I've had a couple of comments asking about how my testing went, so I guess I could go ahead and update this blog. You may have noticed a change in the color scheme around here lately. That would be in honor of my new belt color. Yep - I passed my test for Shodan! I am a blackbelt! And I think I'm still suffering from Green-Belt Syndrome. But I may be beginning to recover. Evidently my sparring has made a marked improvement since testing, according to my sparring partners in class anyway. They say I seem much more confident now. I think it's just that I don't want a green belt whipping my tail up and down the mat. I mean, I do have a little pride.
I was flawless on my written test right up to the last question. It was matching - match 5 terms to their translations. I mixed up Judo and Aikido. And had to guess on the other 3. And guessed wrong on every one of them.
The actual test (physical) was shorter than I expected, thank goodness. I believe that the instructors based their decisions on some things on performance during classes.
Achievement of Shodan rank is by no means indicative of my perfection. I was reminded of several things to focus on in future training (like the fact that my progressive roundhouse kicks are much better than my stationary roundhouse kicks). And I have an internal list much much longer of improvements to make.
The next kata in our syllabus for me to learn is Jion. Sensei-Hubby and I are planning to go up to the dojo this afternoon and start on it.
My personal goals as a blackbelt? I want to learn the Shotokan kata that aren't in our syllabus. The other kata in the Taikyoku series (we only do the first). The other Tekki kata (again, we only do the first). Bassai Sho. Kanku Sho. And of course, make those improvements to various techniques that are on my internal list (which I may blog in the future, but for now I'll keep that to myself).
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8 comments:
Congratulations on the black belt!
Congratulations on achieving Shodan! You must be so proud!:)
Congratulations on SHODAN! How exciting!!!! It's very cool to see that you're already thinking about the next kata. You are one of the rare ones who will continue to train and improve.
Which Tekki kata are you trying to learn? I believe that's the same was Nai Hanshi Shodan. We also do Nai Hanshi Nidan and Nai Hanshi Sandan.
Congratulations!!
BIG BIG
Wow.. that's great! Thank you for sharing your journey with us! Congratulations on your achievement. Jion is one of my favorite kata. I've been told that it is one of the more difficult ones to perform properly, but when done well it has so much to offer.
Welcome to the Black belt part of the line. You must be very proud of yourself.
Wow congratulations!! You must be proud of yourself. That new belt is the product of lots of hard work, dedication and a little bit of insanity. :) EXCELLENT!!!
Hey, congratulations fellow shodan!! I just tested for mine, too. Last Wednesday, actually (9-26-07). It was very hard, but very rewarding. Sounds like yours was very positive. Very interesting that you had to do a written test. We had to submit a "themed" paper. Mine was on ego and self-esteem in the martial arts.
Heres to many, many, many more years of training!
Karrie
Hi,
Congratulations on your black belt and on your site. It is the first time i have stumbled upon it and it is quite good!! If you are looking for more kata aside from Shotokan specific ones, it may be wort your while travelling to other dojos from other styles. If you train in wado for a hwile it would be interesting to see how they do there katas as opposed to the shotokan way.
Marks
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