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.