passed my yellow belt grading!

Blade96

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Am 8th kyu now!

not a white belt anymore.

(then again I heard someone say that white belt is the most important belt...for without them there can be no black belts....soooo guess i aint as important anymore....hehe)

Test was a lot of fun. You were right....the first KIAI i gave - and i made them very loud cause i also read somewhere that it can wake up the judges cause they might get bored sometimes - made nerves go away.

Think I'll tell about it....there might be people who'd like to know a bit about what happens at one the same way I wanted to know. This is what happened at mine.

we lined up at the command shugo as always - but we were told to stand in front, those who graded, and BB's were in back. was so they could see us. Then we were put through the Tsuruoka sequence - a sequence named of course after the famous founder of karate in Canada, Masami Tsuruoka sensei (and my sensei's teacher. well him and Hidetaka Nishiyama sensei, a student of Funakoshi o sensei were both my teacher's teachers. Like I said, good lineage.) I was the only one to do it right with each block every time. The other 2 white belts fluffed it. I could see them out of the corner of my eyes. Then we did seiken zuki, first normally, then in kiba dachi stance. then we did oi zuki, then the blocks moving forward. Then gyaku zuki which i fluffed, but it didnt count against me because its not part of white belt testing. (i know it but when you've learned to oi zuki then gyaku zuki takes some getting used to.) Then we did mae geri keage zenkutsu dachi then kiba dachi with yoko.

Then we did our kata. first as a group then each of us was called up individually to do it. One of the white belts temporarily forgot his shutos at the end of it. Me and the other white belt did it perfectly though.

then we did ippon kumite which I did perfectly without any mistakes.

Then the higher belt levels testing did their stuff. Yellow belt testing for orange did his stuff right and his heian nidan and his kumite and sparring were good. But poor blue belt testing for brown wasnt so lucky. Poor guy, he had injured his knee some weeks before so when he did the jump in Heian Godan kata he stumbled a bit. didnt fall, but his landing wasnt perfect. Also, when he did his kumite, he nearly passed out! when done just walked to the wall and collapsed! Was breathing so hard I thought he might have a heart attack or something. His breaths literally sounded like bellows. No joke.

anyway we all passed. Nobody failed. not even the nearly dead blue belt who is now brown. Of us three white now yellow belts, only I escaped criticism though. With the other 2, the black belts who give their opinions, and the senseis who make the final decision, it was kind of like 'you earned your yellow but you need to work on this, this, and this' With me though, sensei turned to me and said Unanimous agreement from everyone. And not a word of criticism, even constructive. Absolutely perfect. I thought they were a bi9t harsh on the half dead guy though. They criticised his kata. 'you can do a better kata than this' Yes, but he'd hurt his knee! They also criticized his breathing. which i suppose made sense.

I went to a bar downtown with some of the higher belts and the 2 senseis of course. I sat between sempai and sensei. Both of them bought me drinks (white russians cause they know I love those) and fed me french fries, chicken wings and onion rings. Had a great time for several hours. Talked about everything....a lot of it was olympic talk. Both my sensei and I are hockey fans and fans of the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL.

Then came home and watched canada almost lose to the Czechs in the ice hockey olympic game. (we almost didnt make it to the gold medal game!) Then went to bed and passed out myself because I was tired too.

But I had a great time yesterday.......loved it! Hehehe.

I got my new belt this morning.
 

MA-Caver

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Congratulations!! Another step achieved in your journey. Happy for you and while don't know you still feel proud of you for your accomplishment. Keep it up!
 

seasoned

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First mile stone, out of white belt, good for you. Congratulations and good luck on your journey.:asian:
 
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Blade96

Blade96

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Thanks all :angel:

btw Gordon that would be sister =] I'm a lady Shotokanka.

I know I'm in good hands ;) My senseis are amazing. and I know all about Tsuruoka-sensei, Nishiyama-sensei, and Funakoshi O-Sensei. My senseis are good people too. Good instructors and good people. Likewise for the others who train there, though I am closer to some of them than to others. But I couldnt ask for a better Shotokan Karate-do family than what I have!

I'm happy. I look forward to learning the yellow belt criteria portion of training now.

~ Ooooosssss! ~
 

searcher

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Congrats!!!

You studying Chito-ryu as well as Shotokan? It ismy understanding that Tsuruoka is a Chito-ryu guy. I don't keep up with you all up north, so I may be mistaken.
 

Ken Morgan

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Congratulations Jackie!!
I think beer and wings are a tradition after every practice and gradings, everywhere. :)
 
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Blade96

Blade96

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Congrats!!!

You studying Chito-ryu as well as Shotokan? It ismy understanding that Tsuruoka is a Chito-ryu guy. I don't keep up with you all up north, so I may be mistaken.

He is chito-ryu :) But I only study Shotokan. My senseis were 2 of his students though.

Congratulations Jackie!!
I think beer and wings are a tradition after every practice and gradings, everywhere. :)

mmmmmm (moaning homer-simpson style hehe) beer and wings......

I perfer to be called Jacklyn btw. I actually hate the name jackie.
 

Bill Mattocks

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Me and the other white belt did it perfectly though.

then we did ippon kumite which I did perfectly without any mistakes.

Congratulations!

If I can humbly offer one bit of advice - you didn't do your kata perfectly. You did it correctly for advancement, no doubt, and well-done to you for being able to do that. But kata takes a lifetime to perfect, and even black belts and masters take correction on their kata and learn new insights about what their kata means. At this stage, doing good kata (for you and me) means correctly repeating what we're taught, but it's hardly perfect; learning what it really means will continue to be an eye-opening exploration of our art for decades to come.

I hope to never think I've done my kata perfectly. Perfect means the end of learning; there's more than enough to learn about kata to keep me busy the rest of my life.

I offer my sincere congratulations, though! Keep learning, keep striving!
 
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Blade96

Blade96

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Oh right. Thats what i meant, what you said Bill, i should have used different words though.

Thanks for that.
 

twendkata71

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congrats. I remember when I passed my first belt test. I was so excited. Each level I passed made me thirst for more knowledge. Keep up the training.
 

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