Second Degree Black Belt

 

Maddie earned her second-degree black belt today, a day that is known as 2BD amongst the crowd.  We didn't know until this evening that Maddie was the first at this studio to get a second degree black belt under the new umbrella of the GTMA.  So it was a small moment for the leadership here too.  There was a lot of testing tonight, and everyone was in various places of their journey, some already on their way to third-degree belt hood, while many others were on their way to 2BD.  But out of everyone, Maddie was the only one to actually to advance to a new belt tonight, and in fact it is a new belt.  Pretty exciting stuff!  She got there early for leadership class first, but right after that she was lining up for the testing, which was pretty standard stuff.  Mom was here to see it all, as you can see in the photo above.  But so were Nana and Ye-Ye, who came after work to watch Maddie spar for a bit, both with and without sparring sticks.  There was also exercise as always, and the big moment of board breaking that everyone went through, one at a time for the parents there to see.  And after that, the new forms they are all learning for their belts.  Maddie did very well with all of it, and she enjoyed hanging out with everyone afterwards as always, goofing off and receiving all the congratulations.  It's been a few years since she got her black belt, going back to March of 2021.  She's been training and moving forward ever since then, and she'll keep moving forward after this, although as with all of this it is not about the destination, but more about the journey.  She just genuinely enjoys being here and the interaction with friends here.  The instructors are pretty awesome too.  Below you'll see a whole lot pics I took that feature Maddie in them from this evening's testing.  It was great to see - Maddie had some really great timed kicks that landed perfectly, and every other aspect of the testing went well with such favor.  It was great to see Nana and Ye-Ye there too - everyone enjoyed the time we spent there together, and such a big accomplishment now.  Maddie, you're officially a second degree black belt!

I almost flipped my friend over :D

Estavon tricked me with a fake high five so I thought Mr.Gunderson was gonna do the same thing cause the at seems like something he would do. He was actually gonna give me one lol