Chiba Dan test

Photo taken from www.flickr.com

Carl here,

Let me start with an apology to the readers, we don't have any cool pictures of the Dan grading because although we took the camera with us, we somehow forgot to take the camera battery!

A few weeks ago I made the somewhat innocent mistake of asking Arakawa Sensei what a new poster on the dojo wall said. He told me that it was an upcoming Dan Test in Chiba, as I was walking away he asked ’Carl, you trying?’ As I’m sure I’ve explained before, that translates into English as ‘Carl you are trying?’. So, that’s how I found myself lining up with maybe 20 other Dan grade candidates at the Shiramizu dojo, ready to take part in a ‘Pre-Dan Test’ for my Nidan (2nd Dan).

Shiramizu Pre-Dan Test
This pre-Dan test is a quality control for maintaining the very high standard of the Shiramizu black belts. Arakawa Sensei only lets the very best try for the next belt!

All candidates had to perform two Kata and then some free-fighting. I wasn’t concerned about the kumite, I know I can hold my own with most fighters; the Kata though, was a different matter!

I performed Chinto & Wanshu. I say ‘performed’; it was really an attempt at fumbling through the various movements. If I had performed them on my own, they would have probably been passable; however I had to follow all Shiramizu high school kids who are all great at kata. Anyway, the Shiramizu instructors were feeling particularly charitable and so Okayed me to try for Nidan.

Amy was also allowed to try for Nidan, despite only being a Shodan for 8 or 9 months. However, it was decided that her kata wasn’t strong enough yet by Shiramizu standards.

Chiba Dan Test
The Dan test was being held on Sunday 15th March near Disney Land Tokyo in Chiba, this is only maybe a 90 minute car ride from Sugito so we had a late start (10am-ish!) to get to the venue for the 12 o’clock start time. There were 13 students from Shiramizu attempting the next belt. Those of us who were travelling from the dojo lined up as we would at the start of class and bowed in, Uehara* Sensei wished us all luck, and asked us to try our best.

*Arakawa Sensei was teaching at a Wadokai Training Camp that he’d helped organise in Satte City during the same weekend as this Dan Test. So he couldn't be at the Dan Grading.


Photo taken from the blog of Arakawa Sensei

We had a few minutes to get changed, stretch off and register, and then everyone lined up. The hall was far too small for the 150+ people training. We were packed wall to wall. One of the instructors put us through a few basics. Then we were given 10 minutes to practise our Kihon Kumite drills and kata. We lined up once more for a standing bow and then the test began. 128 people were taking various tests from 1st Dan through to 5th Dan.


Photo taken from the blog of Arakawa Sensei

I was a little concerned that we would be tested 5 people at a time, in front of a grading panel of 10 high ranking Japanese Sensei! I was also aware that this test was going to take hours!

All grades went through the same program, with a few differences or additions as you go up the grades, everyone performed the same Ido-Kihon followed by two kata and then sat down. Once everyone had performed part 1 the day was getting late, the examiners decided to split the test in two 5 examiners for Shodan candidates and 5 for everyone else.


Photo taken from the blog of Arakawa Sensei

We were then marshalled into pairs to perform our chosen Kihon Kumite followed by free fighting. I was paired up with Lawrence, who was trying for Sandan. We’d only managed to train together a few times with Lawrence training at Shiramizu on Saturdays and I went to his high school (Seiritsu) in Akabane to train on a couple of mornings before I went to work in Nerima. Despite this, we had Kihon Kumite number 4 & 5 looking good.

Despite fumbling the take down on ‘number 5’ a little and planting a solid round house kick on Lawrence’ face during the free fighting, we got through the test unscathed.

We had a short wait to find out if we passed or failed, all but two people from Shiramizu passed including myself and Lawrence. I was a little disappointed with my performance, especially my kata, I actually wanted to give up my Dan grade and start again as a beginner! I’ve worked hard to ‘fix’ my kata over the last 9 months in Japan, but it’s still not where it needs to be. There’s nothing to be done but get back to training…

Oh, I can also honestly say that the test made me feel the most nervous I’ve ever felt in my life!


