2012-366 Day 12 – Karate II

Day 12 and I’m already repeating subjects? Actually, with 366 days to cover, there are bound to be subjects that need updating, and this is one that I’m (possibly irrationally) excited about, so it gets the honor of the first re-visitation.

So, if you recall from my New Year’s resolutions , that one of my goals is to get my 5th Gup Green belt by the end of the year. That assumes a steady two month progression through all the belts, which is pretty much the expected pace. I have to tell you, it felt really good to have a belt other than white, like the journey had truly begun. All would be smooth, I had gotten great marks on my test and earned all the medals (little stars you can put on your Gi pants that represent high marks in Effort, Kicking, Intensity, Technique, and Unity), and I felt confident. But then Chad, Kyle, and I got to talking, and realized there could be more to it. . .

As Master Kemmer mentioned at the belt ceremony, it had been a year or two since he had allowed someone to skip a belt level (essentially taking both belt tests at the same time, not passing over any material), but he had three people do it on this last belt test. Two of the people made the leap from Purple to Blue (bypassing Orange) and, by jove, we had just achieved a purple belt (yes, I busted a “by jove”! It’s my blog, not yours!). So we had a brief discussion with Master Kemmer who pointed out that it would not be easy, the people who had just done it had attended pretty much every class session possible, and that the final decision to allow us to attempt it was his alone even if we did go through everything but did not seem ready. You don’t get the honorific “Master” for no reason, and I felt those were perfectly fair conditions.

But what of this extra time commitment? The adult classes for lower belts are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 8pm and Saturdays at 12pm (with a Forms class at 11am). While I was a white belt, I was attending Thursday classes and any Saturday classes I could when not out of town. With the Holiday season over, my Saturday attendance will improve, but I doubt that would be enough. We have a Bible study on Tuesday evenings, so adding the Wednesday class would be the final piece. But I’m married, so I can’t just make that decision by myself (I’d have to get permission to tell you about the great Softball incident of some year I don’t remember, but I’m not sure I want to relive it either), so Jess and I talked about it (wait, is this a marriage blog now too?). Her main concern was if the time commitment was too heavy and whether I would be grumpy (that has NEVER happened to me! 😉 and was concerned there would be a repeat of a couple years ago, where we were overscheduled. I didn’t feel it was the same, as the karate class represented a hour and a half to two hour time commitment nightly, where some of my previous evening commitments took up three to five hours, and this time would come partially out of my gym/running budgeted time. We came to an understanding and, after a brief confusion over the fact it started that night, I was off to class.

So I attended my first class on Wednesday last night, and was struck by a couple differences in tone when compared to the Thursday night class. The first difference, upon entering, is that the class preceding the Wednesday one is the Advanced class, so there were Black and Red Belts as far as the eye could see. The class preceding the Thursday class is the Juniors Advanced class, which is a little smaller. The second difference is that Master Kemmer teaches the Wednesday night class and Mr. Weirman teaches the Thursday night class. DO NOT get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Mr. Weirman’s Thursday night class, but there did seem to be a little extra intensity and pop from the students in the class that Master Kemmer was teaching. This was also my first class where I was not a white belt, and it lent some extra energy and excitement putting a different color belt on.

The theme for the month at Cutting Edge Karate is goals, and I’m going to chase pretty hard after this belt skipping one, as one, it is doable with some hard work, and I’m looking forward to the work (already spent 15 minutes in my private dojo working on the block progression for basic form number 3 today). Two, it will allow it to be possible to exceed my resolution, rather than just meet it. And three, I just don’t think I’m going to look that good in Orange.

Okay, maybe three isn’t a good reason.

NOTE: The links in yesterday’s post didn’t show up (which is kind of bad for a post on websites). I fixed them, so you can check them out if you like.

Weight: 240 Max: 240 Min: 240 (ordered a fancy scale on Amazon today, soon you’ll get all sorts of numbers)
Yearly Mileage: 6.5 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange (Blue?) – Next Test Date: 3/12
Fitocracy Level: 7 (4386 points, 536/1500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1