Scott Bush

On Saturday I, along with two others, tested for my shichikyu (seventh rank) belt in Kei Shin Kan karate at our dojo, Northwest Martial Arts in Bothell. It was both fun and stressful, despite my feeling of preparedness. But, I suppose it wouldn’t be much of a test if not for the mental stress of preparation.

The details of the techniques I and my fellow karatekas had to demonstrate are here if you’re interested. In short, we demonstrated five blocks, three kicks, and one strike: a simple lunge punch. We also performed one kata (heian shodan), which is a sequence of coordinated strikes, blocks, and stances designed to be practiced solo. It’s the physical equivalent of a soliloquy: an expression of your skills performed against opponents who aren’t there. Anyone who questions the efficacy of practicing a set of rote techniques in a pattern hasn’t seen it done well. Watching a focused practitioner perform precise, quick, powerful, and graceful techniques punctuated by fierce kiyas would dissuade all but the most stubborn from attacking them.

But I digress. Our senseis—one karate, one aikido (an art we also practice)—and another black-belt student judged us; our test was video taped as well. Reviewing that tape and spotting the multitude of small errors is not an experience I relish, but I’m sure it will be helpful.

Because there were so few of us testing—and for the sake of the audience of family and friends in attendance—our test included some out-of-the-box components as well. One student was asked to perform heian shodan in reverse; another to do it with his eyes closed. My task was to perform it “left handed,” which meant to do a mirror-image: turn to the right first instead of to the left, and so on. I did it surprisingly well (maybe because I switched my mousing hand to the left six weeks ago at work?).

Where I didn’t shine was the explanation of practical applications from the kata. I explained how one motion could be used in a fight, but when asked for another I stumbled through a poor demonstration of how a knife-hand block could be turned into a throw. I did manage to hold my own against one of the other students testing when she was asked to throw me. She is a second-degree black belt in jujitsu, so the fact I managed to be thrown only two out of four times was a feat. Later, of course, she told me she was going easy on me—and I believe it!

As this is our first test, our belts will not change. Our gis will remain held closed with belts as white as they are. I’m fine with that. The test was an expression of what we’ve learned from our training, not a way to prove to others we’re any better than anyone else.