This Sunday is my assistant instructor Chris's Shodan grading. He is fine right now, but I know that the night before the test he'll be very nervous, but he has his own ritual for dealing with nerves. He eats a healthy, high-carb meal, takes a hot bath or shower to loosen up muscle tension, then he watches one of his favourite Kung fu movies.
I too will be a little nervous. This is the first time I've ever gotten a student up to Shodan before. I can't take full credit for it though because he had years of prior experience having trained in Shorinji Kan Jiu-jitsu. Still, he is being judged on his calibre of skill in my particular style, Can-ryu, and as a result, I too am being judged.
For those of you who aren't in the know, I'll be the one running the grading, but the heir apparent to our style, Steve Hiscoe Shihan will be there to witness the test. So even though I'm running it, if Shihan watches the test and is dissatisfied with what he says, he has the last word. Not that I'm worried that Chris won't pass. I just want him to do his best and show off the skills I know he has. If he does that, he'll definitely succeed.
Either way, Chris's test is a milestone for me and I'm looking forward to running it. He's the first Shodan candidate I've had in the 7 years of I've run my own dojos. Has any of you out there reached this particular milestone? How did it feel for you?
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8 comments:
Good luck Chris. Remember, Blow, Throw, Blow.
Because of the way my club runs at a university I dont often get studnets for more than 3 years. Not everyone comes to me as a novice, so I get to tecah at all levels but it actually took me 25 years before I taught a student of my own all the way from novice to instructor. and like your situation she was also my partner. Possible the most tense unbearable afternoon of my life. would rather re-do all mt dan gradings with a blindfold on than go through it again.
Splinter, do you think that it's worse having no control over the test that your partner is going through or to have complete control over the test? Since I'm running the grading I have to be the one to put him under pressure, which means I'll go harder on him than I might on others to make sure no one thinks I'm going easy on him because he's my partner. Ugh.
Good luck to you Chris, although you shouldn't need it if you prepared well. Besides you're already a shodan so you should be used to it. I don't know when my grading will be: my partner with whom I've been training for months left his gf and now he can't make it half the time because he has his kids with him. This thoroughly sucks but what can you do? There isn't anyone else I can really rely on so I'm doing my best with the very limited time I have... Too bad the curriculum is based solely on partner exercises and sparring or I would have been able to train extra on my own. We'll see, it's not like a black belt is that important: my skill level won't rise all that much in that timespan and it's already quite high, even if I say so myself. There are more important things in life than martial arts which is still a pasttime, unless you can actually make a living off of it.
Break a leg, an arm or whatever... Just leave his neck intact, will you? lol
Zara
The clock is ticking chris: tick, tick, tick... Lol
So how did he do?
I happy to announce that he Chris was successful in grading to Shodan. :D. He had a number of pretty awesome moments, including a beautiful blindfolded Jiu-jitsu circle.
Congratulations Chris! A beautiful wife at your side and a second black belt... This must be one hell of a year for you. So when do we got to see a picture of the man with his shiney, brand new black belt?
Zara
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