1st Anniversary of my Nidan Test

Today is the anniversary of my Nidan (2nd degree black belt) test!

Overall, I didn’t like my test. I was less than three months into healing my stomach/GI ailment. In this photo I look sick…because I was. I had severe brain fog, which made the oral exam even more challenging. And I sparred until I dry heaved.

However, I had one beautiful moment on the test. A moment that was almost failure but I turned into a huge triumph. Here’s the story:

Toward the end of the test, my Sensei told me to do one more kata—Yaragua no Tonfa (tonfa are like twin billy clubs).

At the very beginning of the kata, I dropped a tonfa!

For a moment I looked down at it, like, “Why?”

I heard one of my judges whisper, “Is she going to pick it up?"

In my Okinawan Kenpo system, if you drop a blunt weapon you’re supposed to leave it, lest you be vulnerable as you retrieve it.

So, I proceeded without it.

 “She didn’t pick it up!”

Even better than that, with my empty left hand I demonstrated I knew how to use the movements empty-handed, while with my right hand I demonstrated I knew how to use the tonfa.

When I finished the kata, the judges asked me to demonstrate on one of them how I imagined I was using the movements in a real fight.

“Wow!” They said, “That was so much more impressive than if you hadn’t dropped the tonfa.”

Later, I told my Sensei that leading up to the test I practiced making mistakes and continuing without stopping.

A lot of people practice perfection. I know I can’t be perfect. In a fight you’re going to make mistakes, and you have to plow right through.

As the saying goes, “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”

At Nidan, I’m nowhere near mastery, and I’m still failing plenty.

But what could have been a moment of failure turned into my moment of triumph.

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