Brown Belt Grading

After two weeks continuous of grading training I went for my brown belt (3rd Kyu) on Saturday 24th June.

Jim and I partnered up, Jim was first Shite, and we were called up first out of the two pairs for 3rd Kyu.
That meant that I had my back to the crowd and nearest Sensei, it’s probably the best spot as you can hear Sensei clearly and you can’t see the crowd.
Unfortunately the position didn’t make much difference to me, as I mucked up one technique “Suwari Waza Yokemen Uchi Sankyo Ni” I kept on going left instead of right when blocking Uke’s Yokemen. I did it twice and realised once I did it wrong and bowed to Sensei and Jim and I redid the technique, all was fine the third attempt
The only thing was that I caught the mistake and didn’t have Sensei tell me to do it again.

Two thirds of the way through I was really puffed out, and as I was second Shite I was really pushing it for my Renzoku Waza, as Jim has already thrown me to the mat 8 times in succession.

When Jim and I sat back down in seize waiting for the second pair to do their Renzoku Waza i had a great sense of relief come over me, I’d finished

We were the 6th grading on Saturday, and the last two gradings were for Richard and Emmanual’s Yondan (4th Dan). They were both very good, each with their own nuances, I was especially taken with Emmanual’s Ryote Mochi Tenchi Nage Ni one moment he was doing the ni turn and the next Jason, his uke, was flat on his back, the slide and Tenchi Nage positioning was lightning fast.

After the grading Jason asked for all brown belts to gather around, and he gave us some tips on our Renzoku Waza, do a full 180 degree turn and keep the throws in the one line.

All good tips, and Ill try and apply them during training in the coming week.

OSU