Perseverance
2nd Kup
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The third of the five Tae Kwon-Do tenets, it means to achieve a goal and emphasises that one must never stop trying.
In March this year, problems at work resulted in my attendance declining and by May I had stopped training altogether, due largely to the disruption caused by my obscene working hours at the time and deciding that if I couldn't attend properly, I was better off taking a break and waiting for things to calm down so that I could focus on training again.
Had it not been for this break then I quite possibly would have graded three months earlier. One thing is for certain though, my performance would not have been as positive as it was last night.
Simply put, although I didn't want to admit it to myself at the time, I was starting to burn out a little. The situation at work contributed to that, but the strong focus I'd had on Tae Kwon-Do in my life for the last 3½ years at that point was starting to wear off, and so whether I liked it or not, I did need a break.
I resumed training at the end of August, just after the bank holiday weekend, and when I was told I could already start aiming for the October grading, at first I didn't believe I'd be ready in time.
Three weeks later and it felt as though I'd never left.
There has been one other occasion in the past when I've had a three month break from TKD, and that was because of the leg injury I suffered in a cycling accident at the end of 2019. At that point in time, I'd been training for only four months and so, when I started getting back into it, I found I'd forgotten a lot of the nuance and effectively had to re-learn things I was only just beginning to grasp before the accident occurred.
This time though, with almost three years of training behind me, the time away did very little to rust my knowledge, but it certainly recharged my enthusiasm for the art. And I think in last night's grading it showed.
Sure, I made a fair few mistakes along the way and I can think of several aspects I'd like to improve upon for next time, but I didn't just go in there intending to go through the motions and hope for a new belt. I went in there with the mindset that I wanted to lead by example and set a high standard for the junior grades to aspire to. Show a strong and positive attitude, demonstrate confidence and prove I know my theory. Those are my strengths in a grading, and I must be doing something right because I walked into the dojang tonight wearing a blue belt with red stripe, and walked out the proud owner of a shiny new red belt.
Twice now I've had a three month break in my Tae Kwon-Do career,
On both occasions I have returned with the strength to persevere.
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