Penultimate Testing

It was the penultimate testing today, and wow, Maddie was amazing.  Not that I'm so amazed anymore, because I come in and she's always so talented.  She's just really great, and just to prove to you that I'm not exaggerating, Master Edge was huge with his compliments for her after watching her do her form.  She was crisp and forceful and just spectacular tonight.  

Of course, they all were.  But the Furious Five were on top of things tonight, my new nickname for the last five girls to go with the board breaking.  More on that in a bit.  First, here's the group shot that I always take of tonight's testers.  This is the last testing before the final one, the one that gets Maddie her new third degree black belt.  She's still wearing an ATA belt, this despite the fact that she's been in the GTMA for a good bit now.  That's just the timing of it all, but that's all about to change in a few months when she finally gets that third degree belt.

So as always, things started out with sparring today.  Maddie was on the other side of the room for that, but I snapped a few pictures of the students as they sparred with one another, just as always.  I'm somewhat a staff photographer, taking pictures and posting them online later.  I'm sharing just a few of tonight's testing here.

Nate was right in front of me, so I snapped a few of him as well as he sparred.  Here he is above, going airborne with a combat stick.  He's got impressive height as it is!  And here he is below, breaking his board.

Now here's the fun part of the night.  All the students were doing their board-breaking, one after the other.  And most of the class was struggling here a bit.  The students weren't breaking through, and so there were multiple attempts and things were looking a little slow.  And then Maddie came up.

Bam!  She confidently got those board holders in position right away, looked at the placement of the boards, and just destroyed those boards, one after the other.  It was over with before you knew it.  And then after that, the rest of the Furious Five leveled those boards perfectly to close out things. 

Master Edge put them at the end of the board breaking session just to end on a strong note - the girls did so good there.  And that just left one thing more, the form portion of the night.  It's so great to see.  I know it's nerve-wracking, but the students really shone here.

Rather than film Maddie, this time I took photos of her doing her form.  The first two pictures of this entry (at the top) are of her doing her form, and you'll see more in a bit.  Until then, here's Nate doing an impressive kick.

And these are of Maddie below.  She was so good tonight.  I just love the sound that Master Edge describes, the "snap" of a taekwondo gi as someone doing their form kicks out or strikes with their fists.  It's this sudden movement that suggests there's a whole lot of power behind it.  Maddie was excelling at that tonight - you could really hear the power.  She did great!

So yes, it was a good night.  And it's tradition to go off after all the celebrating, and go get some boba tea.  We brought Nate along, and the three of us enjoyed some of that delicious tea before heading back home.

Tonight's movie was "The Haunted Mansion," the original Eddie Murphy one, and it's one that we all actually like the best of the two Disney movies.  It just seems more fun.  Anyway, we enjoyed that, and then we were off to get ready for bed.  We continued with "Jingo," and then said our prayers, and got some sleep.

But one more thing about today - I'm unlocking characters and moving along the Corpse Bride virtual marathon.  It's been so much fun to walk along this route.  I'll be plugging in that soundtrack soon - we saw the movie itself the other night, and it's one of our favorites.  

Okay, time for sleep.  To quote the Van Dorts, "It was a glorious day!"