Karate, Yellow Belt!

This past Monday, my karate class of beginners were tested for possible promotion to the next belt level. There were four yellow belts testing for red, and me testing for yellow.

TL;DR version: I passed.

The testing wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I did manage to pass. Still, if I had known more, I could have been a bit more elegant about it.

I had thought each of us would be tested individually rather than as a group, but there were few enough students and more than enough current black belts present to assist with evaluations, each panelist was assigned a student to observe, then we were as a group lead through the motions:
- face left
- jab & cross jab
- face right & repeat
- face left
- step towards the 'target', then jab & cross jab
- face right & repeat
- face left
- back fist
- face right & repeat...
And so on with rolling back fist, front kick, side kick, round kick & back kick.

In the next block, I knew we would also be walked through the individual kicks: front, side, round, and back kick. But I didn't realized that these would be done stepwise rather than just a simple kick demonstration. For example, a side kick is a four part action: raise knee & pivot foot, extend foot to strike, retract foot, put foot down. I wasn't expecting a full pause between each part, and that requires pretty good balance. Needless to say, my balance wasn't up to it in this relatively novel fashion, even if I could do all of this very well at full speed. Oops. Well, that's something for me to practice.

I knew as well we would be walking through the second kata, "ni ban". I have both ichi and ni down cold so that wasn't offputting to me at all, except that sensei called it by number for the group and we had to remain synchronized. I was running on adrenaline and practiced motion so I had enormous difficulty running slowly enough to match everyone, and making sure I paused at each interval to wait for the next numbered call (1 to 20). I did the kata flawlessly, but my part of the presentation was less than pleasant. If I had performed this on my own, I would have performed vastly better.

Still, what I did was good enough for a pass. If I was the instructor, I would have recommended that I re-test at Thursday's class and consider the Monday event a dress rehearsal. But they let me through on this one, and I have my mental notes (and this entry) to remind myself about what to expect the next time.

There was one last part which was purely ceremonial but the most nerve-racking: breaking a board. While I have kicked solid targets with great force, I've never tried breaking a board. Hell, I've never even held one to determine its weight or strength: I was in uncharted territory, and with the entire class watching. Good times.

Get into position, chose whether I'm going to do a right-hand side kick or a left-hand side kick (I chose RH), deep breath, focus on the target, and strike! And of course, the board broke cleanly as everyone but me knew it would.

Now I know that the wood plank is very dry and lightweight with an obvious grain, a square eight inches on each side. I'm sure I could have split it in two with my bare hands. And of course, Sensei held it with the grain horizontal so that the side of my foot would have maximum effect. I didn't know any of this at the time, but of course, I was the only one in the room who had not done this before so I was the only one concerned.

The board breaking was merely ceremonial, but it was fun and I'm keeping the broken board as a momento, along with my white belt and its two stripes. And now I begin another three month cycle of classes, and a journey towards a red belt.