Whew! That was exhausting!

[bushidomartialarts]

Hey all,

Radio silence for a year is what the UBBT will do to you.

I can say the following about Tom Callos' Ultimate Black Belt Test:

a) If you run a school, it's totally worth the money.

b) If you don't run a school, it probably isn't worth the money, but there's a less expensive student option that certainly is.

c) One of the hardest years of my life, changed me in a lot of good ways.

d) I highly, highly recommend the experience.

e) It says something that I couldn't find time to post here during it.

Anyway, I'm back in the saddle. I hope 2008 was kind to everybody here.

[Carol]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW

Great to see you back online and CONGRATULATIONS!!

[arnisador]

Good to see you! Tell us more!

[bluekey88]

Congrats! yes, do tell :)

[Blindside]

Welcome back Jason!

[ArmorOfGod]

I've heard about his one year test and it is amazing. Bottom line: if you can pass it, you are one of the best black belts in the country, no doubt.
ultimateblackbelttest.com
You can see some of it there, but DON'T skim it. Read the full requirements. You have to do them in one year.

Some of them are:
1,000 community projects
Anger Managmement classes
50,000 pushups and crunches
1,000 repititions of a single kata/form
1,000 rounds of sparring
1,000 mile walk/swim/run and/or bike
100 hours of mat/grappling time
20 hours with a pro boxing or kickboxing coach
Right 3 wrongs
Mend 3 past relationships

and that is only about half of it.

I would love to see the McDojos tell the parents of their 5 year old black belt candidates that the student had to do something like that.....

Seriously, Bushido, did you really take the test?
Wow.
(thumbs up)

AoG

[Carol]

I'm sure he did take the test....

Check it out:

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55218

[bushidomartialarts]

Seriously, Bushido, did you really take the test?
Wow.
(thumbs up)

AoG

Yep. And I have to say I'm pretty chuffed about it.

One requirements was to blog about the experience...ubbtjb.blogspot.com (http://ubbtjb.blogspot.com)

Really, it's a life changing year.

[Kwan Jang]

Good job. Like Tom, I'm a 6th dan under KJN Ernie Reyes and KJN Tony Thompson. Tom based his UBBC test after our assn.'s mastery test (though he has thrown in some elements of his own and left out some of KJN Ernie's more extreme elements). Whether we are going up for rank or not, all master instructor's go through the mastery process and test every time it's held ("if anyone tests, we ALL test"). It is a tremendous growing experience and going through it every few years keeps me sharp and pushing the envelope. I would have to say that my first time through was probably the greatest personal growth experience of my life.

[bushidomartialarts]

Kwan, I have a good friend up here who's in that organization. He's told me some of what he's gone through. All I can say is WOW, that is one badass black belt test.

[IcemanSK]

Congratulations Jason!

I look forward to more details:asian: