by Gene Crawford | Aug 27, 2016
Thomas had his blue belt rank test tonight. It was his first test as an adult. I’m so proud of him, he fought and fought through the test and the final challenge and never once did I get a sense that he wanted to quit. I saw it in other students, they were scared and worried and didn’t know what was coming next and I believe they couldn’t believe how hard the test was… but my boy just dug in and found his heart and fought through it. So proud.
From the onset of the test, where each student had to do 3x rounds of wheelbarrow walks across the length of the Dojo. That felt tough from the just watching. Then going right into kicks and kata. Basics was pretty intense and they all did really well. Weapons and then self defense. The self defense portion was a good test for them too. Several rounds of “throw” had them all banged up and wheezing. Fighting was the last portion in the dojo, they really went for it tonight. So proud.
The final challenge was to pull the prowler around the parking lo, as a team. It weight a good 500# for sure. They had to fight it and communicate and really get it. Some wanted to quit and were pretty smoked. When they were done, Sensei said that they had to make another lap with 2 plates taken off and he was the first to say “yes sir!” I loved it.
I can’t wait to see where he’s going to go with his training over the next few years. In many ways I am easily more excited about his training than my own.
by Gene Crawford | Jun 27, 2015
Had rank test today, Green Belt (4th Kyu.) Got it and worked hard for it for sure.
It was a pretty grueling day, testing everything i’ve learned since White Belt. Ending with a physical challenge that was as hard as the test.
Got it. 🙂
by Gene Crawford | Oct 26, 2013
Just finished rank test for my Orange Belt. It took an hour and a half. *whew*
I have been training so hard and I gotta say i’m honestly surprised at how fast my stamina and endurance left me tonight. I think the extra stress of waiting around for the test just wears you out. Something to learn and prepare better for next time.
Overall I feel like I did pretty well. Some of Sensei counting moves in my Katas mixed me up since I hadn’t been practicing them with his counting. But when given the chance to do it on my own I rocked it.
For basics I did 3 sets of pushups on Mi Bo Sey, I think I was just weak and not so much wrong, but I’ll ask Sensei about it on Monday. Then for fighting I was dog tired but stuck it out. I lost my last fight against Russell in point fighting (first to 8 points wins) Ugh. I know I could take him, it’s just point fighting isn’t my strong suit.
All in all, I really enjoyed the rank test. I feel like I overcame a great deal of anxiety and am definitely better off for it.
by Gene Crawford | Feb 28, 2013
Promoted to Yellow Belt on February 27, 2013. By Sensei Brian Pena
Big class day today. I received my Yellow Belt. Huzzah! Then we had a class called “Bag Work” on the calendar. It was 2 hours of heavy punches and kicks on the bags, many sets of combos and focus on form and power. My knuckles are all kind of swollen and I completely jammed a finger on my right hand. Very stiff.
Before class I hit the gym for 2 hours and did point sparring and kick boxing rounds.
I think I may have gone overboard today.
by Gene Crawford | Feb 23, 2013
Tonight was Rank Test. Testing for my first rank, Yellow Belt in Shotokan Karate.
Sensei asked us if we were “nervous” or “excited”. I said “excited”, in truth I was all kinda jacked up excited. I flubbed the very first question: Do not forget that karate-do begins and ends with Rei. I could hardly believe it… I was beside myself. A few rocky answers later we got through kicks pretty solid, I did lose my balance on one back kick, when my ankle gave out for some reason… but otherwise they felt pretty good after I pushed on.
In Kata though, I really blew it. I missed the first two attempts. I think doing it with the other two students really threw me off my rhythm. I couldn’t get into my own head for it. Sensei gave me a shot to do it once on my own and I nailed it. I even nailed Taigo Two which I had never done before after 5 seconds of instruction on what to do.
I have no idea what this will do for my score… i’m crossing my fingers that the fact that I was able to pull myself together and move past my mistakes to nail the forms gets me somewhere… ugh!
I did well on the self defense portion, no mistakes and I feel like I nailed all of them. I practiced these the most.
I feel the same as i did after taking the written portion of the test, confused… But no matter what happens pass or fail I learned a very strong message about myself and that is that I won’t give up. Honestly I feel best about that above everything tonight.
