# Got promoted.... head spinning



## TSDTexan (Aug 27, 2019)

Long time coming, but I earned my (よん) Yon-kyu grade. Everyone was told "prepare one form and three applications from it"
Then we get pop quized a week early. (fun times, but i was ready) The head instructor call my name. i do my form "Shimpatan"... calm and nearly flawless.
 He calls others, they do their single form.
He calls my nme and asks me to do it again.
(now i feel like he is messing with my mind).

After i do it again, and return to the line, He calls on another... when they finish.... He calls me again and asks me to do a different kata from arround my grade. I do "Seiryru".
Then He says do it again....
And I seriously comply. 100% effort. "Seiryru"Again.

Then He says, "do another." And He has a Yudansha join me. So we do "Kyoku Nidan" per his request.
Then He says.... you guessed it...
"Do another" this time "Pinan Nidan".
and switches out the Yudansha for a different person.

Then He says to the 1st Yudansha to rejoin the second Yudansha and myself, and do it again.
So we did  "Pinan Nidan" again.

Then I return to the line. The blackbelts huddle with the head instructor.

Afterwards, He announced when i call your name come to the front, and stand facing shomen.

My name is called. i hurry to the designated spot.
He looks  at my belt, and counts on his fingers in Japanese before announcing Yon Kyu.
 i bow. and again I bow.
and return to the line. Three others also promoted tonight. I am ecstatic for them.

But I am feeling like its anti-climatic. I feel as if I really didn't earn it. Why did i get put me through so many forms? I was totally ok with not getting promoted.

it made my headspin. Im grateful to have promoted.
Please forgive the flash... it is something that ruins a photo (and obscures my features "muhahha" )


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## Papageno (Aug 27, 2019)

Maybe he takes a special interest in you and want to make sure he will help you along with "future endeavors". Some senseis correct some students time and time again, while letting others (who make the same mistakes) slide. Anyway, his interest is good! He looks at you and wants to help you. Better than ignoring you.

(Or maybe he just want to show you who's in charge)

Anyway, well done and congrats!


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## JowGaWolf (Aug 27, 2019)

Congrats on your accomplishment.


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## Gerry Seymour (Aug 27, 2019)

Congratulations, man! Sounds like he was paying a lot of attention to something particular in your promotion. Was that a promotion to the next level, or was there a skip involved?


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## Xue Sheng (Aug 27, 2019)

Congratulations


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## Buka (Aug 27, 2019)

Congratulations, brother.


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## TSDTexan (Aug 27, 2019)

gpseymour said:


> Congratulations, man! Sounds like he was paying a lot of attention to something particular in your promotion. Was that a promotion to the next level, or was there a skip involved?



Haven't skipped a grade in a while. I think the last time i got a skip was from 9th to 7th kyu. Which was a few years ago. My last promotion was in Sept of 2018, by the late Nobuo Ichiwawa. I had a promotion exam about 5 months ago, which I inexcusably flunked.

So this time it was just 1 level up.

Yeah, it was kinda intimidating just being highly scrutinized. I expected it, but felt it none the less.

He is a very no nonsense guy during examinations.
Very sober and grave facial expressions. He brings some gravitas to the proceedings.

But 6 belts in 4.5 years means i am ahead of schedule... and in light of that, I am going to redouble my efforts. 

Just maybe, I might earn dan in 8 instead of 10 years. I have a great deal many more forms to learn yet. Shodan is something like 30 forms. And I am at about 17 or 18 with a weak grasp on about 3 or 4 more.

I am able to pick them up a lot faster these days. however locking it down for retention is my current challenge.


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## TSDTexan (Aug 27, 2019)

Papageno said:


> Maybe he takes a special interest in you and want to make sure he will help you along with "future endeavors". Some senseis correct some students time and time again, while letting others (who make the same mistakes) slide. Anyway, his interest is good! He looks at you and wants to help you. Better than ignoring you.
> 
> (Or maybe he just want to show you who's in charge)
> 
> Anyway, well done and congrats!





JowGaWolf said:


> Congrats on your accomplishment.





Xue Sheng said:


> Congratulations





Buka said:


> Congratulations, brother.



Thank you guys, but my sempai and instructors deserve the credit more than I.


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## JR 137 (Aug 27, 2019)

Congratulations. 10 years average to shodan is pretty hardcore.


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## JowGaWolf (Aug 27, 2019)

TSDTexan said:


> Thank you guys, but my sempai and instructors deserve the credit more than I.


