my corner of nowhere particular
Pete Wilk was kind enough to take some time post-polo a few weeks back and take some pictures of my new kung fu sword. The sword form is a beautiful one and part of the reason for this is that the sword is such an attractive weapon. Check it out!
Awesome!
Thanks again to Pete for the great pictures!
Yesterday I went to the black belt test for fellow students Roland, Jedd, Rachel, and Sunjay and a 1st degree black belt test for Kody. It was really inspirational to watch these five perform in front of the masses.I hope to be able to steal and post a photo taken by Roland’s wife Nicole of Roland breaking a board with a jumping back kick. UPDATE: got it. Through some fantastic chance skill, she shot it at just the point when his foot went through the board. Siiiick!
When this post is updated, the picture will go here.
While there, one of the junior student’s mom was telling a story of the Durham fair. Her son, Joshua, is a little kid who recently got his black belt. I’m not exactly sure of his age (UPDATE: he’s 11), but he’s a tiny little dude with epic flexibility and amazing kung fu skills. Apparently his family went to the Durham fair last weekend. At the fair was a booth being run by a few military types. You could challenge them to a push-up contest. If they couldn’t do twice as many push-ups as you, then you’d win a prize!
Now, mind you, Joshua despite his ridiculous impressiveness is entirely visually unintimidating. So I’m certain that the muscular jarheads probably didn’t think much of it when he polished off the first ten. But, come his 120th push-up without showing any sign of fatigue, they quietly admitted defeat, told him that he could stop, and gave him a prize.
I send out my congratulations to the five students who are now black belts. Well deserved, very well deserved.
I am proud to report that I was promoted to advanced brown belt in Kung Fu last Friday.
The progression:
The structure goes something like this:
Beginner
Yellow: short classes, 3 self defenses,
Gold: 2 self defenses, 1 hand form
Orange: 3 self defenses, 1 hand form
Intermediate:
Jade: medium class length, begin sparring, 3 self defenses, 1/2 hand form
Green: 3 self defenses, 1/2 hand form
Purple: 3 self defenses, 1 hand form, 1 bo staff form
Blue: 3 self defenses, 1 hand form, 1 bo staff form
Advanced:
Red: 3 self defenses, 1 hand form, advanced strikes
Brown: longer training classes, 3 self defenses, 1 hand form, 1 bo staff form
Adv. Brown: 1 sword form, perfection of techniques
Awesome:
Black: awesomeness achieved.
We’re probably looking at a solid year of training before I can start looking forward to a Black Belt test. This is not depressing however, because the immediate future holds a fair bit of excitement in that I’ve started learning sword. Last night I was handed a wooden sword with which I’ll learn all the basic moves. Last night I was working on two simple figure eight movements – nothing crazy. I imagine it’ll be some time before I try my hand at the metal blade.
I also need to better condition my body for the black belt test. Going from Adv. Brown to black is the first time that you need to pass a specific test to progress forward (as far as I know, each progressing degree of black belt also requires a test). The pre-test is a private ordeal, so none of us are sure what exactly happens. Kung Fu Roland is up for his pre-test this Saturday (good luck Roland!!!)
What we DO know is that we must perform all our forms, all our self defenses, fight two opponents at once, perform 50 panther pushups, 50 row-boats (or pikes), and hold a horse stance with a bo’ staff resting across your legs for 150 seconds.
Right now I know (but have not yet perfected) the forms (excluding the sword form) and all the self defenses, but you can bet your sweet bippy that I am not up to par on my horse stance. Right now I’m probably hitting 60 seconds at best. I’m going to have to figure out some sort of training regimen to help me towards that task.
After the pre-test is passed, there’s a ceremonial test where family and friends are invited. It’s at this point where there will be a huge party and much celebration. BLACK BELTS FOR EVERYBODY!
Last night I hit up Kung Fu and had the exciting opportunity of getting sized for a sword. I’m in a bit of a weird spot at Kung Fu because travel has limited my class time. I’ve been able to practice a fair bit on my own, so I feel comfortable with the forms etc – but the class time is just as important because time spent in front of an instructor really helps ingrain the techniques into muscle memory. I’ve been to about 350 classes over the past 3 years. My head instructor informs me that most people have between 500 and 600 classes when they reach black belt level. I’ll have to work hard to pull that sort of class count if I want to get my black belt by this time 2010.
Last night the head instructor went through the supply closet war room hunting for the right sized sword. He picked one out and brought it to me. Receiving a martial arts weapon is about as close as I’ll get to Harry Potter receiving his Holly and Phoenix feather wand. After sizing the weapon to my frame, my instructor set it aside stating “This will be your sword. It will wait for you until you’ve reached advanced brown belt.”
Cool.