Happenings with The Gonzalez Five

David, Tina, Philip, Paul & Samuel

Thursday, October 16, 2008

"Almost" a black belt --- Look out Chuck Norris! ; )

Philip will be testing this weekend for his black belt.  He has a five hour test on Saturday, which includes a 3-5 mile run followed by carrying someone on his back up Garin hill (for those of you who may not know, Garin is a pretty steep hill, takes me about 10-15 minutes to walk it, moving at a pretty good clip).  From what I understand that's not even the difficult part of the test!  Apparently once they reach the top of the hill, they have all sorts of sprints and things they need to do.  The test is then continued the next day on Sunday morning.  He has a list of Korean words (karate moves) that he had to learn and he also had to write a short essay.  If he passes his evaluation he will be considered a junior black belt.  You cannot become a full fledged black belt until you are sixteen.  Once he earns his black belt he will be in a probationary period for six months.  All I have to say is I hope that the instructor busts out a scale to weigh the kids, because I don't want Philip's back getting jacked up from carrying someone that's too heavy up that hill!!  Philip said he got paired up with a kid that weighs 125 lbs for a wheel barrel race last Saturday. (Philip weighs about 75 lbs!)  Other than this I think he will do fine.

Here are some pix of him getting his black/red belt last month.


                    Paul and Sammy videotaping for me