I have a black belt!

I actually had a different post in mind relating to earning my black belt, until I saw what Google did with the photos that were taken on my phone in the last few days. When you take several photos in quick succession, Google takes the liberty of making an animated GIF out of some of them.  This amused me, so I thought I’d share a couple of them.

After receiving our belts, we performed Sip Soo, one of the open hand forms we needed to learn before testing for the 1st degree black belt.  This is a fairly small part of it, just what Google decided to clip together.

Part of Sip Soo ("Ten Hands"), the latest open hand form I had to learn to test for my 1st degree black belt
Part of Sip Soo (“Ten Hands”), the latest open hand form I had to learn to test for my 1st degree black belt

In addition to the excitement of earning my black belt, I received a sword as a gift.  I started learning the first sword form a while ago, and practice it infrequently… it’s a black belt form.  Now that I’m a black belt, I need to work on remembering it.  I carried my sword to class the other night to show my instructor, and took some time after class to test it out on the mat.

Trying out my new sword.
Trying out my new sword.

Exciting times!  I’ve already started learning the next open hand form I need for when I test for second degree black belt.