The Patterson Files (TM) are done! I went through those DVDs my instructor made and burned those I thought worth sharing. The first is from my school black belt test which took place five months prior to the Cho Dan confirmation. Here I am breaking two solid boards with an inside crescent.
I’m a little disappointed in the quality of this one. First, I lost image quality when converting with this free program. It’s probably not the program’s fault. Rather I don’t use it enough nor do I rip stuff all that much. Second, the ballet studio is notoriously dim so that added to our taping problems. Finally, the angle we taped from really at does not capture the arc of the crescent kick. What it does capture is my accuracy. Note the narrow spot between my holder’s fingers that I had to hit. If I screwed up here I could have easily broken someone’s fingers. Thankfully I did not.
It’s one of many that night. Granted, I’m not spinning in the air like a top but I’m still proud of it. I also am fairly certain I can knock someone out with my inside crescent. It’s one of my favorites to use in sparring and in self-defense.
In no particular order here’s the rest:
- Reverse side kick on two boards
For control and safety I went slow on this one. If I really let go I’m pretty sure I could pop four solid on a good day. However, the test only asked for two and there’s no reason to hurt people I care about!
- Jump side kick on two boards from a stationary position
The hard part about this one is going from a stationary position into a jump and still having enough power to pop two boards. It’s a lot different that a running jump side kick and challenging in a different way.
- Knife-edge speed break on one board
This is some old tournament footage from my blue belt days! This is one of the breaks that day that helped me take 1st in my division. Sadly, I also did a ridge-hand speed break on one board that was dangling but we never got it on video!
~BCP
