It’s done…

Well, Sunday was grading day, and despite an ill timed night out on Saturday, I dragged myself up on Sunday morning with a hangover-deluxe.
Again, my training kicked in and I was able to focus on the task at hand, thank god for that.
To start off the day, we did a short training session consisting of our usual warm-up routine and then line drills performing most of the basic techniques we would be graded on shortly after. This had two purposes, one to give us a chance to rehearse the techniques one last time and two to fatigue us. Why fatigue us you ask? Simple, part of our training requires us to be able to control our thoughts and perform the techniques despite physical exhaustion.

But I’m sure the question on everyone’s mind is how I did. Well, I don’t know, I’m glad it’s not my job to assess my performance. I did the best I could and some things went well, others didn’t. I recon this time around I did show the best commitment I have done in all my gradings to date. Overall I had a pretty good feeling, but my perception is still that of a beginner and I’ll have to wait for my instructor’s feedback. I really do hope I passed, but even if I didn’t, I won’t worry about it too much, because I can always have another go, once I’ve practiced a bit more.

For what it’s worth, I thought our two white belts (also going through their grading on Sunday) did exceptionally well. Some of the techniques they performed were the best I’ve seen from them. Well done guys!

The next step

In class we are currently preparing for our upcoming grading. It’s due next Sunday, which is well timed, since I’ll be on holiday for 2 weeks afterwards and unlikely to train.

So at the moment all our focus really is on refining the techniques we need to master for our grading and practicing katas. I now start to appreciate katas more than I have in the past. I’m not sure why, but I just do.
I’ve dedicated myself to an extra training session with one of our white belts, which should give me the opportunity to practice some of the techniques and particularly my katas. Chon-ji should be at the top of the agenda, so that the white belt can benefit from our session as well, but I will try to put at least as much effort into Do-san and Dan-gun. My intention is to go through each pattern at least 5 times to get the sequences nailed and an additional 3 times paying particular attention to the individual techniques. It will be a long evening… I’m looking forward to it.

Let’s hope it’s worth it in the end and I pass my grading. Fingers crossed.