It's over and we did it!!! We successfully completed our Nidan grading on Wednesday night. It was definitely the most stressful grading that we ever did. Everything that we had studied was covered in the grading and our intense preparations definitely paid off.
We started with kata, which we both managed to make minor mistakes in. Not a very good start for me seeing as how kata is normally the one thing I can do reasonably well. My nerves definitely got the better of me. As Sensei Brousseau told me later, I did my first kata so fast he almost thought he could see smoke coming from my heels. Oops.
Everything else seemed to fall into place after that and our kobohs, self defense, pressure points and sparring went well. The bunkai portion, which we had been the most nervous about when we first started preparing for this grading, went really well. We only needed to demonstrate six bunkai from the forty-two that we had learned. Board breaking went really well, too! I was extremely happy that all of my boards broke on the first try. This is the only part of a grading that I don't practice for at home first! Mark's double break with a shuto strike was awesome!
All in all, we were happy with the way the grading went. That nervous feeling is gone and we are super excited to be back in class. Now it is our turn to help others prepare for their next belts.
Although as Mark said to me yesterday, "Better ask Sensei Brousseau for the requirements for Sandan. We've only got three years and it wouldn't hurt to get a start on it." Never ending journey indeed!
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Do mu kyoku translates to "No Limitation for Life" which means that the path of the karate-do student is endless and that there are no limitations to it. This is my endless journey and these are my thoughts as I pursue this powerful and dynamic art.
"The Ultimate aim of the art of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants." Gichin Funakoshi
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