Today, my Sensei presented me with my first level black belt in Shotokan. I tested last Sunday and was told I passed, so it wasn't a surprise to me. Still, for the rest of practice, I was a little shocked whenever I caught a glimpse of my own waist, wondering why my belt was so dark against my white gi.
A black belt. That's what it was. No big deal, it's just a different color of my belt, right? I don't feel particularly different. There are still many things to learn, many things to improve about my karate techniques. There are still plenty of years to be training and levels of black to strive for and possibly achieve. How is this belt color change any different than the last time I changed belt colors?
Perhaps it's the expectation that comes with the words 'black belt'. The term assumes mastery in a martial art. The other colors don't have that connotation. The expectation feels a little intimidating. I don't necessarily feel like I've mastered the art. Far from it. But I told myself earlier that now I'm training and studying for real. So far, it's just been a preamble to the real thing. And for some reason, that made me feel better.
I started karate again a little over 6 years ago when I realized that I was horrible at keeping up with a regular workout. The gym membership near work ended up being free money for them because I always came up with an excuse why I didn't/couldn't go to the gym at lunch. Even a semi-regular stint with the rock climbing gym in the evenings didn't take as well as I'd hoped. Exercising at home, in front of some exercise videos ranging from Taebo, belly dancing, Pilates, to hula dancing was even shorter-lived. So I went back to my college roots and looked up the nearest Shotokan dojo near me.
I had good memories of going to karate practice in school. Even through finals, I would make sure to go because it had such a calming effect on me. I started on a random whim when some cute boy asked me to join his karate class. I was thrilled that the Sensei taught karate in terms of forces and vectors and other engineering terms I was learning about during my classes in the day. I had just earned my green belt three years later when my Sensei moved away. Between co-op jobs, graduating and applying to grad school, I never did settle into a new dojo afterwards.
Cut to post grad school when I discovered that the nearest dojo to me was being taught by the Sensei of my college Sensei. I figured that was a good a sign as any that I should start up again. I went to watch a class and I was itching to get up and practice again. So I signed up for a class the very next day.
Since then, I've competed at some local tournaments, attended karate camps, injured my ankle, healed, worn my share of bruises and now I'm a black belt. As a marker on my path, I guess it is a big deal to me, after all. I hope to be practicing karate for many years yet to come.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Black Belted
Saturday, March 27, 2010
It's a Hat Trick!
Today was our dojo's annual tournament. Ever since I got my purple belt, I've been expected to compete in the kumite (sparring) portion of the tournament. Just like the previous year, I approached the prospect with dread. I don't think today's results will change that, but I can be happy with my performance at least. I competed in individual kata (forms), team kata, and individual kumite. I won first place in all three events. Yay!
It'll probably never happen again.
It probably also helped that I was record keeping at one of the rings (we had three competition areas going at once to get through all of them in a timely manner) up until minutes before I had to compete in individual kata, then team kata, then kumite in rapid succession. I didn't have time to get nervous or overthink the sparring part. Although I did have a moment of panic just before individual kata where I blanked on the first couple of moves. Thankfully I didn't go first.
Afterwards, I could watch the black belts in their competition which is my favorite part. 1) I don't have to compete and 2), I get to watch people at a higher level of ability do it better.
Now, I can relax knowing that the next tournament is a whole year away.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
What I Did at Karate Camp
I practice Shotokan karate, an Okinawan martial arts style founded by Gichin Funakoshi. I've been practicing for about three years on this most recent stint. I started way back in ancient times when I was in college, took a break and now I'm back. Last weekend I attended my dojo's semiannual karate camp. It's like going car camping - days of strenuous activity, eating, no showers, sleeping and rising with the sun.
Our karate camp is held at the dojo. We sleep on the hardwood dojo floor. The rhythm for the weekend is practice-eat-sleep starting Friday evening and going until mid-day on Sunday. Typically, Sensei picks out an advanced kata (training form) and breaks it down in detail so that we better understand each move. This is usually through application or "bunkai". Every move can be used as a block or counterstrike against a particular attack. I find this also helps me remember the kata sequence. The advanced katas tend to be long and short sequences of movements may be similar to other pieces of katas, so memorizing the sequences can be tricky. And I typically don't do these longer katas in my everyday training (I tend to work on a particular kata in preparation for my next belt test). Trainings also range from breaking down a particular advanced move to pure endurance/cardio tests to oblique activities that may not, at first blush, be directly applicable. But of course, Sensei doesn't make us do anything that's irrelevant.
This time, I learned 2 advanced katas, Hangetsu and Jion. We only practiced Jion the first day and worked on Hangetsu for the rest of the weekend. The bunkai for Hangetsu was probably the most complicated I'd tried so far. But I did work with a couple of our black belts so that helped me understand. Even though Sensei changed it up as we were still trying to practice the original application.
We also worked on moving around blindfolded so that we could develop sensing our environment without relying so much on sight. We practiced moving around the dojo around obstacles as well as trying to sense when others were near and their relative location. I wasn't very good at finding other people, but I did try and employ the sense you feel when someone is reading over your shoulder. I think that was effective a handful of times.
There's also a philosophical aspect of camp. That's one of the precepts I like about this practice - I'm working on mind, body and spirit instead of just body. Since Sensei is Sufi, which I understand to be a mystical study Islam, he views Funakoshi's teachings of karate through that lens. Which is a bonus because I learn about Sufism and karate teachings all at once. Most camps, the philosophical segment is primarily done through our after meal talks where Sensei will talk about his past, the meanings of his faith, karate teachings and how it applies to living life outside the dojo. This time, the philosophy segment was augmented by a movie we watched called Bab'Aziz. It's an allegorical movie set in Iran about a dervish wandering the desert with his granddaughter in search of a gathering of dervishes. It was only later, when I had access to the internet again that I understood that a dervish is a Sufi Muslim mendicant ascetic, known for extreme poverty and austerity (Thanks Wikipedia!). I had thought dervishes were weather phenomena in the desert like mini tornadoes. It's a beautiful film with a beautiful score but I'll need multiple viewings to fully understand what's going on. The dervish meets other travelers along is journey and we find out about their goals and search as well.
One of the two things I took away from this viewing was in the opening screen. It was a quote that said, "There are as many paths to God as there are souls on Earth." The other concept I liked was when Bab'Aziz, contemplating his death, explained that it was his wedding night to eternity and there's every reason not to fear it.
Our final practice on Sunday morning is Qigong. It's not nearly as energetic as our regular practices but in some ways it's actually more physically difficult. Holding poses for minutes at a time takes its toll on my muscles. But the fascinating thing for me is feeling the chi energy that we're focusing on. I'm not enough of a qigong student to really sense the power of it, but Sensei says that you can defeat enemies simply with chi. I suppose for the time being, I'll just have to take his word for it. My engineering brain can't visualize how that could possibly work and believe it.
Before I started going to karate camps, I used to dread it. But as I've attended several now, I find myself looking forward to the whole experience, especially the learning part.