To be honest, they don't and I don't mean that in a bad or mean way.  They can only show you, but you have to put in the work and you did.  Your sempai and instructors get credit for sharing the knowledge but after that it's all you.  Your sempai and instructors would probably say the same thing.  Even when you got help from others, you still had to put in the work.

Take your victory lap, be proud of your efforts and outcome.  Enjoy the moment because there is still more hard work on the horizon.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Aug 27, 2019)

Congratulations. And what jowga said. Dont forget to credit yourself- you put in the work, they just provided the tools.


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## Gerry Seymour (Aug 28, 2019)

TSDTexan said:


> Haven't skipped a grade in a while. I think the last time i got a skip was from 9th to 7th kyu. Which was a few years ago. My last promotion was in Sept of 2018, by the late Nobuo Ichiwawa. I had a promotion exam about 5 months ago, which I inexcusably flunked.
> 
> So this time it was just 1 level up.
> 
> ...


How many belts are there, in total, to get to shodan?


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## Gerry Seymour (Aug 28, 2019)

JowGaWolf said:


> To be honest, they don't and I don't mean that in a bad or mean way.  They can only show you, but you have to put in the work and you did.  Your sempai and instructors get credit for sharing the knowledge but after that it's all you.  Your sempai and instructors would probably say the same thing.  Even when you got help from others, you still had to put in the work.
> 
> Take your victory lap, be proud of your efforts and outcome.  Enjoy the moment because there is still more hard work on the horizon.


This.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Aug 28, 2019)

TSDTexan said:


> Long time coming, but I earned my (よん) Yon-kyu grade. Everyone was told "prepare one form and three applications from it"
> Then we get pop quized a week early. (fun times, but i was ready) The head instructor call my name. i do my form "Shimpatan"... calm and nearly flawless.
> He calls others, they do their single form.
> He calls my nme and asks me to do it again.
> ...


In your position, honestly, I would feel incredibly frustrated. I'm not sure what rank Yon-kyu is, but by the kyu I'm guessing it's pre-black.(counting from 1-10 in Japanese doesn't result in a yon)

Either way, it's really unfair for your instructor to expert a higher level of proficiency compared to you other yon-kyus. Not to you-him not promoting you is never a disservice to you-but to those who trained with you. It means that they were able to move on to the next material before fully understanding the current material, which is absolute horseshit IMO.


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## JR 137 (Aug 28, 2019)

kempodisciple said:


> In your position, honestly, I would feel incredibly frustrated. I'm not sure what rank Yon-kyu is, but by the kyu I'm guessing it's pre-black.(counting from 1-10 in Japanese doesn't result in a yon)
> 
> Either way, it's really unfair for your instructor to expert a higher level of proficiency compared to you other yon-kyus. Not to you-him not promoting you is never a disservice to you-but to those who trained with you. It means that they were able to move on to the next material before fully understanding the current material, which is absolute horseshit IMO.


Yon kyu is 4th kyu. 

As to why he seemingly did more than everyone else (going by what he wrote), I took it as he was the only one being tested.


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## Gerry Seymour (Aug 28, 2019)

JR 137 said:


> Yon kyu is 4th kyu.
> 
> As to why he seemingly did more than everyone else (going by what he wrote), I took it as he was the only one being tested.


That, or maybe he was the only one testing who'd failed the previous test (as he pointed out in a recent post).


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## JR 137 (Aug 28, 2019)

gpseymour said:


> That, or maybe he was the only one testing who'd failed the previous test (as he pointed out in a recent post).


I thought that too.


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## Yokozuna514 (Aug 28, 2019)

TSDTexan said:


> Long time coming, but I earned my (よん) Yon-kyu grade. Everyone was told "prepare one form and three applications from it"
> Then we get pop quized a week early. (fun times, but i was ready) The head instructor call my name. i do my form "Shimpatan"... calm and nearly flawless.
> He calls others, they do their single form.
> He calls my nme and asks me to do it again.
> ...


It is too bad that you feel anti-climatic about the grading.   It sounded like you were put through the wringer more than you expected but in the end you succeeded.   You knew the forms and were able to perform them regardless of the conditions.  Congratulations on the getting one step closer to the front of the line .


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## JowGaWolf (Aug 28, 2019)

JR 137 said:


> As to why he seemingly did more than everyone else (going by what he wrote),


This isn't always a bad thing.  For all we know it could have been a personal reason why he was tested this way.  Maybe there was something that the test givers wanted to see.  Maybe they saw potential so instead of making him do the same as everyone else, they decided to challenge him more.  

