As one of the L&C’s general education requirements, all students need to take two semesters of some sort of PE. This semester I’m taking Pukulan (a type of martial art) and my entire class was invited to come to the studio and witness a black belt test. Five of us in total made it to some part of the test. (The tests are forty-eight hours long so not all of us were there at the same time). It was amazing. There were two testers and they had each trained for at least six years to reach this point. Their forms were impressive and fast-paced and each successfully completed the test.
I was there both Friday and Sunday evening, once for the
start of the test and once for the end. Friday they went through a lot of forms (and
broke a lot of boards), but my favorite part was the fighting. Everyone got to fight and all of us white
belts were paired up with black belts (though they weren’t allowed to
hit us so no worries about getting hurt). It was so much fun. Mostly we were using blocks and parries to
keep their attacks from coming through, but we also took turns attacking. Everyone fought at once so there wasn’t any
pressure from an audience and we all had a great time.
Unfortunately it was pouring rain so I wasn’t
able to bring my camera. Here are a few photos that I got of the gorge during a break in the downpour instead.
I hope all of you had a drier weekend than I did. Feel free to email me at ameliaberle@lclark.edu if you have any questions.