Blue Belt Test

I tested for my blue-belt today. In the karate style that I study blue is the fifth belt. Every belt test is difficult, and not just because you have to know your stuff, but each one is also an intense physical workout, and today’s test was the worst one yet.

Normally people test on a Saturday, but for blue belt you have to do some sparring as part of the test, so Sensei tested me during a normal class, so there would be people available to spar.

First we did some jumping jacks, then he said to do 10 push-ups, roll over and do 10 crunches, then 10 push-ups, then 10 leg-lifts. Then he had as do what he calls running jumping jacks. You have to run across the dojo, and do 1 jumping jack. That’s one. Then back across the dojo, and another jumping jack. That’s two. We had to do 10, and when we finished we had to do the highest “form” that we know. Whenever you see some Karate guy on TV practicing his moves, and it looks sort of like he’s fighting someone who’s not there, but it’s obviously a choreographed set of moves, that’s a form. I have about 5 forms. Next he lined everyone up, and they took turns attacking me (about 5 people), and I had to use specific techniques to defend myself. Then more push-ups, and crunches, then more running jumping jacks, and repeat the rest of the steps.

After a few rounds of that I was pretty tired, and would have been happy to call it a day, but that’s when Sensei told us to grab our sparring gear. First he made me spar everyone in turns. A few rounds of sparring can be exhausting. One guy even had to quit, because he was tired. He was like the third guy I had to fight, and he quit because of fatigue, and I had to keep going.

I got so tired that most of my karate training went out the window, and I was just trying to get close enough to lay one on whoever I was fighting. The good fighters took advantage of my desperation by backpedaling, and peppering me with punches to the head. I did pop most of them a good one though. Out of the five of them, four had to stop, because I hit them hard enough to ring their bell. The one who I never hit hard was the guy who got too tired to continue. They were landing five blows to my one, but the one I landed was hard. It was the only way I could fight at that point. Take a few punches for the chance to unload one big one.

Once I had gone with everyone once, or twice. Sensei started to double them up on me. That’s when it got really tough. I was already getting killed by everyone one on one, because I was too worn out to fight, and then I had to deal with two guys at the same time.

At one point I thought to myself that I really wanted Sensei to let me stop, or I might pass out, but then I thought if I pass out I’ll get to stop, so that’s not so bad. One or two rounds later he finally did let me stop, and I got my blue belt.