grading difficulty

[IAMA_chick]

blue is our hardest test until we get to test for black belts. i will be testing for my green in may and they are adding moves for me to be tested on, but we practice them every day in class.

[theswarm]

well we all grade together from 7th to 1st kyu after that they have seperate gradings

 

and green (6th) to (5th)blue is way harder looking than orange to green was, i think they have to do double the techniques that we had to do- way longer shika and kiba dachi, way harder combinations, way better level of expected kata and they have to spar for way longer than us.

 

Although I remember being pretty well pressured going for 6th kyu because I took it more seriously than any other grading, as a result was covered in sweat 5 seconds into the grading - my feet were slipping from them being covered in sweat. When we had to go into box splits my feet were slipping more and more into the splits because of the sweat and I knew if i flexed my hips to stop them moving I'd do them damage so I had to let them move more and more and more and relax. One of the combinations which I had no trouble doing in my prior grading - I suddenly couldn't do (Christmas holidays kinda made me suck) which was this ko kutsu dachi shuto uke conversion to zen kutsadachi with a yaka zuki (is that the right name for reverse punch?) followed by a mae geri - damn easy combination for me now and before the grading - on that day of grading with that much nervousness my body just refused to do it. So i tried and tried and managed to do it, being told to correct something at grading is even more nerve racking - because you're sitting there trying to concentrate on what your doing then you have to concentrate on what a sensei is saying to you while another sensei is doing the count and wanting you to respond to the count. Then I performed possibly the worst katas of my life - when I got to sparring, all of a sudden my usual kumite stance was higher and more rigid than usual. Eventually I got back into it...then it was over and it was all worthwhile. I came to class Tuesday after that and did 100x better kihon/kata/kumite and made sure every day i practiced anything that I had trouble with. Lately I've been walking around my house whenever I get spare time going into ko kutsadachi as fast as i can, and been doing my katas with my eyes closed (which isn't necessarily such a good idea where I practice my katas at home - ouch sometimes).

 

So that's the story of my hardest grading, in actuality it wasn't THAT much harder than my last grading - but I was so much more calm...ahh the importance of being calm and collected.

[karatekid1975]

I agree, Hobbitbob, with both your posts. I went from a 6th gup/kyu to 4th gup/kyu in my new school. BUT my instructor keeps telling me that there isn't any rush. He rather me know the techniques, than rush through them and get them confused. But yet, he does challenge me. Some stuff I picked up quick (slight changes in forms and techniques that I already knew), so he would give me a few more than last time to work on. The other stuff that I have problems with (like Taegeuk 6), he works with me on.

[stencil]

We never test unless the sensei things we're ready to test. As such, there's pressure and lots of sweating, but the techniques are so hard-wired that execution is usually just a matter of getting through the stress of it all.

 

For me, the toughest so far was the last one. It alwas will be.

[Guest]

For us, third kyu, or first brown, is the hardest not including black. For the third kyu you must demonstrate all kata, all waza and all of the techniques taught to that point. It usually takes four to six hours to complete.