Fall 2026 Black Belt Cycle

Candidate Journals

King Tiger Tae Kwon Do Black Belt candidates blog daily about their journey: their thoughts and feelings, their struggles and successes; their pain and their encouragement. Follow along on their journey; words of encouragement are always welcome!

8/9

hellooooo, i'm very very tired right now. we were getting the house ready because we had some guests come over and it was super fun. after they left i got in my requirements and went for a run at the gym. my sister had a dance practice at our house with all her friends so it got reallyyyyyy hectic. anyways off to bed, goodnight!!

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8/8

hellooooo, today i went to bbc in the morning and had a mentor session right after. my hips are super sore from sparring yesterday and i woke up with this BIG beautiful lovely bruise on the side of my arm from getting kicked so much yayyyy :))). my family and i went to the mall and got a bunch of clothes and shoes for school and then we came home for dinner. pretty fun day today!!

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8/7

hellooooo, pretty decent day today. i did all my requirements really early. i had to go to work at 2:00 but only had to stay until 3:30 because it was a training recap day for all the new people. my boss got us cake and snacks it was a lot of fun. i went to sparring class after and we did this drill where our hips are on the floor and we have to jump and kick idek. i know my hips are gonna be so bruised tomorrow. after class i got dinner and then my family and i went to target to get school supplies. pretty late to be getting them but we had absolutely noooooo time before. anyways know im gonna watch a movie!!

  31 Hits

8/6

hellooooo guys, today was pretty chill. i did all my requirements in the morning and then worked a bit more on my apps. i had a shift until 7 and straight from there i went to my open house. i'm actually really mad because my counselor messed up my schedule so bad but she always does that so i'm not surprised. i'm gonna have to go and talk it all out once school starts to get the classes i want. from open house i went to dance class until 8:45 and it was really fun with all my friends. i'm gonna watch a movie and then go to sleep, goodnight!!

  36 Hits

8/5

hellooooo, today i worked on polishing up my essay for apps and making sure everything was good. i think im ALMOST at a final draft so im excited to finish it. after lunch i finished up my requirements. i went to bbc in the evening and we worked a lot on our poomsaes and self defenses. i just ate dinner and my family and i are about to have a game night!!

  45 Hits

8/4

hellooo, i did my requirements in the morning today. i'm really sore for some reason but i'm not sure why cuz i didn't do anything differently. i've been working on my apps for most of the day. THERE ARE SO MANY RANDOM QUESTIONS i feel like i'm never gonna get through the end of filling them all out. i've been asking all my older friends for advice and have been soaking everything up like a sponge so hopefully i'm doing stuff right. i had a shift in the in the evening and that went pretty well! im really tired so i'm gonna answer a few more questions on my apps and head to sleep. goodnight!!

  52 Hits

8/3

hellooooo, today i finished my requirements pretty early in the morning. i helped out in my sisters class later in the evening. i'm trying to get into the habit of waking up earlier as each day goes by so my sleep schedule isn't messed up for school. COMMON APP OPENED ON SATURDAY so yayyyyy now i get the pleasure of starting college apps 🫩🫩. i'm actually really stressed out i feel like i'm going absolutely insane but it's okay we up 🥶. i have no time to do anything in the week and there's so much to do. i think my apps consume my every thought and i need a break because my head feels like it's going to explode from stress. anyways time to sleep goodnight!!

  52 Hits

8/1

hi guys, today i woke up at 5:10 am to go to school because today was our senior parking spot painting. when we got arrived there were already a bunch of people in line and some people even camped out. I still ended up getting in row 1 closest to the school so i'm really happy. my dad and i were waiting for our primer to dry so while that was happening i went to black belt class at 7:50 and by the time i came back the primer just dried so we started putting the base coat on. we're mostlyyyyy done with it but we're gonna come back tomorrow and do some touch ups!!

  57 Hits

7/30

hi guys, i honestly think i'm cursed. today started well with me finishing up all my requirements in the morning. then i was studying for a few hours and was working on my essays after. i had another shift today and as i'm driving back home i hear a big POP 😨. so i'm like oh what could that be but i don't pay any mind to it. as i keep driving i start hearing a thump thump thump, and then i'm like oh no its wraps. so i'm 5 minutes away from home so i was like ill just let my dad see if he can hear what i'm hearing. i pull up to my house and my dad was playing basketball at our hoop and he heard the sound of my car so he came over and took a look. there was a BIG FAT NAIL in it. the...

