On the last weekend of March the Hungarian Taekwon-do had a special day. It was not just an excellent spring weekend, but there was the central black belt degree test held by the President and Founder of the Hungarian Taekwon-do Federation Master László Harmat (8th degree). In Hungary the black belt exams are held yearly at the so called „Központi Edzőterem” in Budapest (in English: Central Training Hall) therefore the technical level of the black belts can be held on a same high standard throughout the country. As Master Harmat has 8th degree in Taekwon-do therefore he is allowed to hold exams up to 6th degree. This year – as since a few years now the Master invited his friend and earlier trainings partner Georg Hartner an experienced 4th degree senior Instructor from Sweden. He used to train in Hungary before, but long time ago he lives in Sweden and running clubs in the Göteborg area. He was the honorary guest of the exam, and could add some new thoughts from a different point of view.

Every country has specialities in their black belt tests – somewhere it concentrates on power, agility, in some countries the basic movement is more important, somewhere there are extensive fights involved, or you have to win a small tournament, etc.

The exams in Hungary starts by getting in to the middle: all candidates must perform their patterns for the next level (usually 3 mandatory, depending on their target degree) plus one designated tull form chon-ji up to their current belt level ordered by Tibor Fülpesi (6th degree, Technical Chief Instructor). Up to 3rd degree everyone have to take part in a short verbal exam which involves history and theory of Taekwon-do (on a really wide range from the history of founding TKD internationally and Hungary, the story behind the patterns, through movements, korean names or techniques, stances, body parts, etc.).

Finished with the short theoretical test all candidates had to participate in a very fast 1-1 minute small target shields section. Gábor Szalay and Péter Szász (both 5 degrees) held the small target shields one after another and the examinees had to follow their fast instructions. It is for checking the special kicking ability, fighting movements as well as the knowledge Korean names of different techniques and how fast they can react and perform it in a really sharp situation.

After all candidates performed their patterns and the special kicking session with small target shields, for first dan they have to continue with self-defence (getting released from grab) in circa 5-8 minutes each. Master Harmat has expressed that in the past practising of self-defence was not preferred too much in the training sessions as it is not part of international championships and cups – therefore many clubs tend to concentrate on the official contest events forgetting that self-defence is core part of Taekwon-do as written in the Encyclopedia by General Choi. However in the last few years the Hungarian clubs have changed this behavior and this self-defence section is getting better and better from year to year.

After a short break each of the participants had to perform a circa 1,5-2 minutes long Traditional Sparring demonstration with pair. Most of them have chosen a partner from their own club. This is somewhat differs from the traditional sparring in official championships as it has no time limit, will not get points – therefore the candidates had more freedom to do what they want – a few pairs have chosen to put more acrobatic movements to get it more astonishing, also a few preferred the basic movements side, and a few have tried to smuggle some humor in their performance. Péter Szász with his counterpart Krisztián Pataki are pioneers of traditional sparring as a competition event. Before it was accepted as an official category in international championships they were already allowed a live performance at the World Championship in Dortmund, Germany in 2005.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzzh0he36QA)
As one of the most experienced person in this division Péter Szász had spoken a few words, expressing that because traditional sparring is getting on a real high level in Hungary, therefore getting much better results also internationally. This tendency is also visible in the black belt tests, getting better and better performances yearly.

After the first day everyone felt tired. It may look easy and short at first sight, however there were nearly 70 participants, and all candidates had to watch all others’ performances. Master Harmat has always wanted to be the black belt test also like a kind of seminar so everyone could learn from each other’s faults.

On the second day of the exam – yes, the exam is a whole weekend, not just a simple day in Hungary – they started with weaponary self-defence. For all levels who were having an exam from black belt to the next black belt degree this day they had to defend themselves against knife and baton.

Right after the self-defence the long hours of breaking started. First all participants have to perform a power breaking with hand. Women and juniors under 18 years had to break different numbers of wooden boards: the number varied between 2 to 5 depending on their sex, age and weight. But there is a speciality in Hungary: all men over 18 have to break a brick in order to get the next black belt degree. Most have chosen to break with hammer fist (naeryo yop joomok), but there were a few brave participants who tried to break their bricks with knife hand or reverse knife-hand (sonkal or sonkaldung taerigi) or even with front of the fist (ap joomok). It was not obligatory but some have even tried to break two bricks tight on each other or one brick on it’s edge – and all of them have succeeded – without any kind of injury!

All men over 18 had to perform also a so called „action breaking” which means breaking of several boards towards different directions with hand techniques one after another.

After the action breaking there was power breakings with diverse foot technics and then they have performed 2 or 3 special breaking techniques with jumping foot technics as well. Unlike the official championships the special techniques involved various types of their own choice. To mention the most interesting ones: breaking reverse turning kick blindly with patched eyes, breaking a wooden board floating on the surface of water, breaking many boards with tornado kick after each other in a row, 4 boards by one jump in the air held in different directions, etc.

The closing event of the day – before the official ceremony – was the 40 ap jomook chirugi in annun sogi with kihap – in memory of our Founder General Choi Hong Hi.

The official ceremonial promotion closed the day by Master Harmat promoting the new black belt degrees given one by one to all attendants personally. As agreed earlier by a few of old students of General Choi, Master Harmat promoted the new degrees with the following words: „In the name of the International Taekwon-do Federation and our late Founder General Choi Hong Hi – I hereby ceremonially promote you to the … degree, black belt, congratulations!”

Among many participants we have had our new National Team Captain Mr. Csaba Békássy promoted to the 5th degree. The Director of Championships Mr László Kozák and the Head of Umpires Mr Pál Sebestyén promoted to the 6th degree.

As it is said throughout Europe - Hungary is proud to have an extremely high standard of the black belt tests. All black belts promoted in Hungary can take on a challenge with any black belt in the World. There is a rumour that a few candidate from abroad wanted to take the black belt exam in Hungary, but after reading the expectations they have withdrawn their application.