July 3, 2009

Black Belt Means Starting All Over

Tonight was my first night back in the dojo since annual training and testing. There was a sea of black belts in attendance. I now know why people say when you get to black belt, then you're really ready to learn.

We wasted no time getting into black belt kata territory. I spent a lot of time being extremely lost. I kind of felt like a white belt all over again. In addition to several new open hand kata, we also worked a kama kata. For those who don't know what kama are, they kind of look like sickles, you know, those crazy hacking things for fields? Yeah those.

Experienced black belts often use bladed kama. Hanshi handed me wooden ones and I was grateful. I think I would have taken foam if available. I wasted no time dropping one of them. When you have to swing them around between thumb and pinky finger, it gets a little overwhelming, especially when you're also trying to get your feet and hands in the right location and direction.

Hanshi made a joke and had us all drop our right kama to the floor so we could get it out of our system. Then another black belt dropped his and I felt a little better. It's amazing how much less it bothers you when you drop a weapon when it's not black belt testing.

At the end of the night, we lined up to rei out. It was such a thrill to line up where the yudansha stand, on the side. There are three more of us now and I think I can speak for us when I say we're pretty excited to be there.

Tomorrow morning, I'm meeting one of the other new Shodans who will now be known on BBM as "Tree Trunk." "Tree Trunk" makes working wrist locks especially challenging, which is how he got his name. His wrists are about five times the size of mine and they just don't bend. It's really not fair, but that's another story. We're meeting at an embroidery place to have the kanji put on our gi jackets. Then we'll officially look like we belong in black.