Brown Belt Test End of March?!

Sensei mentioned that Itai and I may be taking our first brown belt test — sankyu — towards the end of March. This fills us with fear; green belt is rank of frustration, as we’re being pushed to move and do technique like brown belts, but our bodies aren’t quite trained well enough to pull it off consistently. I suppose this leads us merely to feel that we’re not ready, rather than simply not being ready. I can’t tell which is true. October would be better; as Itai notes in semi-haiku, leaves change color in fall, green to brown; same with jujitsu.

Anyway, the sankyu test is supposed to be more about spirit than perfect technique. This means testing us to the point of exhaustion. Being in shape and having good aerobic endurance apparently doesn’t matter that much, since that just means they’re going to have to beat on you more until you are too tired to move.

Sempi Steve said jokingly that taking a couple of acting classes to portray exhaustion might help more than taking that extra spin class in the gym. I think this means that we should all take up chain smoking.

On more practical matters, I’m told I should to more work with uke where the uke chooses which attack to deliver. I have trouble distinguishing between different attacks. I’m told I should watch the shoulder, but I can’t see what’s going on yet. There were a few times last week with stick work where I thought the stick was coming as a slash, but came in as an overhead. I did move and get behind uke, so I wasn’t hit, but I was simply so shocked that my head was still attached to my body that I wasn’t doing anything from such an advantageous position. Sensei pointed out a different instance where I was working with sempi Daniel and sempi was moving first without thinking about technique; he was doing whatever technique came to mind after he was out of the way, which is the only way to deal with not knowing what’s coming. So, more work on those lines.

Last night, I was doing stick with Lee, also, with the attack being uke’s choice. It helped somewhat, though I still would have gotten my head taken off a few times if he’d been going at speed. For the sankyu test, he suggested taking a lot of time locking up uke, to catch one’s breath. More ideas to file away.

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