Sunday 7 October 2012

Grading

Well I'm still not on the mat through injury and I do not know how long it will be until I make it back fully, but I had agreed earlier this year to have a go at my 2nd Kyu grading this month.

Judogi and cribsheet in hand, I went along to Wednesdays class as ready as I will ever be.

I always find it hard to remember the Japanese to English translations and it seems to me that I'm not the only one.  After arriving at the dojo, I found two other likely candidates who were also grading, although for different grades.

We had a quick look through the grading sheets and, everbody seemed to know it all perfectly, so on to the grading itself....

I've got to say that I flew through mine with no apparent hiccups, and full credit to the club for letting me demonstrate the techniques to the point of throw, where I couldn't go further due to my injury.  For example, Kata Guruma, or Yoko Kata Guruma Otoshi, are normally OK, but with a fractured collar bone, not so nice.

Then another candidate passed his, and then on to the last, who struggled with the translations even though we had just been through them 10 minutes previously and he was perfect.  I think it's one of those things.  We have several multi-national students in our class who find the translations easy, I assume it's because they have already learnt English as a second language, and therefore their brains cope with translation, unfortunately, I like many other English people are rather brain 'lazy' when it comes to learning a different language.

Eventually after  passing, I had that misplaced sense of bravado in my new found grade and decided that some light groundwork was possible, two minutes in to it, and a press of knuckles in to the shoulder area and I soon found out that  maybe it's still a bit early for my return.

A great class again (I had to watch rather than play) and it was good to see the Dojo still maintaining a good number of students in both the adults and the senior classes.  Long may it continue.

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