Have you taken a good look at your Karate lately? Do you evaluate where you are at, where you are going and adjust your training based on your goals? Are you training for the sake of training even though it might not be helping reach your goals?

This is one area that I haven’t given as much attention as I should have over the last few years. After my last rank examination, I spent a lot of time evaluating my training and what I need in order to improve my weaknesses.

I have been taking advanced classes for at least two years now if not longer but I feel that somewhere along the line, I missed or never got a solid grasp of kihon fundamentals. How could I have gone through five plus years of hard Karate training without doing such simple things as tightening my core when I punch or block and not focusing on pushing from my back heel when punching. I found out, just recently, that I was doing a front snap kick like a front thrust kick for well over a year even though one of my Sensei’s corrected me almost weekly. I was kicking from the floor instead of bringing my knee up and extending my leg. The worse part is that I have mentioned that a front snap kick is just an extended knee strike in my training blog but it never sunk in until just the other day.

It’s the simple, beginner movements that are starting to haunt because I think I have gotten too complacent. The battle is fixing those simple mistakes by unlearning the many thousands of wrong movements that I have been doing. One thing that makes me feel that I am not alone is something that one of my Sensei’s said today. He said that even though he has been doing Karate for many years now, he spent over two hours working on moving forward in a front stance because one of our senior Sensei’s corrected him the week before. Moving forward in front stance is something that many Karate students learned in our first Karate class yet it goes to show that there is always something that we can fix or improve no matter how long or hard we train.

I have read many times about how there is so much pressure on Karate students when they finally reach brown belt.

Could it be true…

After moving past all of the other color belts, the hard working brown belt is only one belt color away from Karate nirvana. I have even heard that the brown belt student is considered the black belt apprentice by some. At this point, the Karate student has learned all of the basics and can execute them with some proficiency.

I never understood many of the comments about this being the time when many students leave Karate even though they are so close to black belt. A few Karate exams ago, I finally started to understand why so many people find this time the hardest. When I passed my first part of my brown belt test to 3rd kyu, I thought that I really had a handle on my Karate skills and that I was on the fast track to black belt.

On my test for 2nd kyu, I received a keri, which is the equivalent of a half rank. I accepted the result and vowed to train even harder for my next exam. I took five classes a week, trained at home and helped instruct for eight to 10 hours each week, thinking that it would improve my skills and prepare me for my next exam.

After six months of what felt like constant Karate training, I was ready for my exam and felt so good in my mind, that I was ready to take my black belt and not just move up a single rank. I really thought that this was my time and I was there to show my examiners that I was ready to be a black belt and this exam was just a formality.

I started my exam breathing fire and spitting bullets. I put everything I had out on the floor that day and when the test was over I felt that I did really well. I wasn’t sure if I would get a black belt but I felt that I would be a full 1st kyu at least. A few close, experienced Karate friends of mine, who watched the exam, felt that I did well too. I was sure that 20 to 30 minutes of exam time would show all of the hard work that I put in over the past six months.

Here came reality…

We do not receive our exam results until our next class and I was ready to hear the good news. My Sensei announced our test results and when he got to my name, he said, good job, you cleared your keri and you are know a full 2nd kyu. I took the news like a good sport with a smile but my insides felt like jelly and about six million unhappy thoughts went through my mind. I could not stop thinking about all the time that I spent preparing for this exam and for all that hard work and effort, I only received a half of a rank again.

I went through my exam and my results in my head about a thousand times and really started to question if all the time, effort and money that I spent on Karate was really worth it. I have always been the type of person that never quits but for the first time in over four years of Karate training, I was asking myself why I keep doing this. I was looking for any and every reason to blame someone or something for my poor test result.

I spent close to two months dwelling on my results even though I was still training in class and working harder than ever I couldn’t come to grips with my test result. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I did wrong and then on day, I realized that maybe I didn’t do anything wrong, I maybe just didn’t do right.

Maybe this was my test…

After all of the mental time I spent reviewing my results and beating myself up, I realized that maybe this was my test. The Karate exam itself was not my test but dealing with the results was my test. After looking at some of the accomplishments I have had such as helping instruct classes and judging at tournaments, I realized that I have gone a long way, in short time, even though my test results didn’t reflect it.

When I went to my next exam, I had a totally different attitude and just did it. I felt that I did better than ever before, I didn’t pressure myself and I went through the test with an almost relaxed attitude. I ended up getting another keri and am now a 1st kyu keri but that doesn’t bother me. I was training because I want to train not because I have to train and it really changed my outlook on Karate.

I could have just hung up my brown belt and quit but instead I realized that I have come a long way and quitting because of less than 30 minutes of exam time would be a huge mistake. If I had quit over something like an exam result, it would have proved that I never deserved to move up.

Now I train for me…

After coming to grips with what seemed like my biggest Karate challenges thus far, I can now train for me and not for some exam result or a belt color. I am still taking three to four classes a week depending upon the session and my finances , training outside of class, instructing, judging at tournaments and learning everything I can about Karate. If anything, I enjoy my training more now that ever. Instead of focusing on moving up the ranks and belt levels, I can now enjoy what I am learning and just train. When the time comes for me to get my black belt, I know that I will deserve it.

I will get there when I get there…

If it takes one year, five years or 20 years for me to get my black belt, I am planning on enjoying every step of the journey instead of just worrying about when I get there.

I am sure that many others have gone through similar situations like mine and those that have kept at it are or will be black belts and those who didn’t probably regret quitting something that they already invested so much time and effort in. I don’t want to be the latter.