Dan and Kyu

Karate obviously works with a level system starting from the worst (white belt) to the best (black belt). But in between these color markings there are centuries of traditions and meanings. All the belts which are not black belt are called Kyu. Kyu meaning class refers to the class that the student is in before he is an actual teacher. The Kyu grading system starts as a countdown, you begin and 10th Kyu and move onto 1rst Kyu. At the moment I am 3rd Kyu (purple) and have the 2nd and 1rst Kyu before I get the black belt (both of those are brown belts). After that you become a Dan which starts as 1rst as you become black belt. Dan in Japanese means a step or grade; at this point you can be considered a teacher and not a student, even though you never stop learning. The Dan counting goes from 1rst Dan to 10th Dan. Usually all of the Dans have the same belt (black) but in some styles a very high Dan can have some exotic colors. There is another very intrusting thing to learn about Dans. Depending on the contribution you had to the karate community, you might gain a Dan after you die. This usually occurs as a sign of honor and valor to high members of karate society. If you are a 7th Dan and you die you might just make it up to an 8th Dan. Another important thing to learn is that just because someone is a high Dan doesn’t mean he is actually better at fighting or teaching; very high Dans usually show status and contribution even though they still require tough exams that occur only in Japan. Often enough a 5th Dan is a very only person who looks very wise but surely can be beeten in a fight since they cant even move well. The greatest Dan alive for the wado-kai style is an 8th Dan which is a relative of the founder and one who trained for many years with the founder of wado-kai.

Exam

So this post is about the exam I am going to have on the 28/11 and I am really very anxious. To start out, the exam begins as 8:30, and my plane will only arive from WOC at 9:30 so I will probably not be able to do it. After the exam, which is a group demonstration of combos such as punch kick and so on, there is a tournament. The tournament is part of the exam and is very competitive because winning the Katá or fighting tournament can mean a passing in the exam. In my case I am going from purple belt to brown belt, which is a very hard test since it is already very advanced. I talked to my karate teacher and he said that if I dont make it to the first part of the exam but do a really good job in the tournament I can probably get the brown belt. Even if I dont, it is always good to be noticed and present amoung the karate community; the more important you are and more you appear the greater your dedication will be, making the examiners more linient on you since you practice a lot. I really hope to get there in time because I want to become a brown belt. If someone asks you about what belt you are and you say purple it doesn't mean anything; in fact purple is the second belt in aiki-do, yet everyone knows that bieng a brown belt means you are one belt before black belt.

Weapons In Karate

Karate, as I spoke many times before, is a martial art that involves your arms and your legs. Though it is very rare to actually get to learn how to use weapons in Karate, some sensei's show and teach them for students. My sensei chose from the Dojo's arsenal only one weapon to teach me, the katana. The point for this was not for any self-defense, physiological or actual training with weapons, it was to enhance my karate training. Many exercises that I have to do with the katana involves muscles that I need to strengthen and that are hard to strengthen only with karate. These are muscles located in the shoulders and chest. But swords are not the only weapon that can be taught in karate; the staff and the daggers are also used. I am really in favor of these types of trainings not only because they help me to get out of the routine of katá and fighting sessions but also because I really enjoy learning they things, especially when I know they will help me later on. The katana training also helps to correct my posture, a key element in karate katás, even though it may seem trivial. The last advantage of learning how to use a weapon is that it is very awesome, and if one day I am mugged and I happen to have a katana in my back pocket: I know how to use it!