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Karate Grading
Mar. 24th, 2005 01:50 pmSo PreZ passed his karate promotion test that he took a week and a half ago, and he was presented with his new yellow belt on Monday. He did well, so I expected him to pass.
The grading was interesting to watch, as there were two people trying for black belts as well, which are always pretty severe gradings (though so are the 2nd to 1st kyu brown belt gradings, but black's even worse). The lower belt you are/are testing for, the more little bits you get to sit down through, especially after kihon (basics/warm-up) as the ido-geiko (moving through stances) gets more complicated, you're allowed to sit them out, and the same for the more advanced kata that are required for higher belts. Black belts also come with high physical requirements, including at least 100 good/proper push-ups, and 15 rounds of 2 minute full contact sparring (with various tournament rules exceptions, like punching to the face etc.), generally with fresh or relatively fresh partners (which is why the dojo likes to have many brown and black belts come and help with the gradings). The rounds of sparring for black belt are pretty much all consecutive, and this comes after you've already done your kihon, ido-geiko, kata and the push-ups... and sparring, especially moderate to full contact, really takes it out of you physically.
Of the two people going for their black belts, one wasn't really up to par, which was noticeable during his push-ups, as eventually his arms weren't moving at all, it was just his butt going up and down in the air, which I doubt really qualifies as a decent push-up. He also didn't do too well during the later sparring rounds. He didn't pass his grading, which apparantly is the second time that he's tried to get his black belt (which at $300 a pop, is an expensive thing as well). The thing with, especially, the black belt gradings, is that you have to train for those suckers months in advance, and train for what is essentially an endurance event. You already have to have your 1st kyu brown belt for at least a year before shihan will even allow you to try and grade for your sho-dan (and you need his approval to grade for the higher belts, especially the ones that come with a minimum wait period), but you definitely need to be on top of your game physically as well, otherwise it's just not going to happen.
I feel bad for the guy though, as it's a good 3-4+ hours of continuous gruelling exercise, which he'd already done once before and failed, and now he'd failed again. However, if you've been at the dojo long enough to get to the point where you can grade for sho-dan, you know what's expected of you, and you should prepare for that... it's not like this kind of thing blindsides you. There are a couple of female 1st kyu belts who are already kickstarting or planning out their training to grade in September or December for their sho-dan.
Me, I'm just going to try and grade for my blue belt in December ;) I have my own endurance event scheduled for July as it is.
The grading was interesting to watch, as there were two people trying for black belts as well, which are always pretty severe gradings (though so are the 2nd to 1st kyu brown belt gradings, but black's even worse). The lower belt you are/are testing for, the more little bits you get to sit down through, especially after kihon (basics/warm-up) as the ido-geiko (moving through stances) gets more complicated, you're allowed to sit them out, and the same for the more advanced kata that are required for higher belts. Black belts also come with high physical requirements, including at least 100 good/proper push-ups, and 15 rounds of 2 minute full contact sparring (with various tournament rules exceptions, like punching to the face etc.), generally with fresh or relatively fresh partners (which is why the dojo likes to have many brown and black belts come and help with the gradings). The rounds of sparring for black belt are pretty much all consecutive, and this comes after you've already done your kihon, ido-geiko, kata and the push-ups... and sparring, especially moderate to full contact, really takes it out of you physically.
Of the two people going for their black belts, one wasn't really up to par, which was noticeable during his push-ups, as eventually his arms weren't moving at all, it was just his butt going up and down in the air, which I doubt really qualifies as a decent push-up. He also didn't do too well during the later sparring rounds. He didn't pass his grading, which apparantly is the second time that he's tried to get his black belt (which at $300 a pop, is an expensive thing as well). The thing with, especially, the black belt gradings, is that you have to train for those suckers months in advance, and train for what is essentially an endurance event. You already have to have your 1st kyu brown belt for at least a year before shihan will even allow you to try and grade for your sho-dan (and you need his approval to grade for the higher belts, especially the ones that come with a minimum wait period), but you definitely need to be on top of your game physically as well, otherwise it's just not going to happen.
I feel bad for the guy though, as it's a good 3-4+ hours of continuous gruelling exercise, which he'd already done once before and failed, and now he'd failed again. However, if you've been at the dojo long enough to get to the point where you can grade for sho-dan, you know what's expected of you, and you should prepare for that... it's not like this kind of thing blindsides you. There are a couple of female 1st kyu belts who are already kickstarting or planning out their training to grade in September or December for their sho-dan.
Me, I'm just going to try and grade for my blue belt in December ;) I have my own endurance event scheduled for July as it is.
