The Way of the Badger
Dec. 16th, 2003 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4I passed my karate grading on Saturday, so I'm now a green belt (the order of grades is: white, yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, brown, black). And not only did I pass, but the examiner told me afterwards that I'd done extremely well. Not sure who was more pleased by that, me or Sensei!
I was surprised to have done so well though, as I'd been very nervous about it beforehand -- not only is it apparently a difficult grade to pass (it's the point where you move from kohigh to dohigh status, i.e. you're regarded as a more advanced student; there's an awful lot of syllabus to learn for it) but also we were in a different location from usual (Walthamstow rather than Winchcombe -- no complaints about that!), with a much smaller group of people (only the people from the London and Cambridge dojos, rather than people from all over the country as usual), so I didn't quite know what to expect in some ways. It always makes me more worried about things when I can't visualise them in advance.
The afternoon was exhausting: four hours of training/grading, and they made it clear that the training session (which takes place in parallel with the grading) was just as much part of the grading -- so no slacking at any point! I'd already been training for over an hour and a half when I was called for the actual grading. Fortunately they didn't actually ask to see one of the techniques I was really worried about; though they did ask for 40 press-ups (a set number of press-ups is a grading requirement, but they don't often ask for them). To be honest I didn't even know I could do them until I had to.
When the grading was over I wasn't even sure I'd passed (did "you may go now" mean that I'd done it, or just that they couldn't bear to see any more?) -- I just had to go and carry on with the training. By the end of the afternoon I ached in places I didn't even know it was possible to ache, and I'd been shouting so much (they're very keen on kiai) that my throat felt like it'd been scrubbed with a brillo pad.
After the grading we had time to chill out for a while before the Christmas meal (held at The Grove, a pub in Walthamstow). It was good to have a chance to talk to the people from the London dojo, and for that matter to talk to the people from Cambridge -- I don't often get a chance to do much more than bow to them and say hello briefly between lessons. The food was great, though the pub itself was less so -- fortunately we had the upstairs room booked privately for the actual meal, but afterwards we adjourned to the main bar, which was smoky, loud, quite unable to serve a decent pint of Greene King IPA (the only 'real' beer available), and full of some girl's 21st birthday party (complete with cheesy 80s disco). Eurgh.
And finally, a LJ quiz which is actually relevant for a change!
Duty and Loyalty: You serve your purpose and do
what you must do. People would consider you
someone to rely on, and one who keeps his/her
word when he/she gives it.
Which Characteristic From the Samurai Code Matches You Best? (You may find out your best trait)
brought to you by Quizilla
I know it's only a silly quiz, but I was still rather pleased to get this one, as it's one of the three cardinal virtues of our martial arts school.
I was surprised to have done so well though, as I'd been very nervous about it beforehand -- not only is it apparently a difficult grade to pass (it's the point where you move from kohigh to dohigh status, i.e. you're regarded as a more advanced student; there's an awful lot of syllabus to learn for it) but also we were in a different location from usual (Walthamstow rather than Winchcombe -- no complaints about that!), with a much smaller group of people (only the people from the London and Cambridge dojos, rather than people from all over the country as usual), so I didn't quite know what to expect in some ways. It always makes me more worried about things when I can't visualise them in advance.
The afternoon was exhausting: four hours of training/grading, and they made it clear that the training session (which takes place in parallel with the grading) was just as much part of the grading -- so no slacking at any point! I'd already been training for over an hour and a half when I was called for the actual grading. Fortunately they didn't actually ask to see one of the techniques I was really worried about; though they did ask for 40 press-ups (a set number of press-ups is a grading requirement, but they don't often ask for them). To be honest I didn't even know I could do them until I had to.
When the grading was over I wasn't even sure I'd passed (did "you may go now" mean that I'd done it, or just that they couldn't bear to see any more?) -- I just had to go and carry on with the training. By the end of the afternoon I ached in places I didn't even know it was possible to ache, and I'd been shouting so much (they're very keen on kiai) that my throat felt like it'd been scrubbed with a brillo pad.
After the grading we had time to chill out for a while before the Christmas meal (held at The Grove, a pub in Walthamstow). It was good to have a chance to talk to the people from the London dojo, and for that matter to talk to the people from Cambridge -- I don't often get a chance to do much more than bow to them and say hello briefly between lessons. The food was great, though the pub itself was less so -- fortunately we had the upstairs room booked privately for the actual meal, but afterwards we adjourned to the main bar, which was smoky, loud, quite unable to serve a decent pint of Greene King IPA (the only 'real' beer available), and full of some girl's 21st birthday party (complete with cheesy 80s disco). Eurgh.
And finally, a LJ quiz which is actually relevant for a change!
Duty and Loyalty: You serve your purpose and do
what you must do. People would consider you
someone to rely on, and one who keeps his/her
word when he/she gives it.
Which Characteristic From the Samurai Code Matches You Best? (You may find out your best trait)
brought to you by Quizilla
I know it's only a silly quiz, but I was still rather pleased to get this one, as it's one of the three cardinal virtues of our martial arts school.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 04:29 am (UTC)Complete sincerity: You believe in being
straightforward with others, and you expect the
same from them. People would consider you a
good listener, and one who is calm and mostly
serious.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 04:56 am (UTC)What/who are 'Sensei' and 'dojo'?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 05:43 am (UTC)For a humerous look at learning the Japanese language see here (http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~thoureau/japanese.html)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 05:06 am (UTC)Yay! Well done :)
shi kyu (yon kyu?)
Very much enjoyed the description of the grading procedure. I'm not sure how similar the martial arts that you and
no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 06:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-16 06:31 am (UTC)1 Brian McCarthy started a lot of clubs in England. Nutter. Turn up to a Saturday-long course and spend four hours doing bokken cuts, before he gets senior students use him as a punching bag to prove how hard he is type of nutter. There are still things in training that we're realising he made up, all these years later.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-17 01:32 am (UTC)