Grading Next Week

[laz001]

Hello Everyone!

After a long layoff, i've been back in training for about 6 months now, and i've finally got my grading for blue belt next monday! My current belt things i will be tested on are my defence against kicks ability, my solo form 2, and my short staff (JO) vs short staff defense aswell as any number of things from my previous gradings! My girlfriend is grading for her orange belt too which will be cool!

Here goes...

[JimH]

Laz,
Good luck to both you and your girlfriend.

[Cosmo Kramer]

good luck

[laz001]

Well, I had my grading!

I've been practising very hard during the week, practising with my girlfriend almost every night for an hour at a time, and we both felt confident in our skills, as we practised our entire syllabus for the week.

Came to the grading and we had a short practise period which was good as i could tie up any loose ends, such as my Nunchucku skills.

We all sat down (there were 5 of us grading) and were first called up to perform our first Solo form, which you learn at white belt. Simple, but many people do it, then forget about it afterwards. I was glad i'd practised everything hard and i don't think I made any major errors.

Then I was called up with a guy a higher grade then me, and we alternated in techniques. My techniques were to stop a kick.

I was surprised, as the instructor only asked to see a few, and then asked us to sit down! Not sure if that's a good sign or bad, though I felt i did all my moves correctly, quickly and smoothly.

Anyway, some of the other grades were called up to perform their syllabus material.

Then we were all called up to perform a Nunchucku solo form which is done at yellow belt, which again I felt went well, even though we were asked to go through twice.

Then I was called up to perform some lapel grab defences, and then i stayed up to show my short staff vs short staff form, and then finally my second Solo form. My partner in short staff vs short staff put a hole in the low ceiling with his staff trying an overhead strike! Whoops!

At the start of the grading, i was determined to turn my nervousness into strength, and it worked!!

I felt I performed to the best of my abilities, and my adrenaline helped my strength and speed instead of inhibiting me! I was surprised, but pleased.

It was probably the best grading I've had so far, so fingers crossed my instructor thought so too!!!

I felt sorry for my girlfriend as she thought she had some problems getting some techniques to work, and was upset afterwards, but I disagreed, saying that it might not be penalised badly, because she thought of a way around the problem, and forced the techniques to work. Shows free-thinking.

The grading seemed much shorter than it was (it was an hour long) and I'm very hopeful for the best results! Fingers crossed for a blue belt and orange belt for my g/f!

[laz001]

We passed!!! Hurrah!!!

I passed and got my blue belt, and my gf passed to orange belt!! Yes, I can;t wait to move onto new syllabus material, and to hear what my intructors thought and comments were next week!