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  78 Hits

7/28

hi guys, my day started off pretty good. i got all my requirements done in the morning and then just hung out with my sister. i had a shift from 3-7 and i couldn't find any parking near my regular spot so i parked somewhere different, then this is where my day starts going bad. i'm right about to end my shift and clock out and it starts POURING rain. i hate driving in the rain but i'm like "its ok nothings gonna happen" i walk out to my car and what do i see. a shopping cart. so i walk closer and it's FLIPPED OVER on top of my car. so i'm assuming the wind and rain smashed that cart onto my car. but i roll away the cart to assess the damage and now there's a dent and like 5000 scratches and my front bumper is messed up. i...

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  64 Hits

7/27

hi guys, today we drove back from atlanta and got home around 1. i relaxed for a bit and then headed to class. i had a mentee session and then helped out with my sisters class. i'm really tired so imma go to sleep soon. i'll catch up on my workouts from yesterday tomorrow!

  63 Hits

7/26

hi guys, today i did my requirements in my hotel room before i went out. i couldn’t get in my run, pull ups, or jump rope in, but i’ll make them up when i get home. after my family got ready we went out with our friends who live here and they showed us around and we did a bunch of fun stuff. right now we’re eating dinner at this fancy restaurant and we’re gonna get ice cream after!! 

  106 Hits

7/25

hi guys, today i had black belt class at 7:45 in the morning. it was pretty fun, we were supposed go for a run but it was raining. after class i got a mentor session in and then stayed back to help with the junior tiger class. after i got home i finished the rest of my requirements because we’re traveling. we ate lunch and then started our drive to atlanta. it wasn’t too bad only about 3 hours. right now we’re just hanging out at my friends house and i’m looking forward to tomorrow!

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7/24

hi guys, i finished my requirements pretty early again today. i think my pull ups are getting better but i might just be gaslighting myself. today was supposed to be my first sparring class in a while, but it didn't even end up happening. i showed up with all my sparring gear ready to go, and all the other students were there too, but the instructor never came. oh well, we made the best of it. a few of the other students and i spent the time practicing the things we each needed to work on, so it definitely wasn't a complete waste. after class, we grabbed dinner and then came home to finish packing since we're leaving for atlanta tomorrow. i'm really excited for the trip, especially because I haven't been there in a while. it's only a 3 day trip, but it'll be a nice little getaway and a fun...

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  57 Hits

7/23

hellooooo, today was a pretty chill day. today my sister had a doctors appointment really early in the morning so i decided to wake up early too so i could knock out my requirements while my parents took her. they came home with so many free samples of different products and they were all mini sized it was so cute. we're going to atlanta on saturday so i'm pretty excited for that. i don't know when i'm gonna do my requirements over there but i'll figure it out. i got all my sparring gear ready for tomorrows class so yay. anyways i'm gonna go watch a movie now and hope that tomorrows class goes better than i'm expecting!

  79 Hits

7/22

hi guys, today i went to the gym and did my run again today. me and my sister played basketball outside for a for about an hour and then i finished up the rest of my requirements. I had black belt class today and it was pretty fun. we worked our staff forms a lot but i'm really struggling with staff form number 2 (i cant helicopter over my head for the life of me). at least now i know what i have to work on. i'm gonna have to get my sparring gear ready for sparring class on friday but i think i'll do that tomorrow. i'm gonna be honest i'm not really looking forward to sparring class mostly because i haven't gone in forever. i think once i start warming up to it and going more regularly everything will be fine. i'm just trying to stay consistent and take everything one...

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  73 Hits

7/21

hi guys, today i was helping my sister with last minute review before her test today. i went to the gym and ran my 2 miles on the indoor track over there because it was way too hot outside. i've been working on my pull ups, it's been really difficult but i'm trying my best so hopefully it'll get better with practice. thankfully i'm not sore anymore, which has made doing my requirements much easier. i'm going to watch a movie with my family before bed and just relax. overall, it was a productive day, and i'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep and starting tomorrow refreshed.

  65 Hits

7/20

hi guys, im still pretty sore from saturday but it's going away so that's good. today i did all my requirements and hung out with my little sister. we played mario cart and a bunch of other games on our switch. just dance got really competitive between us and i obviously won (with the exception of her winning like twice). in the evening i had a mentoring session with my instructor and we worked on my first dan self defense and specials. after that i helped out in my sisters class getting the kids ready for tomorrows testing. right now im just helping my sister with her breaking for tomorrow. it was overall a pretty chill day!

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7/19

Yesterday was the pretest for the start of the new cycle. When I woke up this morning I was so sore I couldn’t even sit up to get out of bed and had to roll out instead 😭. Today I pushed through and finished my requirements, and I came to a huge convention center for a big event. I also got to watch the World Cup finals here and hang out with everyone. I’m excited for this cycle and can’t wait to keep improving and see how much progress I make by the end!

  76 Hits