ok, well, its been a couple weeks since the final test.
the final test was all kinds of cool.
im going to break it down, and then give my thoughts on the entire experience...
leading up to the test:
skyler got pneumonia the week leading up to the final test, which pretty much summed up my entire bootcamp.
honestly, i had one sort of distraction or another for every test we had...
- pre test # 1 : me being sick.
- pre test #2 : the wifey and i beefing, me almost dropping out of this.
- final: sky in hospital.
anyways, Sky got out of the hospital Friday night, and the test was Saturday, so in a way it was good and bad. good in that i had a distraction to keep my mind off the pressure of this thing, and bad in that my kid had pneumonia , and i had not gotten to physically go to town on the combos like i had planned in the redneck barn on my heavy bag.
so instead, i sat in a hospital bed with my beautiful son, and rehersed them in my head,,, like 14 billion times.
the test:
thai combos:
when we got there, i wasn't nervous at all. we got pushed into sensei mcshanes office for about 15 minutes, and the longer that we were back there... the more i wanted to get out of there.
everyone was kinda running through our thai combos, and i did them each once... and decided it would be better for me to play wallflower and watch, keep my head right.
then the door exploded open and Sensei McPain rushed us out to the floor...
and into the twilight zone.
the floor was PACKED and i was like HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT... haha.
these things are notoriously closed doors, so the evil genius had struck again.
it caught me off guard a little bit but we hopped right into our combos... i know i was a little rattled because i picked up my gloves and put them down about 3 times before we started.. haha.
*gulp*
i picked things up, i put them down.
thrice.
so the combos seemed like they went pretty well, i wish i had gotten to hold first then hit them, i would have been tighter, but i got through it, my kicks and hooks felt pretty good... and my heels were off the damn ground.
i screwed up a few times too, but in the end i hit them hard the whole time, and would give myself a b-.
from there we went into the:
run/exercises.
leading up to this, i had run with the boys on my property, my driveway is looooong and a hill, perfect for training the run portion of the test. i would run them late at night with my head lamp on... i would run it with the boys and the dog....
and im glad we did.
saturday morning jaiden said to me : "Dad, we never got to run yesterday"....
and my reply of " Dont worry buddy, your dads gonna run like the police are behind him"... sums up my run pretty nicely.
i cut another minute off my time i think, and i am pretty proud of that. seeing all the people line the roads,, and mr congdon yelling " NED THEYRE RIGHT BEHIND YOU !!!" ... (awesome.)....helped alot. failing in front of many is never an option.
not without a fight.
so after the run, i caught up with ghost, and then i saw ms fritz finish, with tears in her eyes and i was inspired. no matter how much i got tired or how much pain i felt, i was going to push through like she just did.
everyone did awesome, whether they beat their times or not.... i carried ms fritz back to the dojo.. piggy bqack style,, i thought resting her foot even for those 200 steps or so would help her at least a little... lol.
then we did push-ups,, which i failed for the 3rd straight test ,, but, i upped my # again,,, did the 50 straight then 3 groups of ten, coming up 20 short. ironically, carrying ms fritz might have dropped my # lol.
but it didn't matter to me.
then leg lifts, i busted them out like a champ, 80 straight, quick leg shake out, and the final 20.
straight to the squats, which i actually finished first. 100 straight. wooo ....my legs were burning after them....
and it struck me that the timer on the final test plays a much bigger part in these things than the first 2 tests.
there is literally NO time for anything but doing the work.
i was happy to finish these the way i knew i would, successfully.
i would give myself a B+ on these. i only hold off of an A, because i failed the push ups. i did bring the # up, so maybe i'm being too hard on myself.
****side note: going into the final test i actually considered NOT doing the push ups. saving my strength. this was one stupid idea, and i'm glad on all kinds of levels that i didn't go that route. the second there was a mob in there , is the second that though flew out the window. plus, is half-stepping in the black book handbook? i think not.
400 kicks from hell:
from there we had to do 400 kicks.
100 left teeps.
100 right teeps.
100 left thai kicks
100 right thai kicks.
my legs, from the run, to the exercises, especially the squats, were getting mushy, lol.
