does anyone want to share there grading experiences

[sepai 85]

good afternoon
I find that exchanging grading and training stories can be fun amusing not to mention a good way to understand the way diffrent martial artist approach diffrent things. So please feel free to comment and tell stories to your hearts content.

thanks in advance
yours in budo

[Gene Williams]

I had two lots graded last week, but one was so steep the dump truck couldn't get down the hill and we had to hire a back hoe with a claw to clean out a lot of the brush. That cost extra, plus the county made us turn in a site plan because we were on a pond and that cost 825 bucks! Bummer.:mad:

[sepai 85]

I am sorry to hear that. I believe my comments were misunderstood (no disrespect intended) I was refering specificly to karate belt testing and training stories. My most humble apologies for my lack of clearness

yours in budo

[Iron Chef]

Originally posted by Gene Williams
....plus the county made us turn in a site plan because we were on a pond and that cost 825 bucks! Bummer.:mad:

What difference did the pond make, is because of that wetlands protection crap. I know dad had problems with that stuff related to field tiling after a neighbor built a lake near one of his fields.

[Gene Williams]

Ed, I think it is because there is a tremendous amount of growth in the county (two large recreational lakes, a new Ritz Carlton, lots of high end residential subdivisions)and this sleepy little dairy county isn't used to that. They are afraid it is going to get away from them. Up until last year, a site plan was unheard of for residential real estate around here. I think their concerns were more with drain field space.

[Steve Williams]

Originally posted by sepai 85
I am sorry to hear that. I believe my comments were misunderstood (no disrespect intended) I was refering specificly to karate belt testing and training stories. My most humble apologies for my lack of clearness

yours in budo
Don't humour Gene :eek:

He's just playing with you...... in a verbal way, I would never imply that Gene play with people in any other way ;) :)

[Gene Williams]

Aw, c'mon...humor me:D Steve is just a mean old moderator who thinks we should stay on topic, treat each other with courtesy, and allow room for disagreement. How outrageous!:p

[Steve Williams]

LOL....... :D



Or I should say:
Gene, thats a warning, tell us your grading stories, or I will ban you ;) :) :D

[Steve Williams]

And i'm not old... I'm only 37........






(cue monty python Holy Grail sketch....... but I really am 37 ;) )

[Gene Williams]

I don't like the term "grading." "Testing" is better. What kind of "stories" do you mean?

[sepai 85]

sorry for the delay I was at dojo
what I mean by stories is what kind of things did you experience

1) what were some of the conditions of your grading hard contact verbal stress etc ?

2) do you feel you learned more about some of the principles such as mushin and zanchin ?

3) do you consider your gradings misogi ?

4) do you have any funny comments about your grading

I ran into a wall, lol

[sepai 85]

testing rather :D

[MarkF]

Pardon my "only a judoka a**," but aren't you either graded or ungraded?

From what I understand, that happens once in one's life, just like sex and death.


Mark

[n2shotokai]

I had a student punch himself a few months ago, but I didn't see it as I was filling out a comment on his testing sheet.

Had a guy a few years ago testing for shodan that while performing the down x-block after the leap in Heian Godan punched the floor with BOTH hands he was so nervous !WHAM!

I hate testing! Why can't people just relax??? Of course you have the people who get so freaked they go completely blank.

[Bustillo, A.]

Originally posted by MarkF
Pardon my "only a judoka a**," but aren't you either graded or ungraded?
From what I understand, that happens once in one's life, just like sex and death.

Mark

You just used up one of your coupon rations.


to stay on topic.
______________________________________________
Bem wrote.

1) what were some of the conditions of your grading hard contact verbal stress etc ?


__________________
Ben Wallace
______________________________________________

A.B responds

1.- during all my testings,from white to advanced, they have been full contact.

[sepai 85]

Mr Bustillo

I am intruged by your comment "during all my testings,from white to advanced, they have been full contact." my question to you in regards to that is do you gradually build up the contact or jump right into it (which is unwise IMVHO. as well what syle of karate do you train in ?

domo arigato goziumusu

[Goju Man]

Originally posted by Bustillo, A.
You just used up one of your coupon rations.


to stay on topic.
______________________________________________
Bem wrote.

1) what were some of the conditions of your grading hard contact verbal stress etc ?


__________________
Ben Wallace
______________________________________________

A.B responds

1.- during all my testings,from white to advanced, they have been full contact.


you know, there really is a lot of content in the forum here. Sure, Gene, Manny, Hector, Ed, myself and Antonio, crack jokes. (Well, not Antonio, he just isn't funny.) ;-) But, between our jibes, there's some good info put out there.
Rob, I think that was pretty funny.:D

[Bustillo, A.]

