Today, i watched students in my dojo (training facility) test for different purple and brown belt Kyus (rank or level).  My sensei (karate teacher or head teacher) said that i could retest for second brown or 2nd Kyu, since the kata (form or series of moments) for 2nd Kyu is “Jion” (the name of a big temple).  In my former dojo, “Jion” was a black belt kata (a form you learn once you are a black belt).  Back in the day, i was 1st Kyu (next rank is black belt), but since i’m coming back after an 8 year hiatus, i felt that 2nd Kyu is a great place to jump back into the action.  Even if i fail, i still get to wear my brown belt  =)

Here are some tips for perparing for a rank test:

1. Videotape yourself doing a kata and watch the tape.  Look for the little things.  Are you winding up correctly on all blocks?  Are your stances correct?  Are you looking down instead of straight ahead?  Watching yourself do a kata is the best way to improve.  You’ve seen the teachers do it correctly, but you really don’t know what you look like until you watch it on TV.
2. When you are about to begin a kata and go to “Yoi” (a ready stance), think to yourself, “I’m going to show them how it is done.  I’m going to impress them with my kata.“  For me, this gives me the little extra boost of confidence that i need right before I’m going to do kata in front of ten or 100s of people.  So much of karate is just having confidence. 
3. If you feel like you missed a stance or you were wobbling just a bit, chances are that others didn’t notice.  of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to correct this.  what i’m saying is, “don’t get discouraged, and definitely don’t let it show if you do get discouraged.“

hope these tips help.  Let me know if you have any.

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The shotoblog has challenged me to start blogging about karate. At first I thought a weblog had to be about one topic. But, I’m starting to think that it’s not a faux-pas to blog about non-Whidbey topics. (did I just use a triple negative in one sentence?) Let’s see what happens with this category…

As my previous karate entry states, I’ve been out for quite a while. Everything is coming back to me fairly quickly, except for flexibility. How did I ever kick a 6 foot person in the head before? I’m open to any and all suggestions to increase flexibility. Stretching before and after class just doesn’t seem to help me much. Maybe I’m being impatient. It’s too bad that the Pro Club (the local gym that consists of a lot of Microsoft folks) doesn’t have one of those stretching machines. It’s all about prioritization and increasing productivity now-a-days for me. <grins>

What’s happen during the past 3 months back in karate?

1. My husband’s judo ways have accidentally affected my sparring skills. The first time I free-sparred a fellow student at my new dojo about a month (or two?) ago, I grabbed her arm, pulled her down towards me, and jabbed at her face. I then looked at the referee, like “why wasn’t that a point?’ Then it hit me, “oh wait, you can’t grab someone like that in Shotokan.” I think I apologized three different times that night to that student out of pure embarrassment.
2. It’s very interesting to do a kata for the first time after 8 years. Heian Yondan is such an example. All you have to do is “ki” (spiritual yell) at the wrong point in the kata (because you’re the only one in the class yelling), and you’ll never make that mistake again. Still, it’s weird to do something you had memorized in the past and then do it for the first time after many, many years.
3. I learned recently that women bow differently then men. For women, our hands are in front of us. Men keep their hands to their side when they bow. Also, when kneeling (during the traditional opening and closing class ceremonies), women keep their knees together. I was never aware of this difference before.

One day I’ll finally test for black belt.  One day…