Last weekend I graded for my green stripe (and yes I did pass!). It would seem I am getting over my fear of standing in front of crowds of people. I was not as nervous as the last grading, (which I ended up nearly hyper ventilating and screwed up my chon ji pattern)

I think in part because I had been practicing so much and was confident of my patterns and theory. And in part because we have had some very good hard  training sessions leading up to the grading that I felt I could handle whatever was thrown at me.

I have also got very involved with the National champs and have met some great people at higher belt levels which changed my perception from “having to be super-human” to have a black belt to just having to put in a lot of work and trying your best.

I think most people who start martial arts, especially when older, doubt their own ability to acheive the level of skill they can see from black belts in the club.  Even more so I think people have the impression before they start that they are too uncoordianted (because of previous experiences with totally unrelated things like dancing). Sure it is hard work, but no harder than getting up and going to work or to Uni or to school and trying your best. Results do come. I look forward now until the end of November when hopefully I will be ready to grade for green belt.

In the mean time I have taken on the role of the Midlands region team manager for the National champs which are coming up Oct 4th-5th in Tauranga. I am enjoying the ability to help out especially with the web side of the things.

Only a couple of days now until we fly out for Australia and Craigs wedding. It will be good to get into some warmer weather.

Also not long until all the american tv shows start again for the fall season …