Black Belt Club

It has been a four year long journey, a journey Nick started at the age of six.

The day has finally come for Nick to test for his black belt. It's been a trying three days, three long days of training, training, and more training. I'm exhausted and all I did was watch. Thursday evening Nick had the privilege to learn some katana "samurai sword" technique from former Twin Tigers student Caleb Henderson, his demonstration was AWESOME. Nick thought class was pretty amazing, he complained of sore shoulders and knees the next day from his workout. Friday, was a day of training, going over forms, kick, blocks, Korean terminology, and sparring (2 against 1). After three hours of training Friday night, Nick went to Sa Bo Nim Matt Coffmans house to spend the night and prepare for the 6:00 am, yes that's right 6:00 a.m. sunrise session. One of the first things my son said to me after not seeing me for 13 hours was "mom I got to see the sunrise this morning and it was amazing!" Have I deprived my kids of this? Should I be getting up early enough that they can see at least one sunrise? HMMM, Nah. During this mornings training session, Nick learned how to use the Kama, and a new form. Afterward it was breakfast at Golden Coral, where I'm told he ate his weight in hash browns. Then up to the karate school for more practicing. The demonstrative part of the test began at 11, we were joined by my mom and sis from Columbus, John's dad came in from Michigan, John's mom, Gina, Sharla, and the Hipps Family. The Bucklands and the Rekstens weren't able to be there but were there in spirit, we missed you all. The testees demonstrated kicks, punches, forms, forms with Bo staffs, sparring, and board breaking. Nick broke six boards, one of the breaks was a double break using the spinning side kick. I thought Angie Hipps was going to have a nervous breakdown during the board breaking and sparring, never a dull moment with her around.

It's been a lot of work, not just for Nick but for John, Alex and myself too. A lot of time and sacrifices have been given and it has all paid off. Nick looked really sharp, a job well done!!! I'm not sure it's possible to be any more proud of the kid, good grades all year, now this. Amazing, we've been blessed with him, he's AWESOME. And to quote his Aunt Sharla, "he's my hero."