Originally posted by sepai 85
Mr Bustillo
I am intruged by your comment "during all my testings,from white to advanced, they have been full contact." my question to you in regards to that is do you gradually build up the contact or jump right into it (which is unwise IMVHO. as well what syle of karate do you train in ?
domo arigato goziumusu


Mr. Wallace,

Regardless of karate style 'old school' never pulled their punches; it was always full contact.

It is wise to deal with reality.

[sepai 85]

I agree completly. your oppponent doesnt have to pay for you medical bills so he will try and remodel your face with his foot so why not train against someone attempting that. Plus it might not be the plastic sugery that you wanted but it is free ;)

[Bustillo, A.]

Originally posted by sepai 85
I agree completly. your oppponent doesnt have to pay for you medical bills so he will try and remodel your face with his foot so why not train against someone attempting that.
;)

Not a far-fetched notion.

[Gene Williams]

Rob and Manny, I could have said, "Yeah, Antonio is funny but looks aren't everything...":D But, I didn't say it...I could have but I didn't, see Antonio, I gave you a break:p

[Goju Man]

Originally posted by Gene Williams
Rob and Manny, I could have said, "Yeah, Antonio is funny but looks aren't everything...":D But, I didn't say it...I could have but I didn't, see Antonio, I gave you a break:p
Man, talk about old school. But at least Antonio doesn't have a pony tail.:D

[Bustillo, A.]

Originally posted by Gene Williams
Rob and Manny, I could have said, "Yeah, Antonio is funny but looks aren't everything...":D But, I didn't say it...I could have but I didn't, see Antonio, I gave you a break:p

My mickey mouse ears? Got that fixed a long time ago. I look only half as funny now.

[Gene Williams]

Antonio, Did you ever do full contact using the body armor (old style bogu)? I did that a lot back in the 70's and early 80's. Gene

[Bustillo, A.]

Originally posted by Gene Williams
Antonio, Did you ever do full contact using the body armor (old style bogu)? I did that a lot back in the 70's and early 80's. Gene

No, it would have been a good experience but, at the time, our 'old school' Japanese instructor was against any type of protective equipment.

Hector can back this story up. Once, when a student brought in a pair of gloves to class and had them resting in a corner of the room --he hadn't even planned to use it--, our techer picked them up and threw them out the door.

[sepai 85]

In the dojo I train it is expected that by brown belt you should be able to take a fair amount of punishment and keep going, this is especially true for brown belts going for shodan ho. I heard a good saying once I think it went something like

"you do what you have to do to survive and then mend your wounds after"

thank you for your time

[RobertW]

Testing, hmmm. My own? Sandan in Karate. The full contact smashing I went through. Yes. Didn't work for a week. I only had a few days notice before the test. My teacher (Okinawan 8th dan) thrives on doing stuff like that. After it was over he let me have it for an hour because he was pissed that I showed I was in pain. Doh!
Testing, someone else? Every time one of the kids gets up there and stands there like they are the latest victim of Dr. Freeze and don't move for abouit 25-60 seconds. "O.K. Kyotsuke, rei, yoi, rei, kamae"....

[sepai 85]

has anyone ever done misogi ? do you consider your gradings misogi ?

[Sochin]

Two funny things;

One of my green belts was being tested in front of my sensei. Her pants became untied and were slowly slipping down! Her stances got lower and lower, trying to keep them up.

Sensei called her basics to a stop and while she was at attention, holding her pants up with her wrists pressed to her hips, he told us that this had never happened before but he desperately need to go to the can and please excuse him for a minute.

As soon as he disappeared, she got her pants up and re-tied.

Too funny!

The other one was my own Nidan grading...it was over 110º in the dojo, windows left closed, we left wet footprints when we walked across the hardwood.

My old Mum was in town and wanted to see the grading tho no audience was allowed as the dojo was too small.

Sensei let her attend of course, (she was 81 or 2) and she sat on the side.

During my tonfa kata, (another 'of course'), I lost control of my wet tonfa and it went to the ceiling and landed beside her - I'm the only one I know that nearly killed his old Mum with a tonfa at a grading!

[gmanry]

EE Dan (nidan) outdoor test:

Half mile course run to 9 different stations and perform two kata each at each station, running must be a full sprint.

Sparring: multiple opponent, one on one, and cut-throat sparring (three people all fighting each other everyone is the enemy, you can team up, but then you half to fight the other guy when the first one goes down or runs out of steam).

Indoor test:

All basic techniques and combinations, all kata performed to your best ability, multiple sparring, one on one sparring, breaking, question and answer.

Sam Dan test (san dan):

Out door test: run six miles and perform 250 pushups and 250 crunches I did mine in 1 hr and 18 minutes, not bad given that distance running is not my strength. However, I got bitten up by ants at one point doing crunches, damn florida ants. Jump rope for 10 minutes. Return to school and perform basics and fighting combinations full tilt.

Indoor test: All kata to best of ability, sparring multiples, one on one, self-defense techniques (ippon kumite; one-step sparring), breaking techniques, question and answer.

