BrianAndPamela.com

Ok. I’m in a slightly better place now to discuss. Warning, this might get a little long.

First off, BIG thanks to all who’ve offered support. This is really an important moment for me and I’m happy to be able to share it with y’all.

Next, Let me explain slightly more about the events of the weekend. I can’t go into all the details of the test. For one thing, there are elements that are… well private to those in the family. Not so much “secret” but … as I said, private. So since that is kinda boring for you, and like saying, “Oh this was sooooo cool…. but I’m not supposed to talk about it”, instead I’ll explain the things I _CAN_ talk about, and those are pretty darn sweet.

So we show up at about 9PM and get in uniform. Our karate uniforms are standard gis that tie closed. They are also medium to heavy weight, meaning 10-12oz cotton canvas. We also wear, ummm… men’s protective gear at all times. I mention these things because everything I’m about to mention and every other thing that happened for the next nineteen hours happened while wearing these things. To say the least, my Gi may not ever recover from this, and I’m very glad I bought a spare.

So the first thing we do is carry our rocks — rocks are “awarded” to Ik Kyu (1st brown) students and carried with you for most training while preparing for Sho Dan. Mine weighed a little more than 21 pounds. — So we carry our rocks out to the hill next to the Dojo where we are instructed to army crawl up the hill, and crawl down the hill on our backs. And again. Back inside.the dojo.

Lets see… blur blur blur… lots of questions about the history of Isshinryu… blur blur, outside again. It’s raining and some time after midnight. I’m guessing before 1 am. Perform Bo (staff) kata in the dark facing different directions. Silently. (meaning no verbal cues, just based on hearing the others move.) If we got apart, we started over. The 10th or so time we stayed together enough to earn a short rest. Oh, I should mention that while there is a good deal of constant attention, even by this point there had been many small and a few larger breaks where we were encouraged to sit and recover whatever we could. At the very least once every hour or so we would be standing for several minutes watching fellow Sho Dan Ho (which roughly translates in our world to “Sho Dan … maybe”) perform kata or Instructors talk. So following the 10th bo kata and a short break (in the rain, which was actually a blessing… “Yay, rain” will become a mantra of ours for the next several hours) we then did one of our empty hand kata. Silently facing different directions. Only took us four times for that one. We were getting better. Back inside for some of the stuff I’m not going to talk about…

Outside again, 3AM … “Welcome to the wonderful world of ground fighting. You’ve never done much ground fighting before? Good! I was a champion when I was in the service.” Later found out the “service” was the US Navy SEALS. Yay. “Let’s play”, says he. I’m last of the five Sho Dan Ho to be called and every other person has been forced to submission VERY quickly. I’m just telling myself to remember to tap out rather than yell, “Ow Ow Ow God please let me go Ow Ow.” Which, given some of the positions I’ve seen him force others into, would not be inappropriate. We got onto our knees, bowed and got into the classic wrestlers grasp or fitting or what-cha-call-it with one hand under the arm and the other on the “lapel” of the gi. First thing he does is start to test my balance. He’s going pretty easy on me. Good. Pushes and pulls a bit to wait to see what I’ll do. I’m not nearly as dumb as I look, but I’m also not really thinking about anything except I want to last longer than anyone else.

— another tangent: To this point I haven’t been doing that well. I’m a big guy. While I’ve lost at least 70-80 pounds since I started Karate, I’m still overweight and no one is going to mistake me for anything but a big guy. I’m faster than I look and have better body control than one might expect, but … welll…. you know. Add to that the fact that I’d mostly been focusing on the physical aspects of the test: stamina, kata (forms), stamina, precision with techniques, stamina, and I don’t think I mentioned stamina. So all that means that most anytime someone asked me to answer a question, I got it mostly wrong. Even the ones I knew…. I tossed it. Sheesh. So to this point several people (including me) are probably thinking, “Why is this guy here? Wasting time, he is.” Although, I’m probably the only one that phrased it like Yoda in his mind. End of tangent —

So there we are, pushing and pulling on each other on the matt and he tries to drop me over my right knee. Well, I might have mentioned, I’m a little faster than I look. Also, my legs have been toting around lots of extra weight for most of my life and Karate has helped my body control, so through some combination of ducking, pivoting, pushing with my left leg and sheer dumb luck I ducked right past his take down and for a moment actually had the upper hand. I almost laughed when I saw the look of surprise on his face! Then he smiled…. oh boy. So we pushed around a little and I realized, Holy Crap…. I think I’m actually STRONGER than this guy, which may be because he just wasn’t using all of his strength… So eventually I wound up on top of him. Remember, he’s testing, so I’m fairly certain he allowed this. So I’m over him with a fairly decent base and his ankle forced up to his opposite shoulder. At which point he announces to me, “That was great! If I was less flexible than I am, you’d have me… Unfortunately…” And he grins. It is at this point that I recognize with complete certainty that I am …. well, I can’t repeat the word that immediately springs to mind, but I knew that I was. He does something with his hips that upsets my balance for the briefest moment, swings the other leg up and over my head, grabs me around the neck with his knee. Some how at the same time he has managed to get my arm…. and then I’m face down on the mat and my arm is being asked if it wouldn’t really rather be happier if it was freed from the nasty relationship with my shoulder. tap tap Tap Tap TAP TAP TAPTAPTAPTAP! I remembered…

I get up and the guy is smiling at me with pride. Not because he beat me, but because he was impressed. High praise.

Blur.

