Karate Tales of a 37 Year-Old White Belt

Green Belt Grading

So, we’re about to have another grading, and this grading is pretty big for us. If we get our red belts then it means that we’ll be able to go to the classes with the other Red, Apprentice Black, and Black Belts. As we prepare for this grading however, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you how we got our green belts last year.

I’ll pick up the story from being a Blue Belt right before the grading where my husband and I had been told that sometimes the adults advance faster than the children. So, like any good parent, we start to prepare our kids in case they got a lower belt than we do. Some may consider this a scare tactic; we call it incentive.

After the tournament our forms and wood breaking were looking pretty good, so we focused on our Bo Staff form which was prompted by Master Landry mentioning that she was going to pick some of us to demonstrate our weapon forms at the grading. You see, she has her own form of scare tactics. I mean incentive.

The weekend before the grading, we finally heard that our kids would be performing their Bo Staff forms instead of us. Normally, I would be the proud parent and congratulate them. The problem was that my husband and I were practicing more than them at home, and still telling them that they might not make the same belt level. Let me tell you, it’s awfully hard to maintain that position when they got picked and you didn’t. Umm… thinking back on it now, most people would be re-thinking their strategy at this point, but not us.

 

I painted my toenails purple anticipating that we would get our Purple Belts and went to the grading. While we were lining up, Master Landry was finding out what our current belt level was by calling out our names.

“Mr. Austin”

“Blue”

“Mrs. Austin”

“Blue”

“Older Ms. Austin”

“Blue, Ma’am”

“Younger Ms. Austin”

“8 Gup Blue”

“Excellent, it takes the youngest Austin to know her right belt ranking.”

 

My husband and I looked at her in astonishment. Where did that come from? As far as I can remember we never reviewed our belt ranking with her. Hmm… maybe the kids are doing better than we thought.

 

 

During the grading we were all surprised to get our Green Belts including both of the kids. In the car on the way home, I could finally give them praise and be the proud parent that I was. The praise stopped however as soon as one of them pointed out that I wasn’t going to as many karate classes as they were. “You know Mom, if you continue to skip classes, then you might not get the same belt level as us at the next grading and then you’ll fall behind.”

 

 

Oh no you DI'INT! just say that, but I have to think positively about it. At least they listened to what we said and took it to heart. Its funny how my own scare tactics are coming back to haunt me however. We’re less than a week away from our Red Belt grading and they are right, I’ve missed a lot of classes lately and still messing up some of the forms that I’ve known for almost a year now. Apparently I need to step up my game or I will fall behind and never hear the end of it.

 

- Wendy Austin

---

Please keep reading! Below are some links to my past blogs as well as a link to the new community forum where YOU too can post your own comments and experiences with karate.

 

· White Belt Blogs

· Orange Belt Blogs

· Blue Belt Blogs

· Karate - Martial Arts Community Forum (IMA students and parents have a special area in this forum to discuss classroom ideas.)

Green Belt Curse Strikes Again

OMG! I’ve been hit by the green belt curse and it took a while to figure out I had it. I first learned about the curse after we got our green belts. My daughter was having a bad day in class and got frustrated with herself. When Master Landry came over, she said that it was the Green Belt curse. You know what you are suppose to do now, but don’t have enough practice or skill yet to act upon it and you get discouraged.

The curse snuck up on me too. It started when I was having trouble with forms 6 ( Pyung Ahn Sam Dan ), 7 ( Pyung Ahn Sa Dan ), and 8 ( Pyung Ahn Oh Dan ). I was annoyed that the forms weren’t that easy to remember and now that we had so many of them, they were starting to blur together. Then worst of all, I stopped painting my toe nails. This may not seem like a big deal, but I have this thing about painting my toe nails before each grading to the color of belt I want to get. Green toe nail polish just didn’t inspire me. I tried to do a light pink instead, but that didn’t work either. For months now, I’ve gone to class with no polish.

During class, one of our instructors asked us, “Who wants to be a Black Belt?” Not only did the question catch me by surprise, but I didn’t know if I wanted to raise my hand. I did the hand half up and half down thing. That’s when I knew that I had the Green Belt Curse. I realized the excuses for not going to class came more easily, the Karate Fever was long gone, and my toe nails were without polish.

This set me to thinking. Is this curse really just caused by the lack of colors changing around my waist at each grading? (In Tang Soo Do, we go through 3 gradings of being a green belt which usually accounts for about a year’s worth of time.) Was this an American thing, where if we don’t see instant results we're dissatisfied? Or just a case of pure laziness? I may never know the reason for the curse, but I’m tired of it.

You start to question whether you are ever going to get better, is there something else that they can teach me, and on and on… You question if it is worth all of the effort and contemplate quitting.

I’ll admit it. I thought about it, but then a funny thing happened. I started remembering the forms and the really difficult one, Bassai Dai (form 9), was beginning to make sense. A new set of students joined the school and were asking us questions about how to do things, and I knew the answers! And I actually think I’m getting a little better in sparring. Of course, I’ve accidentally hit my husband in the face once while sparring which we’re not allowed to do as Green belts, but that was just pay back for him hitting me in the nose while sparring. See if I quit, then I would miss out on all of the cheap marriage therapy. So, I figure if I want to keep my marriage happy, then I need to stay in karate.

So, I still don’t know the answer to whether I want to be a Black Belt, but I do know that I don’t want to quit. And in the meantime, my toe nails are now painted a bright red.

- Wendy Austin

This blog is dedicated to Paul Sudol who passed away this past year. My husband and I can easily say that the first word to describe Paul would be Mentor. He showed us that you don’t have to be the fiercest competitor or the best fighter to be a great Martial Artist. We would often run into him at the library studying and learning different aspects of karate and martial arts. My husband and Paul would often share their knowledge after class and swap books with each other. For myself, I have learned courage from Paul and despite being quiet spoken and a bit of a nerd, Paul demonstrated that a good martial artist comes in all shapes and sizes and should still be respected for what they bring to the art form. When I get my black belt (which I now realize I want to eventually achieve), I’ll have put in the effort to get it, but it would have been Paul’s example that showed me how to achieve it.

Paul, wherever you are, please know that you will be missed and each time I go to the library, I look over at the computers and smile while I think of your dedication and studiousness.