Friday night us ultras got to get our poomsae on. I promoted to Red belt a few months ago, so I had a whole new form to learn. The way State Qualifiers and Nationals works is, every two belts are grouped together. So yellow and orange, green and purple, blue and brown, red and deputy black. Black belts, naturally, get to go on their own. That means, you are required to know the poomsae for your belt, and the one higher, if you are the lower of the two colors.. make sense? So for example, since I am a red belt, I am expected to know Taegeuk Chil Jang (red belt) AND Taegeuk Pal Jang (Deputy Black). USAT also expects you to know all the poomsae below your belt level in the event of a tie breaker. They give you the official poomsae you need to perform one week prior to the event. Lucky for me I needed to know Chil Jang - one I had already been working on.
My poomsae pardner, Chelli and I headed down to the arena to get ready and warmed up for our division. Funny thing about taekwondo, if you are uncontested (no competition), you walk away with a gold medal. So no matter how bad you mess up, you're still golden. I had been struggling with a few moves in my form, so her and I were evaluating and correcting any glaring mistakes. In poomsae, if you are even a fraction off your mark, you'll loose points.
Everything was going well, we were stretched, loose, ready to go! There were about 8 of us color belt ladies waiting for our turns to compete. All of us uncontested. We ranged in age from 19 to over 60. The judges decided to line us up in age order, beginning with the more senior ladies. I was second to last to go. By this time, I had watched so many other color belt forms, I had sort of forgotten what I was supposed to do, but subconsciously. My turn! Up I go, bow on the mat, walk to my spot, stand at cha ryuht (attention), kyung nae (bow to the judges), choon bi (ready position), seijak! Go! Everything is going alright! Nerves are there, but once I get going they subside. Judges disappear from my vision, competition disappears. It's just me. All of a sudden, I make a move and I freeze. Reality slaps me in the face when I realized I had forgotten my next move. I was so busy trying to sharpen my other moves, I had overlooked how simple this transition was. I froze for what felt like an eternity. I contemplated beginning over, but I thought, what good will that do!? I don't know where I'm supposed to go next!! My mind was so incredibly blank, I could have started making a grocery list, or planning suppers for the upcoming week. Something somewhere finally triggered and I remembered my next move. By that point my Taurus horns began to pop out. I was pissed. How could I forget!! My last 5 moves are facing away from the judges, so any anger I had built up, I saved for them NOT to see. In this form I get to hold my hand out and slap my opposite foot with it, and then drop down to a horse riding stance with my palm striking my elbow. I was so mad with myself, I must have slapped loud enough for the whole arena to hear. At the end of the form there is a kihap, or yell to signal that you are finished. I must have screamed that out, I was so angry. The judges tell me bah ro, to return to starting position, to wait for my scores. They were decent, considering I had lost points for my freeze. I still won my gold medal, but I know I need to focus on each and every move, making sure I don't forget for the next tournament!