“Stand there in Seiuchin!” (Deeper stance, close to what some would call horse-riding stance, but not as deep. Very good balance. Very hard on the thighs.) “Ik Kyu!” (that’s me… means sorta “First Rank”. Kyus are numbered in reverse, so Ik Kyu is one step below black, while Ni Kyu, which is “Second Rank” is two steps below…etc) “Ik Kyu! What is one of the main advantages of Seiuchin?” “Balance, Sensei!” “Hai, Ik Kyu! And another?” “Strength, Sensei!” “Hai! So, are you balaced enough to stand there if I were to ask Sensei Jones (name changed) to climb on your back?” “Hai! Sensei!” “Alright, let’s see!” At which point, Sensei Jones, a five-five-ish female climbs on my back and places her feet on my thighs. “Now, Ik Kyu, if you were really balanced… I could do THIS” and he pushes on my back “and you wouldn’t fall over.” I didn’t. Pause… “Alright. Very good. So… Seisan Kata!” I get ready to start the kata. “WAIT!” I held. “I think you need a little more challenge.” Ok, so finally I’ve got a 245 pound Ni Dan (second degree Black Belt) on my back and I’m performing Kata. Try walking gracefully with someone on your back. Now… try kicking. Woot. Finished. “On your face.” (Push-up position.) Push ups… Alright, do more. Alright, here’s your rock on your back. Push ups. Not enough weight, have another!… Oy.

Welcome to the Burn. Up to this point we haven’t really been burning down. It was more a matter of keeping us awake and letting the clock burn us. Now the fun would begin. Pushups, crunches, squats punching and kicking drills up and down the dojo floor. It’s linoleum and is by this point slick with sweat, so each kick takes as much energy to hold onto the floor as it does to kick. This goes on for a LONG while…. alright. 20 min break… gear up. We get on all of our protective gear.

Somehow it’s now 6AM and there are aprox 30 blackbelts facing us across the mats. Hmmm… this could be fun. They are arranged not as to rank but rather from least to most proficient fighter. The more astute among you will have noticed by now that this means that we will be fighting the best fighters when we are most tired. Welcome to the Isshinryu Gauntlet. Hajime! (Begin) I’m fourth of five Ik Kyu to fight. The first woman to fight does reasonably well and takes few hard hits. It’s obvious to me that especially the better fighters are taking it a little easy with her.

Next up is one of the Junior Black Belts testing for full Sho Dan. He’s 16 and they are a little rougher on him. He is almost knocked out once by a well timed knock to his noggin.

One to go before my turn. He’s a 17 year old Junior Black Belt also trying to move up to Sho Dan. He gets pummeled. Not knocked out, he almost passes out from exertion.

This whole time, I’m getting more and more ramped. I guess you might classify me as a bit of a masochist. Hmm…

My turn. Now. Here’s how this works. Basically, you fight the entire line, in order. You get hit, you deal with it. I took a couple of decent shots, thought I might have broken a rib on someone’s foot…. about half-way through, I remember how much I love this and I get this crazy grin on my face. Now I’m pumped. And I’m remembering that the later fighters tend to start each attack with a jump or flying side kick. So I’m ready for it and do a good cross-body strike to the attacking leg. Then comes Sensei “Flurry” as I like to call him. He’s a good 5 inches shorter than I am and ripped like a… well a really strong ripped person. He also comes out at a hundred miles per hour kicking and punching and anything else he can manage. Pant pant pant. Finally I manage to get one of my shots to land. Its a shuffle side kick and I only manage to plant my heel in his arm but it’s enough to knock him back a bit and slow him down enough that I can breathe. “Next!” Half-way done.

So I’m on one of the tougher guys to fight. He’s a San Dan (3rd Degree) and has about 4 inches on me in height and at least that in reach, or so it seems. He keeps coming in close. So I let him. Twice. Each time he steps up and fires a punch at my head then shifts for a kick from the opposite leg. The third time he stepped up, punched. I don’t know if he was going to kick or not because as soon as he stepped I stepped off line, swung my arm up and in front of him and popped my hip into his, executing a pretty good takedown, even following up with a punch that while I pulled it at the last moment, could have gone through his jaw.

The other high level black belts to my left actually laughed and one of them clapped.

Now we were all having fun. I was still getting the living snot beat out of me (in one case literally, I almost broke my nose) but now we were all really loving this. “YAME!” (Stop.) “Sho Dan Ho!” “Yes, Sensei!” “Pick 5!” “Yes Sensei!” I picked the Wrestler, the Flurry, the guy I took down, the guy who rode my back for the kata and one of my Sensei from my home Dojo. I won’t describe what came next, but it left me with bruises and an enormous grin on my face.

I looked outside and it was light. The night was over.

All that was left was “Camp” which was a pressure point seminar, a couple of reasonable runs, some army crawling in sand, a mild swim in the Deleware River and about two total hours of standing in formation. I’ll skip the part where I hurt my back taking a cooler out of a pickup… (those things are HEAVY!). And then….

Well. It’s been four years. I honestly didn’t think it would mean that much to me. Then my sensei looked at me and said, “It’s been a while coming. You’ve worked hard. You deserve it.” He paused. Then he said, or more commanded, really, “SHO DAN!” and handed me a black Obi. I teared up. I mean… wow. Maybe it was the 19 hours. Maybe it was the fact that there were times a few hours before where I didn’t think I was going to make it. Or that they were going to let me make it. But there I was, kneeling facing a bunch of students that must have all been wondering how on earth this fat guy (and to the kids, this OLD fat guy) got a black belt. Well, they’ll see. When they reach the black belt test…. they’ll see how I got through.

As I walked down the line bowing to and getting huge hugs from each of the black belts present (all of the fighters and several more) I got the biggest grins. The biggest hugs I got were of course from my Sensei and the others in my school, but a very close second was Wrestler, Kata Weight, Flurry, Take Down Sensei and the woman that was there to test my balance in Seiuchin.

Wow…. So how long till I can test for Ni Dan?

Mint