Mister Noah, Orange Belt

Today was the big day of Noah's tae-kwan-do belt test, which he has been working hard training for to become an orange belt. He was required to repeat everything he has learned over the last few months in a series of five skill tests alone in the middle of the gym with just Master Chris: patterns (20 moves), blocks (3 different blocks), kicks (3 different kick combinations), escapes (3 different escapes), and finally the board breaking! Additionally, he was required to count to 10 in Korean and know the Korean words for "ready", "bow", "attention, "stop", and "go" (I didn't get that part on video). We can proudly say that he passed all of them with flying colors and most on his first try, with a few small adjustments. Master Chris was pretty impressed with a 5 year old being able to memorize all those things including his 20 move patterns so well!!! He said he rarely sees it. It did take hi
m about 6 tries to break the board, but he nailed it with the last try! On his second escape move, he actually put the instructor on the ground with a thumb to the throat escape he executed so well! We are so proud of the little guy; tae-kwan-do and Master Chris have done miracles for his self-confidence and helping him really progress socially. Below are some pictures and I (Joel) captured some rudimentary video captured on Heidi's pocket camera phone which will be on Heidi's Facebook page. I got a little excited at the end and lost focus with the video. Way to go Noah!!!

Board Breaking (click to zoom and get a good look)

Our newly orange-belted Mister Noah with his board

The board was 3/4" thick!