Recap: 2nd day during ISKA Level 1 Exam.

On the 2nd day of the ISKA instructor course, you could feel it in the air the slight tension & nervousness of all the participants. It's the exam day & you could see from some of our eyes the "burning the midnight oil" effect.

Day 2 saw Master Khoo asking us to take over class as he watched silently & reviewed each of our teaching methods. Each of us were given a shot at taking over the warm up class, bag work session & kicking drills.

At around 11pm we were given a quick brief about the use of focus mitts & Thai pads. While most of us know how to hold 1 and use them correctly, the exam is about how u string the combos together... no combos should be 3 seconds apart.

When Master Khoo was demonstrating how he & his wife hold pads for each other (yes, his wife is his pad holder when he prepares for professional fights), we were amazed at the 6-8 hit combo strings and the beauty of the pad work timing... its like watching them playing piano; consistent, non-stop & powerful. In conclusion: there must be a rhythm in your pad work.

We all head off to lunch at around 12:30pm & came back to the gym at 2:00pm. The exam commenced at 2:30pm.

The exam was in 5 parts:
1) Knowing all the footwork & punch / kick techniques that are being called out.
2) Ability to demo to a new student on any 1 specific move / stance or teaching them how to do a hand wrap.
3) Run a punching drill class following a class structure.
4) Run a kicking drill class following a class structure.
5) Focus & Thai pad for 1:1 classes.

Since me, Nazim & Ronny had a flight to catch at 7pm, we were the 1st to do the test & lucky old me was the 1st to take the test!

(Master Khoo placed his wife to pretend to be a new student and I had to break it down to her the stance & how to do a basic jab / cross.)

I think there were a few mistakes I did during the exam, but part of the lesson was to keep your cool & don't act like an unsure fool.

As I finished my part, I stayed back to give moral support to my 2 other friends Nazim & Ronny.

With the 3 Sabahans finishing 1st, at around 6:30pm (30 minutes before our flight check in) Master Khoo decided to take a short break to at least let the 3 of us know what we scored. All 3 of us passed & we are now certified ISKA Level 1 instructors!!!

A quick group photo with all the other participants!

As we left the gym & made our way to Labuan airport we were very happy to have come to this course & will be having more plans for kickboxing in Sabah. The lessons learned & the friendship made here in this seminar will be remembered & cherished.

Sabah KK, your 1st 3 ISKA instructors have returned!!!

(all pictures in this post are credit back to Borneo Combat Gym)