Personally, I think that a lot of this kind of stuff is fairly useless and I don't really even believe in grading anymore, particularly for dan ranks. Kyu ranks it is ok.

My Kyokushin (derivative) class ni dan test was interesting. All kata performed to best of ability, demonstrate applications.

kumite was done in three forms:

Oisono waza (like sticking hands with foot movement)

Goshin waza (round robin in a ring of people defending against random attacks with either set defenses or henka, contact allowed)

Ten on one: Semi-contact sparring no protection against ten opponents with very few techniques being illegal. If you score a blow on an opponent that would "take them out", they sit out (stomp kick to back of knee, reverse punch to the temple, etc. Body shots and leg kicks could impact, no contact to the face with hands, but you could control to that target. Kick to the head was ok, but you didn't see much of it.

[sepai 85]

there was this one time where one of our blue belts was doing saifa and on the final shift backwards into neko ashi dachi he lost his balance and went heals over head into the nearest wall we all had a good laugh over it but the kid was pretty pale white in embaresment it was classic. Cant say I have seen the pants falling down though that must have been a pretty good laugh.

thank you for your replies
always IMHO

[gmanry]

Just after receiving my black belt in TKD, I was allowed to help test the new crop of black belts six months later.

So, it was a guy who I paired with quite regularly, we were sparring and having a good match. He faked and got me to plant my heels, and then lauched a spin heel kick to my jaw. I did see it and thought I would smoothly fade it with a slick brushing block to the side of my head. Well....time is not a fixed phenomenon. I got nailed and he split my lip straight through.

My instructor had to tell me I was bleeding. It was bad enough to have to get it stitched ASAP. Oh well...what can you do.

At the karate dojo in WA, there was a student who had been disrespecting the female black belts just before he tested for shodan. Prior to the test, we had one of our toughest black belts (female or not) put him down...repeatedly. My wife put him down again in another class (clean upper cut that made him bite his tongue, ooops).

So, his test arrives and he was still talking trash. During kata, in places with ibuki, ones resolve would be tested. Since, being bested by the women didn't wake him up, we had Tim, a very powerful and usually very nice Samoan student, do the ibuki test (Tim broke the ball bats like toothpicks and was easily the most powerful guy in the dojo in terms of raw impact). Ball of the foot roundhouse kick to the stomach. Apparently, this guy had pasta for an early dinner... and he didn't come back...

Usually, I am not in favor of this type of stuff for getting students to leave, but this guy was a real jerk. This guy had been warned repeatedly to cool it, couldn't recognize reality when he got his !!! handed to him by the women he thought couldn't fight. So, I guess he had it coming. One of those women, last I heard is now competing in IKO3 tournaments and was doing well. I heard she had to fight in the men's division for a lack of opponents in some of them and placed.

On the truly funny side, a friend of mine was warming up for his shodan test. We had a core bunkai from taikyoku kata that is a naked choke escape. it involves dropping ones torso parrallel over the thigh once it is completed to effect the throw (bowing throw). He was a little jazzed about the test and bounced his nose right off his thigh. He was in the moment, he was there, feelin' it...man (sammy davis)...CRUNCH! We all felt bad at the time, but it turned into a great story later.

[sepai 85]

not to sound like a total ***
but that guy sounded like a total retard, IMVHO he deserved what he got. I to do not like that sort of thing but sometimes actions speak louder than words, there is no place in martial arts for disrespect and dishonor.

[sepai 85]

anyone else have stories to tell. Lets branch this out to any stories about training , trips to Japan , martial arts tournaments , testing , and diffrent people.

thanks for your time.

[Jock Armstrong]

I vaguely remember crawling [no exaggeration] off the mats at the end of tmy nidan grading. We just did our kata and then 30 two min rounds. Some mltpl opponent ones were thrown in and the sparrers were every black belt from other dojos in the area that could come as well as our own. I went to the army hospital on Monday for physio on my knee [I wasn't supposed to be doing anything stressfull] and when she saw my bruises she gave me a week off! she also didn't tell my unit why-saved me from doing my week off in jail!! I still cringe a little when I remember that beast session.It was 1985. when I was young and fit [stupid?]:beer:

[sepai 85]

yeah kumite seems to create its fair share of bruises am I wrong ?Especially the brown belt and yudansha kumite gets pretty rough, I think it can be good for you though because you are gonna take shots in a self defence situation and you need to keep going so it teaches a good lesson in that sense. I am not saying for sparring just go straight into pounding the crap out of your partner because that isnt appropriate in all circumstances IMVHO you should first gage your partners skill level and vary the intensity and contact based on that level. The one thing I find is the local china town herbs and acu puncture shops have saved me countless hours of explaining why I have a limp or a bruise ;) to those who know me, zheng gu shui , dit dat jo , and tiger balm seem to work wonders to hide those bruises.

thank you for your time
your brother in the arts