During the next Shiramizu adult class, the instructors were shaking my hand congratulating me and Uehara Sensei, who speaks great English, said that I’d done well. I denied it and said I’d performed terribly, he laughed and said ‘yes, but other people were more terrible!’. It made me laugh so I thought I’d share it with the blog readers!

Pre-Dan Grade Assessment, Shiramizu

Photo was taken from the blog of Arakawa Sensei...

After the usual training on Saturday, Shiramizu had a Pre-Dan grade assessment for 11 students. 5 students were 1st kyu, and going for 1st dan, the other 6 students were going for 2nd or 3rd dan.

This was good to watch as both Amy and I have the goal of taking our next rank whilst in Japan, this would therefore give us an idea of what to expect.

The standard of each student was assessed by 4 of the Shiramizu Instructors; Arakawa Sensei, Uehara Sensei, Iwasaki Sensei and Kikuchi Sensei.

The 'grade' started with all the students and instructors bowing together. Then the students took the floor in groups of two or three and announced which Kata they would be demonstrating. They had a choice of Chinto, Seishan and Naihanchi.

Most people who stood up chose to perform Chinto. I must say, that out of the three kata, it would also be my first choice. The various dan grades in particular were very sharp in their kata, and all of their performances were excellent.

After everyone had taken their turn at kata, it was time to move onto kumite. Students were lined up opposite each other, and each pair was called up in turn to fight. In my opinion, this was typical dan grade fighting, which always has heavier contact than tournaments due to the extra nerves of taking a grading. The fighting was pretty good, with Yuki Okamura stealing the show in both of his bouts (he had to fight twice because of the odd number).

After the kumite, the students bowed out, which I was surprised at. I was expecting a demonstration of kihon kumite and basics. The instructors went into the office to discuss each student's performance and after a while, they came back out and each gave a short speech on what they thought about the everyone's performance.

All but 2 students were selected to go for their grade, with a few being given small pointers as to what they can improve on. The grade will be taking place soon in Chiba prefecture.

I spoke to Yoshihara Sensei after the grading to find out what else the actual dan grade consisted of. I was informed that students must perform basics, two kihon kumite (1 from no's 1-4 and 1 from 5-8). Students must also perform 1 mandatory kata (Chinto, Seishan or Naihanchi) and one other advanced kata, and lastly do kumite.

I would say that there is less to remember in terms of content than in the UK, for example, their is no tanto dori to demonstrate. However, the standard expected is much higher. Also, from what I've been told, the dan grade courses usually have a lot of people grading. Therefore, you have to be particularly exceptional to stand out.

I look forward to us taking our dan grade test...

Carl

Shodan Shinsa in Tokyo.

From L - R: Lawrence, Arakawa Sensei, Shunsuke Yanagida Sensei, 2 peoples names I don't know & Mike

Yes indeed, this past March 2nd was yet another shodan shinsa dan rank test, this one being for Tokyo. It was held at the Ikebukuro Sports Centre which has a beautifully finished dojo on the 8th floor of a business-like looking building. With registration at 12pm and the examination starting at 1pm, it was rather different from the one I went to in Chiba. For starters, there were far fewer people, only 38 people being tested. It also had a larger judge panel with 12 judges and people challenged higher dan levels, the highest being godan.

The test format was also slightly different. Examinees started right into ido kihon and everyone had to do all of them. After everyone did ido kihon, it was time for kata (whereas Chiba had examinees do both ido kihon and kata in one go). In Tokyo, many kata are examinable with the judges selecting one on the day of the exam. For adult shodan, as an example, all five pinan kata as well as naihanchi and kushanku were "possible" and hence one needed to be prepared. On the day of the exam, adult shodan examinees were told that they needed to do naihanchi.

