day 1 of promotion
The first day of promotion is generally the basics: the simple techniques that we all learned as white belts, plus some combinations that we're all supposed to know (some are a little more advanced than the white-belt level, and the four of us going for nidan also had to do a black-belt combination). On several occasions, other black belts were pounding us and pushing us and trying to force us out of a stable stance, to varying degrees of success.
It was exhilarating, exhausting, intense, brutal, awesome. We were pushed very hard for two hours and I was making old-man noises when I got home. But I also feel like I'm really a third of the way to earning that second stripe on my belt.
At one point, Shihan said, "This is what you've been training for." Which was certainly true up to a point, but what I'm looking most forward to is what's on the other side of these four days we'll be getting the shit kicked out of us. *wry grin* There's so much more I want to accomplish, both as a student and as a teacher, once I become a nidan. And this is the road through it.
And it's exhilarating, exhausting, intense, brutal, and awesome. *big grin*
Tomorrow and Friday day I rest up, work on The Project That Cannot Be Named (Yet), and get ready for day 2......
It was exhilarating, exhausting, intense, brutal, awesome. We were pushed very hard for two hours and I was making old-man noises when I got home. But I also feel like I'm really a third of the way to earning that second stripe on my belt.
At one point, Shihan said, "This is what you've been training for." Which was certainly true up to a point, but what I'm looking most forward to is what's on the other side of these four days we'll be getting the shit kicked out of us. *wry grin* There's so much more I want to accomplish, both as a student and as a teacher, once I become a nidan. And this is the road through it.
And it's exhilarating, exhausting, intense, brutal, and awesome. *big grin*
Tomorrow and Friday day I rest up, work on The Project That Cannot Be Named (Yet), and get ready for day 2......