Dominated the Dojo

Yesterday marked the last day for the Fall Karate session. This meant that it was Test day for everybody who was ready to move up belt levels.

Since this is our first attempt at doing Karate, all 3 of my kids, and myself, are White belts. Understandable. For the past 6 weeks, the whole club has been working on getting ready to do this test. With the fact that the first few Kata’s are straight-forward and I’m athletically inclined, I’ve had a solid understanding of what to do for several weeks now. So much that, I’ve been helping the other White belts practice. This is not your typical scenario where a White belt is teaching other White belts the Kata’s to become a Yellow belt, but I had no issues with it and the other White belts didn’t seem to mind (probably because I was older that most, and the only man doing them). This left me feeling very confident that I would successfully pass my Yellow belt test. Having to do them in-front of the whole group left me a little nervous, but I completed the required 2 Kata's with only 1 minor mistake.

Leading up to the test, Soki and the other Sensei’s started commenting on how many push-ups, sit-ups and squats we would need to complete to pass the test. Originally I had heard that 50 sit-ups were required to pass your yellow belt, but now we were hearing that it was 100. Nice to know 1 week before the test, especially since I had never really gone past 50 in any class. I originally thought it was Soki and the Sensei’s fooling with us, since they did conflict themselves on several occasions (no it’s 150... no it’s 75... no it’s 100...).  Oh well, suck it up and move on. As for push-ups, the number 50 was correct, but this time you had to do them with a partner, where your partner would make a fist and hold it under your chest (on the ground) and you would have to lower yourself and touch it, to make it count. Again, none of this was relayed to us through the sessions, so this was a little harder than expected, but I managed to do it. After those were done, and my partner finished his, I did another 5 more on my knuckles for practice. Only Blue belts and higher are required to do their push-ups on their knuckles, but practicing now will only make them easier in the long run.

After all sit-ups and push-ups were completed, we moved on to techniques. Techniques are a series of moves (kinda like Kata's) where a fight situation is acted out and you actually throw your opponent around on a mat. The other difference between techniques and Kata's is that only those over 18 years of age learn them. In order to progress to your Yellow belt, 3 techniques must be demonstrated, which I did with ease. This was then followed up with several different kicks and finished off with 60 seconds of continuous punching (a mat held by your partner).

Our last test was to complete 100 squats. I heard on several occasions that we would have to do this as the last part of the test, but I never practiced them, nor did we do them during class. I figured I could muscle through them. Well, not so easily. I finished them, but my legs were done afterwards, so much, that it was difficult kneeling down as everybody was receiving their new belts.

Today, my chest and legs are sore, and I’m guessing that tomorrow will be more of the same (the 2nd day is always worse for some odd reason). In the end, my oldest daughter and I successfully completed our Yellow belt test, while speed skating daughter and son completed their ‘Peewee’ Yellow belt. The difference between a full Yellow and a Peewee Yellow belt is part age and only needing to learn 1 Kata. Speed skating daughter was not happy that she only had the opportunity to test for the ‘Peewee’ Yellow belt, as she learned the other Kata through me (at home) and was doing it fairly well. Unfortunately, Soki was not aware that she knew it and he felt she was not old enough to progress to the full belt, so in the end she will remain a half belt behind her big sister. Motivation for future belts I’m sure.

At this point, we have decided to take a 3-month break (length of the next session), but fully plan on returning in the spring. Having a few less activities during the months were getting out is not always the easiest and/or quickest thing to do, is a good thing.

More to follow in the spring.

In the meantime, enjoy the true meaning of “Dominating the Dojo” as brought to you by Kramer.

Kramer Karate Sessions