400 kicks .. is alot.
i tried my best to have power, i tried my best to have good form..
i tried my best not to puke.
and i definitely failed on the puking thing.
i guzzled some water after the run, and i sloshed it up during the exercises, and it wanted OUT.
nothing like puking in front of your peers.
i got through the kicks, and Angel was still working his.. and what i saw at that moment gave me an entirely new respect for him.
angel, with his brother carlos holding the shield for him, kicking with all his might with those gorgeous kicks of his... giving it everything he had right to the end.
awesome.
i give myself a B- on this. i couldn't have tried harder. i gave it 110%, my legs just werent there.
KRAV MAGA MOSH PIT DRILL
from the kicks we went straight into sensei mcshanes office, where we sat for a few minutes. then we were again sent out, and told to stand out there on the mat, and close our eyes.
the lights were cut, the floor was FULL of people, the music pumped up, i think there was strobe lights or something, and we got attacked every way possible.
knives.
guns.
sticks/bats.
headlocks.
tackles.
all of it.
hoods thrown over our heads...
water sprayed in our faces.
tackled AFTER a hood was thrown over your head.
madness.
this was wicked exhausting.
it seemed to last for 20 minutes at least, and it was CONSTANT.
i feel i did pretty good, i messed up on a couple of them, but always ended up at the point of reference, and threw knees ( with my heels up)... or ended up with the weapon..... .
this was by far the most effective Krav drill as far as i can remember relating to just overall mayhem and confusion, and having to rely on instinct, and it was cool as hell.
i give myself again a B.
Sparring:
then .. back to the office. from there Sensei McPain came in and told us all that was left was sparring.
we geared up. paired up, and threw down. we were all pretty spent by this time, but my legs were back with me...
we were all really controlled, and pretty technical.. .and noone got beat up, even though we were pretty amped up from the KRAV.
i feel i finished in good shape, kept my pace while sparring, kept my hands up, threw effective combos, worked my defense and head movement pretty well....
i give myself a damn A on this,
JUDGEMENT / JUDGES
ok, so after we sparred, we sat on the floor in front of everybody while the judges went into the office to talk about us behind our backs,,, haha.
the judges were all very nice and respectful, and it was also nice to see Sensei McShanes judo intructors there, as i havent seen them since i was an orange belt..... there were ALOT of awesome martial artists in that room.
white belts to black belts, the fact that they WANTED to be there made them all awesome.
after small speeches by them all, basically letting us know that we did a good job, and laid it all out there for everyone to see, we were judged with not #s, but with thumbs up or down.
which was cool.
and i got a thumbs up, so i am now a blackbelt.
which is cool as hell, but still has not settled into my mental yet, but i am Damn proud of everybody involved in this.
and i feel lucky to have experienced it with everyone i did.
and am actually GLAD all the students got to be a part of it too.
nothing like getting a first hand view of the experience you may some day get to live through.
i loved this test, this bootcamp, and the memories of this will always be there for me to smile on.
ossss.
now, in the beginning of this blog , 3 or so moths ago, i mentioned that i was on a path, and at the end of the bootcamp, i would find something at the end of it.
i mentioned i was going to switch over to jiu jitsu,,,,
i mentioned i wasnt going to test for a black belt, but rather for a white belt, since thats where i will be starting in jits.
but somewhere, after this test, i came to a spot on that path that showed me that i'm not actually on a path, but in fact in the middle of a very big labyrinth.
there's alot of turns left to choose, decisions to make....
i cant say exactly WHAT i am going to do now.
because i dont know.
but i now understand that i am a martial artist who loves martial arts, ESPECIALLY MUAY THAI.
because , like i said in my intro class,
I LOVE HITTING STUFF HARD.
that hasnt changed, as a matter of fact, i love it more now.
*** i am on the biggest break of my martial arts life right now, and i believe its well deserved. my boys jaiden and cooper are in baseball mode right now.
my wife worked her ass off with my 4 boys allowing me to go through this process, something i will always appreciate more than she knows...
so i will dedicate myself to STAYING in shape, eating right, and , most importantly, being the dad i love being.
then, when baseball ends, i will pop back in there, and i will again throw everything at it that i have, because there is so much to this, and im only scraping the surface.
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