That would be pwnsome. Good luck with that.

Okay, some developments at the martial arts academy that I attend:

There's a new trainee instructor who is a first degree black belt (just became a black belt recently) from another school and is now teaching classes. The problem with this is that he's teaching the black belt classes and he's gay. I mean flamer gay. Or at least metrosexual (which is still preety gay). So his tendencies have begun to really annoy me, and today was probably the worst class (well, second worst) class I have ever taken at this academy. First off, there were white belts (wtf?) in the class, which really ruined it (they had no clue what they were doing, and on top of that their ages were 4 and 7-ish; you can just imagine their maturity levels ) So the trainee instructor just sent me, my little brother, and the other second degree black belt to go train by ourselfs (I assume it's because he's not high enough in rank to be teaching us), so we basically worked on our requirements for our rank promotions aside from everyone else, but we came back together at the end for board breaks. Now here's where it started getting really, really...ridiculous. Today happened to be the first time the white belts had broken boards (surprise surprise <_<) so we started off kicking the bags. As usual, when my turn comes I kick the bag down and the white belts go crazy, going "Wow!" and what not. And when we came to breaking actual boards they of course could not break them, so we had to wait for them to learn what they were doing before we could go, and of course they went hysterical again when I kicked the board out of the holders hand not once, but twice (which is why I usually have three board holders everytime I break). And then the "6 inch white belt" went to break his board and decided he didn't want to stand up so he broke the board while lying down. This trainee has no idea what he's doing. Now I'm really thinking of becoming a trainee instructor because the quality of this academy is so a low, and I can bring it up quite a bit, especially if my instructors gave this guy this much athority even though he just became a black belt (he's about 7 ranks below me; officially only 1 rank below me, but at a testing he would be 7 ranks below me (at the last black belt testing I was #12 in rank ))

What's preventing you from having this guys job if you're a higher rank?

Couldn't you start your own dojo or something?

The fact that I'm originally from a different organization, and the way I train and execute my techniques, basically my entire style is different from theirs. And I'm 16.



I've actually though about that, but I don't have the $$$ to go through with it. I found a place where I could transfer my credentials to and actually start my own do-jang:http://www.itatkd.com/tkdmeminfo.html They use the old, original form of TaeKwonDo (which I know), so I could theoretically do it quite quickly. Maybe in September

Alright everyone; after 8 months of training, I have finally achieved the rank of Second Degree Decided Black Belt. Basically this means that I'm a high enough rank to compete in the Olympics



I'm goiing to have to change my sig bars now.

so, how far are you from the top, and how badly could you kick my a?

I was thinking during the awards ceremony; I'm only 4 ranks away from becoming a master

ok, you are speaking to a guy who the only thing he knows about karate is that a black belt is very good.

Wow, awesome, Ult Dev'r! And yeah, I too was thinking that you need to update your sig. ^_^

Okay, so basically here's the general TaeKwonDo hierarchy of Black Belts:

9th Degree --> Typically there are only a couple of people at this rank, and they are usually the leaders or the founders of their form of TaeKwonDo
8th Degree
7th Degree --> Highest ranking master I've ever met personally
6th Degree --> Traditionally the first Master rank
5th Degree
4th Degree --> My instructor's rank
3rd Degree --> Most full instructors are at least this rank
2nd Degree --> My rank
First Degree --> First black belt rank

Most schools break down the first few degrees of black belt into different levels, for example Recommended, Decided, and Senior ranks of First Degree Black Belts, Level I, II, III, IV of First Degree Black Belt, etc. Some organizations also have an Honorary 10th Degree Black Belt for the founders (living or dead), and 9th Degree Black Belts who have died, and have made great contributions to their organization and the art in general.

Who decides what rank you should be? Anyone with a higher rank than you?

They must be at least 2 ranks higher than you to test you; I've tested at regional testings before (*BIG* event; everyone in the region comes to a tournament/high rank testing); I've had 3 masters on the judging panel as well (I'm almost at the point where that's the only place I can test) Anyone testing for 4th and up goes to the Nationals tournament, and masters who test for a higher rank must test in Korea.