February 26, 2007

All systems are a go

I pre-tested tonight. The week before kyu testing, we all run through all our material (kata’s, weapons, waza’s, etc.) to make sure we know what we’re doing. Our instructor has to give us the o.k. to show up at testing. It saves time at testing, and allows the instructors to see what your material looks like when you’re not a nervous wreck.

Testing this weekend is supposed to be huge. We have a large number of white belts testing for their next stripe, some yellow belts going for green, some greens testing for stripes and two brown belts looking for their next stripes (myself included).

Pre-testing went well. Kata feels different in a heavyweight gi. Punches and kicks snap, and with the bo there’s a huge difference too.

If all goes well this weekend, I will be a 2nd kyu, which means only one more test before black belt testing. If I make it to black belt testing, I’m finally be living up to my namesake here.

And while we’re on the subject of karate, I had one of my proudest moments as a Mommy yesterday. Lil C heard me talking about karate and going to class, and out of the blue she said

Dojo.

It was clear as day and she’s been saying "dojo" (which means school for training) almost as much as she says, "Kitty, me-aw." It’s pretty exciting. In utero karate training really has its benefits.