Grading

The grading event was quite something. I was surprisingly nervous, but it was much more of an ordeal for others. Being the most junior in the class, there are only a few things I can do to be judged on. From the outset the instructor, who had arrived with additional black belt back-up, made it clear that this was a different set up. No talking, no messing about (like we would) and total focus would be required. He adopted an extra serious face. We worked though basics, combinations, pad work, fighting and kata. I was very thankful I only know two katas and spent at least 20 minutes sitting down during the other ones, as I was pretty tired by this point. Although I hate to admit it, since this is just an exercise class which I'm only doing to get fitter, I was really anxious. This did affect my already basic performance level and more irritatingly this would have been obvious to any trained eye. Overall, it could have been worse - I passed along with my white belt pal. Job done. As for the others, they varied from confident, clearly eager to display their skills, to disabled by the pressure. All levels were being graded, even black belts. I had to perform pinan ninan in front of the class and am very pleased that I did not do too bad a job of it (although I am now very aware it was far from perfect). While I know that my technique is not perfect, the most frustrating thing is that I cannot control it. One time the blocks have an incorrect wrist position and a stance is incorrect. Another time it's something different. The fact that I cannot control my movements irritates the hell out of me, since if I consistently made an error, I could try to correct it, but inconsistent errors are a much harder thing to rectify.

What I hadn't realized is that the black belts have to wait five years before they can try for another dan. In reality this means that if you start as an adult, unless you go for every grading as soon as you can, you may not live long enough to get above 4th dan. It's a good job my aspirations are rather limited. However, one of them is coming to pass - I am getting fitter. Today I jogged up eight flights of stairs at work and could still talk at the top - success! My next challenge, the press-up. I can only do the down bit. Press-ups can feature heavily in a class depending upon instructor mood and class level of attention. I am the only one in the class who has special dispensation to do press-ups on my knees. Everyone knows these are not proper press-ups and nobody else (woman or child) has this dispensation. It was granted by the instructor after a few minutes of observation who must have felt that something was better than nothing. I want to be able to do five convincing press-ups and I hope this should also improve my punching. There's only one thing for it - training. I'm going to try to do 100 punches and kicks every day.