Bonsai!! Passed my Black Belt Shodan exam yesterday (Karate)
17 November 2008, 09:36 AM
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Bonsai!! Passed my Black Belt Shodan exam yesterday (Karate)
Well, following up on my thread of a couple of weeks ago, took my black belt exam yesterday in traditional Japanese Karate, and after some 3 hrs passed 
Chuffed to bits, put every ounce of energy, effort and spirit I could muster into it and was buzzing from the adrenaline for several hours after.
For anyone thats interested in the details, or at least what I can remember (as its all a bit of a blur now), carry on reading...(bit long and probably quite boring inless you're into this).
Following an hour and a half lesson in the morn (on bunkai) the exam started at 1 with Ten No Kata - which is all about breathing and moving from nothing to everything in a split second. Had drilled this time and time again so no problems there.
Followed by lots and lots of basic combos, including 9 blocks and counters plus 4 way kicking, 4 way punching and then some quite long combinations of blocks, kicks and punches. I was putting everything I had into every set and so glad i'd been backing up my Karate with cross country running for the stamina, despite this still starting to feel the effects of fatigue.
Followed this with kata, I did Basai Dai, which went well, followed by numerous Heian katas, and several in reverse (ure). First **** up of the grading came on getting a stance wrong (nerves) in Heian Nidan (cross with myself for this) and then missing a kiai (as I was cross with myself, lost concentration momentarily). Seemed to spent ages on the kata.
Definately starting to flag now, luckily had a short break whilst we padded up with gloves and gumshields for the 2 types of kumite, manged to gulp down some water and stuff 2 bananas down me (excellent for short term energy release), so was back on track within a minute or so of the next stage.
Kumite started, first part is basically the street defence side - attacker comes in full force full speed with head or body kicks and punches and the idea is to evade, cover, get in counter then get well out the way. Its done whilst moving around the room, so is all pretty fluid. If you dont get out the way you get hit, usually quite hard. This went really well, better than it had it training, although I missed getting smacked in the face by a few mm as I felt my oponents glove come skimming across my face.
This was followed by 2 bouts of fast and fairly hard sparring, one against the other bloke I was grading with (I was giving away around 4 inches in height and a good 3 stone in weight) followed by one of the clubs second dans. Both went pretty well, didnt take to much punishment, managed to get out of the way or block most of the time, and got a really good spinning back kick right on target which ended the first match. However have somehow managed to knacker my right foot up, giving me some problem this morn so might have to go to the docs if it hasnt cleared up by end of week, hoping its muscular.
Then it was waiting around for result. Physically and mentally exhausted at this point but still buzzing with adrenaline.
Marks came in out of 8 (anything less than 7 was a fail), scored 7.8 on fighting, 7.5 on kata, 7.6 on basics and 7.9 for effort/spirit/determination - happy with that.
Taken me almost 6 years to get to this stage and its not been without its injuries, have dislocated my toe (pointing and 90 to my foot), been knocked out (in the early days, during sparring), busted my finger (which now sits at a slight angle, plus suffered several busted ribs, which got infected and probably led to pneumonia which put me in bed for 3 months (never been so ill).
So there you go, hope you've enjoyed it and thanks to all those who replied to my last post wishing me luck. Back to training tomorrow.
Neil
Chuffed to bits, put every ounce of energy, effort and spirit I could muster into it and was buzzing from the adrenaline for several hours after.
For anyone thats interested in the details, or at least what I can remember (as its all a bit of a blur now), carry on reading...(bit long and probably quite boring inless you're into this).
Following an hour and a half lesson in the morn (on bunkai) the exam started at 1 with Ten No Kata - which is all about breathing and moving from nothing to everything in a split second. Had drilled this time and time again so no problems there.
Followed by lots and lots of basic combos, including 9 blocks and counters plus 4 way kicking, 4 way punching and then some quite long combinations of blocks, kicks and punches. I was putting everything I had into every set and so glad i'd been backing up my Karate with cross country running for the stamina, despite this still starting to feel the effects of fatigue.
Followed this with kata, I did Basai Dai, which went well, followed by numerous Heian katas, and several in reverse (ure). First **** up of the grading came on getting a stance wrong (nerves) in Heian Nidan (cross with myself for this) and then missing a kiai (as I was cross with myself, lost concentration momentarily). Seemed to spent ages on the kata.
Definately starting to flag now, luckily had a short break whilst we padded up with gloves and gumshields for the 2 types of kumite, manged to gulp down some water and stuff 2 bananas down me (excellent for short term energy release), so was back on track within a minute or so of the next stage.
Kumite started, first part is basically the street defence side - attacker comes in full force full speed with head or body kicks and punches and the idea is to evade, cover, get in counter then get well out the way. Its done whilst moving around the room, so is all pretty fluid. If you dont get out the way you get hit, usually quite hard. This went really well, better than it had it training, although I missed getting smacked in the face by a few mm as I felt my oponents glove come skimming across my face.
This was followed by 2 bouts of fast and fairly hard sparring, one against the other bloke I was grading with (I was giving away around 4 inches in height and a good 3 stone in weight) followed by one of the clubs second dans. Both went pretty well, didnt take to much punishment, managed to get out of the way or block most of the time, and got a really good spinning back kick right on target which ended the first match. However have somehow managed to knacker my right foot up, giving me some problem this morn so might have to go to the docs if it hasnt cleared up by end of week, hoping its muscular.
Then it was waiting around for result. Physically and mentally exhausted at this point but still buzzing with adrenaline.
Marks came in out of 8 (anything less than 7 was a fail), scored 7.8 on fighting, 7.5 on kata, 7.6 on basics and 7.9 for effort/spirit/determination - happy with that.
Taken me almost 6 years to get to this stage and its not been without its injuries, have dislocated my toe (pointing and 90 to my foot), been knocked out (in the early days, during sparring), busted my finger (which now sits at a slight angle, plus suffered several busted ribs, which got infected and probably led to pneumonia which put me in bed for 3 months (never been so ill).
So there you go, hope you've enjoyed it and thanks to all those who replied to my last post wishing me luck. Back to training tomorrow.
Neil
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