Everything Is Hard Before It Is Easy

Testing for successive belts get progressively more difficult. Which is why Levi testing for his red belt was so impressive. First, he worked hard all summer to get ready for it, breaking boards, doing form, even self-defense and grappling stuff. Which meant he had probably his best testing showing to date, maybe even better than his testing was basically 'show me a knife hand.' He broke both boards with kicks on the first attempt. Great form, and maybe the best sparring performance to date (kicks especially). But more than that, he was saying encouraging things to some of the kids who needed to come back and retest. I hope this attitude will keep up, and he will continue to rise to meet increasingly difficult challenges but do so with respect and compassion for others. I think it's a good sign when your kids make you increasingly proud as they grow.

For the record, there are so many good pictures of the killer board breaks, I couldn't choose between them. So here he is first getting psyched for his first kick.

Then he launches into his front kick with his left leg, then the recoil. So fast I missed the actual break!

 Next came the tougher of the two kicks, a right foot side kick. First he lines up the board...

Then the monster kick, leading with the heel. Smashed through it, and a beautiful recoil, arms up, looking at the board thinking 'that just happened.'