How nervous were you at your first testing?

[ryukasagi]

I tested for my blue belt in front of my Grandmaster, Mr. Mills, and if you could have seen me you probally would have been laughing the whole time, i was so nervous i looked like i had drank 20 cups of coffee. Yeah i was nervous but i passed.

[bushido_man96]

Congrats! And don't worry about the nerves; it happens to the best of us.

[JusticeZero]

Not nervous at all. I went for the instruction at the retreats; the testing was a bonus.

[white owl]

I tested for my blue belt in front of my Grandmaster, Mr. Mills, and if you could have seen me you probally would have been laughing the whole time, i was so nervous i looked like i had drank 20 cups of coffee. Yeah i was nervous but i passed.

Congrats on the grading!

[Shotokan-kez]

I don't really remember my first grading, i have been doing it for so many years and have had time off it has faded a lot. I can tell you though that all my gradings are nerve wracking.

I find the Dan gradings the worst, i feel sick now just thinking about my Nidan grading on 17th may.

[nacal]

Was so nervous for white belt, I couldnt eat anything the night before or the day of the grading!

That was a bad move... I was starting to see stars during combinations!

[Montana]

Way back in the summer of 1978, my Sensei, Dennis Miller had invited the head of our system, Sensei Kuda Yuichi to come and visit us in a small town (about 12,000 people) in Montana. This was Sensei Kuda's first trip to America.

Sensei Kuda spent 3 GLORIOUS (well, for me anyway) weeks in Montana training us. To say it was fantastic would be a gross understatement.

Anyway, I was an first degree brown belt (just before shodan) and 2nd highest student in the class. During the 3rd week of Sensei Kuda's visit he had us line up against the wall by rank in a sitting position, and one by one, starting with my Sensei, had us stand before him as he asked us to show him various kata and other techniques. Each person spent about 10 minutes before Sensei Kuda doing as he asked. I was the 3rd person called up and performed what Sensei Kuda asked of me, and when I finished and returned to my place along the wall, my Sensei leaned over to me and extended his had. I thought he was going to say something like "Good job" or such, but instead he said...and I'll never forget this...he said "Congratulations...SHODAN!"

I said "WHAT???

He said "You were just tested and passed for shodan..."

I didn't know, or I would have been nervous as heck!

My sensei had trained under Sensei Kuda for several years and knew how he tested, I didn't.

There are a couple of pictures towards the bottom of this page of Sensei Kuda and I (I'm the really tall, skinny guy)--

http://www.geocities.com/rohai.geo/page.html

Sensei Kuda passed in 1999--he was a true Okinawan Master of his art, a find and gentle person and is greatly missed by those that knew him or had the opportunity to learn from him.

[KarateEd]

I remember the butterflies and the anticipation/excitement. At my school lower ranking students test first, usually, so at my first test I didn't have long to dwell on how nervous I was. As I progressed, I waited longer and longer before testing and had more time to thinking about the test and, thus, got just as nervous, if no more so, than at my very first test.

[hammer]

I used to be OK for my color belt tests, but unfortunately, I've been very nervous at every Black belt test...usually I'm OK until the day of the test and then I'm a basket case. Doesn't matter that with the exception of 1st Dan the BB tests for us are more a demonstration than anything else.

Have my 4th Dan test in a month. Toughest parts should be just making sure I can get though all of my forms and doing my break (breaks during testing are tough for me). I know at this rank I should be more at ease, but 11+ years of training hasn't quite overcome 40+ years of perfectionism. Grrr...

[Groinstrike]

My first formal test was for 3rd Kyu, i had done MMA training but had never formally tested for a rank in our combative system. I worked my tail off trying to memorize all concepts of our system. I got the tar beat out of me(which is common for all testees) luckily i passed with only minor head trauma.