repiV
Tank
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- Sep 11, 2006
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Just felt like sharing. I had my jiu jitsu yellow belt grading today, a culmination of four months' hard training...
Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do (physically at least). A two hour ordeal which starts with a brutal warmup leaving you knackered for when you actually have to show off your best stuff. If that isn't enough, the pressure of four senior grades closely evaluating everything you do doesn't help the nerves either.
Then it moves straight into demonstrating all the rolls and breakfalls, which is my weak point anyway, and the incessant repetition of them is very tiring. Forwards/sideways/backwards rolls from standing and kneeling, diving over a person into a forward roll and a couple of other things which are too complicated to explain concisely.
As soon as you're done with that, everyone gets paired up and you have to demonstrate every single wristlock, armlock and throw in the syllabus to this point on each other over and over again. Utterly exhausting, only sheer strength of will kept me through that - and irritating because I have very good technique but it all went out the window because I was so shattered.
Then demonstration of forms (basically patterns of stances/steps etc) which is is a welcome respite, however I managed to semi-dislocate my shoulder doing the punching drill (I have weak shoulders, physio obviously hasn't been as effective as I had hoped).
Had to then take it in turns to do a grab circle, where you stand in the middle and defend against attackers doing various grabs/strangles and throw them. And the V, where you defend against a relentless wave of attackers who you have to throw onto the ground, and a new one comes at you every four or five seconds regardless of whether you've dealt with the last one. All the while the grading panel are yelling at you to put you under pressure.
I carried on with these despite the shoulder, which hopefully won me a few points, but was banned from attacking in them. I felt like collapsing at the end of the V as it was so tiring and I wasn't the only one. One of the girls practically had an asthma/panic attack.
Our style is renowned for being especially demanding and I can definitely see why now. Even though I've lost nearly two stone since I started back in January, I felt way out of my depth today (although to an extent, I think that's the point).
I definitely feel like I've earned the belt, which is the main thing. Now to ignore the temptation to celebrate with some kind of takeaway...
Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do (physically at least). A two hour ordeal which starts with a brutal warmup leaving you knackered for when you actually have to show off your best stuff. If that isn't enough, the pressure of four senior grades closely evaluating everything you do doesn't help the nerves either.
Then it moves straight into demonstrating all the rolls and breakfalls, which is my weak point anyway, and the incessant repetition of them is very tiring. Forwards/sideways/backwards rolls from standing and kneeling, diving over a person into a forward roll and a couple of other things which are too complicated to explain concisely.
As soon as you're done with that, everyone gets paired up and you have to demonstrate every single wristlock, armlock and throw in the syllabus to this point on each other over and over again. Utterly exhausting, only sheer strength of will kept me through that - and irritating because I have very good technique but it all went out the window because I was so shattered.
Then demonstration of forms (basically patterns of stances/steps etc) which is is a welcome respite, however I managed to semi-dislocate my shoulder doing the punching drill (I have weak shoulders, physio obviously hasn't been as effective as I had hoped).
Had to then take it in turns to do a grab circle, where you stand in the middle and defend against attackers doing various grabs/strangles and throw them. And the V, where you defend against a relentless wave of attackers who you have to throw onto the ground, and a new one comes at you every four or five seconds regardless of whether you've dealt with the last one. All the while the grading panel are yelling at you to put you under pressure.
I carried on with these despite the shoulder, which hopefully won me a few points, but was banned from attacking in them. I felt like collapsing at the end of the V as it was so tiring and I wasn't the only one. One of the girls practically had an asthma/panic attack.
Our style is renowned for being especially demanding and I can definitely see why now. Even though I've lost nearly two stone since I started back in January, I felt way out of my depth today (although to an extent, I think that's the point).
I definitely feel like I've earned the belt, which is the main thing. Now to ignore the temptation to celebrate with some kind of takeaway...
