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Thirteen students, the youngest 10 and the oldest 17, earned their first-degree black belts in May, a significant achievement for the youngsters.

"It’s been very rewarding to watch them grow up as a group of students and teammates," said Master Yong Choi, a sixth-degree black belt and the owner and teacher of the studio.

POWERFUL BLOWS: Emma Wadsworth (left) and Hou Ching Li each shatter their bricks as part of successfully passing a test for their first-degree black belts. Courtesy Photo

Choi started training at age 14 to one-up her brothers, who she watched clumsily practice the martial art. She opened her studio five years ago as a place for her children and others to train.

The students, most from Scotts Valley and at least one each from Santa Cruz and Sunnyvale, are proud of persevering through years of training as they completed 15 colored belts before reaching the coveted black.

The black-belt test took place at Santa Clara High School. Each student was assigned a personal judge who scored them individually for the entire day.

In the first phase of the test, the students performed basic techniques, including various stances, blocks, punches and kicks.

The test continued with demonstrations of self-defense poomsae including 10 different (continuous sequences of 20 to 30 tae kwon do techniques that must be executed perfectly) fighting techniques, board breaking and then brick breaking.

For one of their tasks, students were required to break a brick with nothing but their hand. All completed the task, though some bruises remained. The key to breaking a brick, they said, is to be confident, use your entire weight and drive straight through the brick.

To practice, they used pads. The brick is a natural progression after breaking wooden boards earlier in training.

Choi’s studio sent three senior black belts to judge the competition: Alan Wadsworth, Michael Shulman and Ron Dorsey.