Monday, April 23, 2012

Orange Belt Grading

Saturday was Defendo grading day for me.  I went into it feeling focused and reasonably confident, but for some reason, once we got to the techniques part, it was as if everything I knew flew out the window.  You know that feeling when you sit down for an exam and nothing looks remotely familiar?  I was completely blank.  My training partner seemed to be suffering from the same problem, and I think our nerves were feeding off each other.  It didn't help that we were the only two going for the higher belt.

Afterwards my sensei said that by half way through the grading, he had decided to only award us black tips (kind of like a half-way mark to the next belt).

But we rallied, somehow, and dug deep enough to scrape through to our orange belt!

So I have a mixture of pride that I did it, and disappointment because I know I could have done better - but regardless, I have my orange belt!!

I have at least 12 months to prepare for my next belt - so I need to practice enough to transfer the knowledge from my head to my muscle memory.  Obviously it doesn't stay in the head under pressure :)



I love this photo - this was before round 3 of 4 of 'back-to-back' ground fighting, with about 5 minutes to go of our hour long grading.  We all look completely and utterly exhausted!

I did it!!

5 comments:

Suji said...

You are amazing. :) Cheering for you still!

Meg said...

Well done! Such a great achievement :))

Butterfly said...

Congratulations! You've really stuck at it and gained so much. I'm impressed!

Butterfly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jugglingpaynes said...

Congratulations. You should be proud. The pressure of performing for a test--any test--can be intense. The first time I realized my daughter had inherited my test anxiety was during a belt test in taekwondo. She couldn't focus at all and barely squeaked by. The fact that you rallied and pushed through is an incredible achievement!

Peace and Laughter!0