By Jonas Munkesøe, Member until 2012

You barely manage to look around with your 2nd kyu before you stand and have to take the next step on the stairs: 1st kyu. A year has passed. The spring of 2010 was the time when graduation was getting closer and closer for me, and of course everything had to be in tip top shape (or almost at least), so the physical form was polished and the old syllabus was carefully taken up again for a refresher.

Considering how the physical test went last year, I should definitely be better prepared for this graduation. For my 2nd kyu, I had practiced the race quite a bit, but unfortunately not nearly as much was done with the three circles – result: more or less dead after the three rounds of the bronze circle, and when the cooper test had to be done, I was completely done. Got through – shame I did – but it couldn't exactly be called pleasant.

This time I started running three to four times a week about half a year in advance. As I got closer to graduation, I cut back a lot on the distance and instead picked up the pace on my run, often doing the three circles plus a cooper test.

The physical test was no problem either, and the trip on the treadmill (although I now always run outdoors) went smoothly and easily.

The next stop in the process was worse: Syllabus, theory and freestyle tests. I didn't particularly fear the syllabus test, because a lot of it is now fairly well on the spine - the worst was almost the theory test... well enough, I thought myself that I had read... or trudged... the hardest through those pages over and over again, but hold on up it was hard to get it to stick on the board. As if a mushroom constantly came flying and whispered everything away again. And then it was also somewhat more tempting to go for a run than to open the syllabus...

The syllabus test went just fine, the freestyle test I now also had a feeling went okay, despite the fact that it ended up being dizzyingly hard - but the theory was a hard sneeze... It started something like "what does Shindenkan mean?". And then I was blank…no idea. "What does Kaidenkan mean?".

Hmmm... "What does Shinsei-ryu mean?". Um… “What does Hassei-ryu mean?””. Eeeeeeeee…

Not the best way to start (the only thing I could actually remember what it meant was jokokan, and of course that wasn't asked)… And to make matters worse, we were whipped through those meanings and I just couldn't remember a stick of what was mentioned just a few seconds before.

Well, I had the pleasure of trudging through the syllabus even more for the next day so that I could pass. It was also really optimal to sleep only five hours after three hard stop tests, and up to a final graduation with 6 hours of training and a stamina pot test...

The next day, not exactly super well-rested, but sufficiently, we, who had not managed it well enough on Friday, were up again. And phew... it worked!. Shortly after, I was satisfied with the final graduation.

At the top of the whole process was the pad test: first with arm techniques, then with leg techniques and finally both. It was split up, so there were three teams up, and we, who had to go up to 1st kyu/1. dan (Carsten, Elisabet and myself), were lucky enough to be the last and thus could look forward to it being our turn. If it was that special lucky...

It was very hard - at least that's how it ended. At first the arms soured; when it was the legs' turn, yes, they also soured to shame. In the final round (combination of legs and arms) my body had mostly gotten into a state á la gele, and it didn't help that the minutes were at least as slow as in the usual German class at school.

You must remember to take advantage of the often very short breaks, where you can possibly get control of your breathing and heart rate. In any case, it helped me a lot, because the energy comes immediately with a more regular breathing. Then, of course, you should also try to remember that while you are in the process of putting on pillows, because what comes easily goes easily.

… and I passed. Not just the put test, but the entire graduation process: 1st kyu Shinsei-ryu and 1st dan BKK Gensei-ryu. - So no doubt that I flew straight home to bed satisfied, where the missing (and deserved!) hours were to be slept off.

And yes – a good piece of advice for all the rest of you who will at some point (or very soon) go up to a brown belt graduation, it is a good idea to read that syllabus thoroughly again and again AND again... It is, as told from experience, I myself will try to get something out of it for next time. In addition, I will definitely try to organize my time differently: nothing to do with reading a whole lot on individual days and then otherwise not open the syllabus at all for long periods of time – if you read a little all the time, it will probably end up sticking well .

In addition, I can mention advice such as:,

• start the preparations for the physical test in good time and at least have tried the course with the bronze circles plus cooper test before the real physical test
• practice through the curriculum (i.e. the physical part with katas, shihos, etc.) in small chunks every other day. Actually, in the same way that you should probably read through the syllabus (the theoretical part)
• and keep your nerves under control! Especially for the syllabus test, where this will surely burn through. If you believe in yourself and are self-confident, then in any case, nervousness will not be able to get in the way of your graduation.

See you on the next step on the stairs! 1st day...

Jonas Munkesø Loft