evening and go to a Tae Kwon Do Do Jang and working out while learning different self defense techniques, but as those three years go by I saw myself change not just physically but mentally as well.
Before my mental training started in tae kwon do, I would always get annoyed at the littlest things, get mad just because somebody pushed me in the hall of where I go or went to school. But when I started to interact with the people at Tigers, my attitude towards other people changed. By the fall of the year 2008 I no longer became annoyed or irrational but instead I became calm and more silent amongst my peers at school.
Unfortunately I would also be silent in Tae kwon Do as well, by the start of orange belt I never really wanted anybody’s help on any of the techniques besides Master Shin’s. I just wanted to learn on my own.
By my green belt, I was offered to join the black belt club which is also the demo team.
This was the opportunity that set my goal of never quitting on achieving my black belt. Once black belt club started for me, I found out how much more sharper and straight I had to perform my forms. Overall this helped to improve my stance and sometimes my coordination and balance. What helped my kicking to become higher and more powerful without losing my balance was stretching.
Every time we got the chance to do about 20 minutes of stretching in class, I felt great afterwards. I feel like I could jump an oncoming truck. After every time we stretched I could feel myself becoming more flexible. I didn’t just feel it, I saw it to, and I could see my round house become higher each time. This also affected my sparring to. When I first started to do sparring drills, like every other orange belt I know or knew, had trouble keeping their balance and didn’t have enough speed to make a good hit if I was actually sparring. But as my orange belt days passed into my green belt days I had better balance and much better speed and power.
By the time I hit blue belt I had gone to my first sparring competition. At that time I thought I knew almost everything about sparring, but after only about 30 seconds on the mat, I realized there is much more to it than just kicking, there is strategy in knowing when to hit. After that day I felt embarrassed, but I still work on getting the strategy in my head even today.
In the fall of 2009, I had cut my foot, and had to have stitching under my foot, I was out of Tae Kwon Do for two weeks. When I finally got back I felt like rubber, and after 2 hours on the mat I wanted to collapse. But with a little encouragement from my friend in class I quickly got back into routine. When I first started helping others to improve their punching defense, kicking defense, or hand grabs, I was a train wreck. Even today I still feel like I am sometimes. When I would try to explain a move or technique I would mix up my words on what I was trying to say to that person. It was harder just looking at the technique than it was doing it. In the spring of 2010, after master Shin had his unfortunate stroke and was slowly recovering, he would have these short classes with the higher belts, including me, he would teach about the proper way to handle different situations much better, and the proper way to teach a person from your own point of view. In the end this helped me to become much better at teaching and helping in the long run. Aside from the classes, when master Shin had his stroke I really feel like that incident brought most of us together in trying to keep the Do Jang up and running. For the next month or two I would help my fellow classmate that was teaching a class, as much as I could.
The last black belt test that happened, I got the chance to observe Mark, Don, and Cathy as they did their black belt test. I saw how much harder it is, and how much more work I had to do before I did my test. Even in summer, when I am gone most of the time, I still worked my hardest to get where I stand here now, talking to all of the people that helped with my test.
Throughout the entire summer I kept thinking of ways to answer this question. What does the black belt mean to me? As I think back the last 3 and half years, I started from a non experienced white belt to a strong almost skilled Sr. Red. And through that time I have had help from numerous people that would cheer me up when I thought I could never make it to where I am today.
To me, the black belt is a symbol, a status of accomplishment, but it is the knowledge you gain from the years of practice and friendship you earn on the way, is what sets you apart from everyone else.