For me personally I wouldn't mind if I was put through the wringer in a martial arts class.  Maybe more is expected of me than the other students.  Maybe I'm being groomed for something bigger.  Maybe they know that I can reach that expectation but they want me to know that too.  Maybe I'm being used as an example, in which to inspire others.  Maybe it's a test or a lesson of  "Always be ready"

As an instructor, I never had the same performance expectations for the students.  My expectations were customized.  Some got more some got less.  I expected more from those who worked hard and as a result those students were able to get more and benefit more from my lessons.  It's just never really clear cut what's gong through instructors minds.  Probably because the thoughts have the potential to create bad feelings within the school.  Sort "Why does he get this and I don't?" type feelings.

That's what I like about Martial Arts in general.  It's personalized, it's your own self improvement class based on what you put into your training.


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## JowGaWolf (Aug 28, 2019)

Oh another thing about doing more than others.   I get that at work as well, where my supervisors expectations are higher for me than for others who were there years before me.  I do a lot more work than my co-workers and I can't tell if they are grooming me for something bigger, taking advantage of me, or setting me up to fail.  

My entire attitude about it, is that I do the work, do my best, and get the job done to the best of my ability.  Because at the end of the day I tackled the challenge and contributed.   When I look at the team that I'm on, those co-workers do the same, they put the work in and don't slack off.

I bring this up because this is what I see in this statement "But 6 belts in 4.5 years means i am ahead of schedule... and in light of that, I am going to redouble my efforts."

I'm curious to know if the classmates that @TSDTexan talks to the most puts in hard work too, or does he talk mostly to the slacker crowd.  Sometimes you can gauge your standing by looking at who you talk to the most and who you get paired with during class.


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## TSDTexan (Aug 29, 2019)

gpseymour said:


> How many belts are there, in total, to get to shodan?


.

in this flavor of karatedo... 10 kyu ranks.

White
Wh2
Wh3
Wh4
Yellow
Orange
Green
Blue
Brown
Brown2
Shodan
Nidan
etc.


counting down to shodan, then up the dan degrees. 18 grades in total. Not counting titles that can be earned. like Renshi or Shihan.

Maybe in 30 years i might hit 8th dan. But i would have to pretty much stay in this org.

I might want to switch to Uechi Ryu in Portland down the way, and find my way back to a judo or bjj hall for the remainder of the of those last 30.

getiing a purple or brown in bjj is on my bucket list.
i dont need a bb tho. thats overkill.


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## TSDTexan (Aug 29, 2019)

JR 137 said:


> Yon kyu is 4th kyu.
> 
> As to why he seemingly did more than everyone else (going by what he wrote), I took it as he was the only one being tested.



No, 8 others were tested
4 of 8 students passed.

i was the only orange belt (Go Kyu) tested.
The others were promoted from 10th / Ju Kyu [white belt 1] to 9th / Ku Kyu [2nd white]


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## TSDTexan (Aug 29, 2019)

JowGaWolf said:


> Oh another thing about doing more than others.   I get that at work as well, where my supervisors expectations are higher for me than for others who were there years before me.  I do a lot more work than my co-workers and I can't tell if they are grooming me for something bigger, taking advantage of me, or setting me up to fail.
> 
> My entire attitude about it, is that I do the work, do my best, and get the job done to the best of my ability.  Because at the end of the day I tackled the challenge and contributed.   When I look at the team that I'm on, those co-workers do the same, they put the work in and don't slack off.
> 
> ...



Most of the time my partner work is with a brownbelt who is a very hardworking 18 year old whos also pretty sharp.... and a BB who is my age and is very hard working. I am trying my best to catch up and overtake the 18 year old who is two belts ahead.

There are not many laidback slacker types at this school. the body is small, but attendance and efforts on everyone'spart is high. And the head teacher puts us all through the paces.
i think i lose a gallon of sweat each class. and i am not the only one.

i have been pushed so hard at times where I am feeling the temptation to just quit karate.... and I tell myself... just ten more seconds. and push harder.

at the end of those classes... my body feels so amazing. I am completely relaxed and peacefully energized.... sometimes limping... but on top of the world. Old mans karate... I used to be a karatekid
but nowadays... i am just the dude.

Flow state dude.


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## TSDTexan (Aug 29, 2019)

gpseymour said:


> How many belts are there, in total, to get to shodan?



Depends on how much curriculum is in the fundamentals or kihon. some karatedo systems have 5 or 6. others have 8. But 10 is fairly common.


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