Kihon kumite was the same, with all the sets between ippon mei and gohon mei examinable and adult shodan examinees were told, when they registered, that the day's kihon kumite was yohon mei.

The test finished with jiyu kumite and after the results, the judges gave a one-point lesson which lasted for an hour (and, as is the nature of lessons, contained far more than just one point).

It wasn't I, however, who took part in the test. Rather, Mr. Mike Spain visited from Feb 26 til Mar 4 with the sole intention of challenging the Wadokai shodan. And so, he spent pretty much his entire week at Shiramizu practices daily preparing. Many people offered words of advice and encouragement and Mike really got his head down and trained hard. In the end, the effort paid off and the panel at Tokyo awarded Mike his shodan. So big congratulations!

Of course, that wasn't all. After the shodan shinsa and the one point lessons, we went to Guseikai to practice with Takagi Sensei's class. To say the day was packed with karate is a bit of an understatement.

For me, the week I spent helping Mike prepare was a great experience in itself. Ever since I came to Japan, I've learned and discovered a lot of elements about karate, both tangible and intangible. And to be able to properly convey these feelings and concepts to students is something that isn't easy to do. I spend all my time here learning so to have an opportunity to switch my thinking and pass on the things I've learned was a great way to practice both modelling and explaining different aspects of karate.

So big congratulations and thanks to Mike!

Lawrence

Shodan Shinsa in Chiba

Shiramizu students going for their shodan or nidan rank! The student in the red/white tracksuit top in the front is Yusuke, Arakawa Sensei's oldest son.

This past Feb 23rd was the Wadokai Shodan Shinsa (Shodan examination) out in the neighbouring Chiba Prefecture, at an elementary school in Urayasu City, also home to Tokyo Disneyland. Out of the 80 or so people attending, 12 of us were from Shiramizu- 9 testing for their shodan and 3 (including me) for nidan.

The day started off at 10:30 with an hour and a half training/seminar. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just lots of ido kihon. We then broke off into groups and had some kata and kihon kumite practice. At 12, we stopped for lunch for an hour and, at 1, the actual examination started.

With so many people, it was inevitable that there was a lot of time spent not moving, which makes it difficult to stay warm. Luckily, the sunlight was doing a rather decent job up until 4pm or so, so it wasn't too bad. But still, even with the 1st kyu students going up 5 at a time, it wasn't until nearly 3pm that it was my turn.

For all the 1st kyu students, it was a set of kihon (simple chudan tsuki and mae geri), followed by all the ido kihon except tobi komi tsuki and tobi komi nagashi tsuki. After that, they had to perform the kata of their choice (seishan and chinto were the favourites) in a staggered start manner.

For nidan challengers and above, it was exactly the same except with the two tobi komi ido kihon and two kata instead of one. They also trimmed the number of people testing from 5 to 3.

After all that, which took about 3 hours, there was a short break before we sat back down to do the kihon kumite and jiyu kumite. Those testing for their shodan did ipponmei only while nidan had to choose one out of the first 4 and the one out of the last 5. Then we went straight into jiyu kumite (with no gloves!). By the time we finished, it was nearly 5pm when the judges went off to decide the outcome.

To be honest, while the grading was a great experience especially in terms of being able to perform under pressure, I learned the most in the days leading up to the grading itself. There's a lot of intangible elements to sport and karate is no exception. A lot of different elements of the timing and feel of the muscles and the movements are all things that I've been discovering as I put in all the hours at the dojo for self training and regular classes.

For me, particularly, I've always had an issue with being tense and the harder I try, the more tense I become. So one of the things I've been slowly discovering is how to try harder properly- to be able to try without adding more tension. I'm still not there yet, but prepping for the exam has helped with some insight on that.

But aside from all that, I'm happy to say that everyone from the dojo passed! So congratulations to all and now it's nose back to the grind stone as we reach deeper to further ourselves because, as I realised on the way home, getting here is by no means the end.

Lawrence