By Jan Vendelboe, Member until 2014
Saturday 12 December 2009 was a beautiful clear and sunny winter's day - I could tell when I drove home happy and euphoric from the annual Christmas camp.
Only a short hour before, the camp had ended with my graduation and awarding of the brown belt. It was thus a happy but tired 3rd kyu from Ballerup who, after 6 years of training in Jokokan Ballerup, had achieved one of the major milestones with the brown belt.
And why does this particular belt mean so much? I remember that I was also happy about my 9th kyu graduation and there were also butterflies in my stomach at the first graduation. It is probably because you have trained extra hard and for a long time after this particular belt and there have been several stop tests I had to go through before I can be happy about my new degree. And it all culminates on this day with the graduation itself, which ends with intense pad training with punches and kicks, well supported by all participants in the Måløv hall who support them with shouts and applause. Am I tired and happy? Yes, certainly even if you wouldn't think that such a few minutes of physical expression would be anything special...
Normally, the physical test is immediately before the graduation day, but this year there was also brown belt training and a Task-fighting 2 course that had to be fitted in. The days leading up to the graduation therefore looked like this starting from last Monday: Monday training, Tuesday at home reading the syllabus, Wednesday training, Thursday physical test, Friday brown belt training, Saturday Task-fighting 2, Sunday home training, Monday training, Tuesday off, Wednesday training , Thursday at home reading the syllabus, Friday technical test and Saturday then finally Christmas camp with graduation and pillow test at the end. If I had long arms? Santa Claus! But it is already forgottenJ
In connection with the brown belt graduation process itself, the worry starts already in the stomach for the physical test. After all, I am not 30 years old anymore and can sprint and run marathons like in the old days. What if I have an off day, hurt my knee and what if…. However, there was no worry on the day. First a bronze circle of just over 6 minutes. – up to the ceiling in 12 minutes. After that, we have 12 minutes to run a minimum of 2200 meters for me. Here at the finish line of 2460 metres. Nice that my graduation colleague Christian, 4 kyu Frederiksberg, also managed it in a really good time, even with extra sprints in his legs.
The next test with butterflies in the stomach is the technical test. Only Christian and I will be up, so that Kimu Sensei's watchful eyes will see everything. Unlike Christian, I have been to a 3 kyu graduation before, so I had a good, calm feeling of what I was getting into. Last graduation unfortunately failed with a Ho and if I have to be honest, I wasn't mentally ready and there was far too much on the job that took my concentration. This time I was ready, had taken half a day off to strengthen my concentration and recharge for the test. I knew my katas and shihos and was fit for fight. The technical test itself lasts 1 ½ hours at a hectic pace back and forth in our syllabus. First physical execution of our skills. Then oral review of the syllabus with questions and understanding of names and concepts, and finally saw Task-fighting and free-combat on 50%-80 %+.
It is all very intense and you must be on 100% during the course. Still, you'll get out of it at some point. The physical review and final Task-fighting went well, but the oral review of the syllabus suddenly became long and difficult. The last time I was up there were 8 of us for 20-22 questions. This time we were 2 men for what felt like 1000 questions from AZ throughout our syllabus handbook. Here, you cannot hide behind other candidates, but must trust that you can remember your material. Kimu Sensei does not report whether you have answered correctly or incorrectly, which also helps to make you insecure. And you also start to think that you have already gotten and answered the question before. Was it wrong before? There were questions that Christian and I answered in unison in each other's mouths, to which Kimu Sensei replied with sober mine, if we went up together and answered questions together - would we then also dump together? Enough so that the little familiar clap was about to come loose and slam in. And then came the question that everyone in Shindenkan can answer, but which was suddenly completely gone; "What does Mai-ai mean?" Umm, ohh... It was just completely empty on the top floor. Mai-ai? it turned into a me-don't-remember-it…
During the final Task-fighting and free-match, Jens Kyoshi, as well as Martin-, Søren-, Keld- and Brian Renshi-dai participated and supervised as active "stress" moments, but also good "encouragers" in the process. Christian and I were on again and got our Mai-ai forgetfulness out of the body. During this test it is also important to keep a cool head and maintain an overview. Don't get carried away more than you can control yourself and your opponent. Also save some effort and energy, because we don't know when the test will end. But we made it with our breath and only a single sprained middle finger (remember to do your Uké properly).
Finally, we were sent outside and Kimu Sensei evaluated in front of the head instructors. We were called in a little later and received our verdict. Everything had gone well except for the oral test of the syllabus. Here we had to cash in a Ho, but got the chance to have it erased by studying the syllabus overnight for a final oral review on Saturday morning before the start of the Christmas camp.
Thus, half the night was read and I was very tired when I came in this morning. I couldn't sleep anyway. It had been far too intense and exciting the day before and I was a bit on edge. Now it just couldn't fail and this morning's question at 08:00 was thus somewhat nervously received.
Fortunately, it went well and we got our Ho deleted. We could thus start the day in a good mood - there were only 7 hours to go! Before we were sent away, however, Kimu Sensei admitted that he had deliberately been hard on us during the oral test of the syllabus. A new line had now been drawn in the sand to mark that at the entrance to brown belt we must know our curriculum better than it has been tested previously. As Kimu Sensei said, it's difficult to teach curriculum techniques you can't remember what they're called - and it doesn't give a very good impression of credibility either.
The Christmas camp went well, although more push-ups were handed out than at any previous camps, as we just had to get the dojo-kun in place for real. So, all in all, you were well spent after the graduation with all the katas and the last punch and kick was placed on the pillow and we could finally line up and await our "sentence".
The redemption with the many days and hours of intensive training and testing could finally be given free rein when Kimu Sensei could inform us that we have both passed and now have a brown belt of 3 Kyu. Not only that, Kimu Sensei further praised me for my commitment and signed off with the additional degree of 1st Kyu in Kodosoku-kai Gensei-ryu Karate-do. An award that I was incredibly happy about. It was just a lovely feeling and gratifying to receive so much praise and congratulations from colleagues, friends and Jens Kyoshi. A big thank you from here to Søren and Henrik Shidoin-Dai who have been really good sparring partners in the month leading up to graduation and who have supported with good advice and tips.
Is there any good advice that I can subsequently pass on to the next graduates? First of all, you have to be mentally ready. You must be in good physical shape and then the syllabus must be completed. The better prepared you are with your kata, shiho, kumite and kihon etc. the more relaxed and focused you will be able to be during your graduation and thus have the last surplus you will inevitably need during this test. If possible, find together with others who are going up and train together and test each other - it is extremely beneficial.
