Karate Surprise

This year isn't going to be too good for me to compete in tournaments. I had just gotten back from Japan for the last one, so I wasn't up to competing. I won't be around for the one in May either. So Mama Lizard convinced me to compete this past Saturday.

Since three out of four little Lizards were in the tournament as well, I had a lot of time to chat with some of the sensei's. Sensei #2 heard me make a comment about being very competitive and asked if I was willing to compete a level higher with all of the brown belts. I said "Sure, why not?"

Kata competition went slightly better than expected, with me getting third. OK, so there were only four people competing, but I beat a master brown belt to get third.

Weapons kata went OK. I got second...out of two. I lost to a different master brown belt.

Sparring was the last event. Did I mention that I drew the low number, so I got to go first in kata and sparring? Anyway, I beat one of the master browns in the first match. The other mastwer brown beat the 2nd degree brown belt in their match. That put me up against him. We went a while, but in the end I beat him as well.

Fast forward to today. Mama Lizard went in to open workout with our Master (Sensei #1) today (she goes to open workout, I go to regular workout on Monday's). They got to talking and he made a comment along the lines of "We can't have a green belt beating brown belts in a tournament". Apparently I was on an accelerated pace to brown belt all of a sudden. He also suggested we prep Little Miss who had been advancing along with me.

So at 7pm I got to class and class was good. We started learning a new bo kata today. At the end of class we were lined up to bow out when Sensei #1 told us to spread out again. He and a 2nd degree black belt went in the back after Sensei told me I had one more thing to do tonight. I did not believe that I would be "tested" for brown belt like this.

They came out with some boards. The 2nd degree was holding one and Sensei said to break it. I've never done this before, but I gave it a whack. Literally ;) It broke quite nicely with a palm strike.

Then Sensei handed him two more boards and told me to break them both. He gave me the option of punch, elbow or kick this time. The palm strike worked before, so I did it again. The 2nd degree gave me my "kindling" to take home.

Sensei had us line up again, then called in all of the black belts who were waiting for their class after ours. They lined up at the front across from us.

Then I was called out "front and center" where a 3rd degree black belt pulled a brown belt from inside her gi (uniform) and Sensei announced "Advancing to 3rd Kyu, first degree brown belt, The Lizard". OK, they don't really call me the Lizard, but they might as well.

We went through the ceremony and now I'm a belt higher. It's a good thing we talked to Little Miss this afternoon, because we aren't the kind of people to hide things from our kids - except presents for later ;)

Now to catch up on all of the things I should know already but don't...