Each month at our dojo we have a challenge that we try to accomplish. This month’s challenge is to ‘Train like a Brown Belt’ (basic idea: train for a couple of hours in karate each and every day) and it brings up two different topics I want to talk about: 1. what it feels like to me to train like a brown belt and 2. the guilt I felt for no longer training like a brown belt.
This challenge brought me back to when I was first told I was going to be graded for my brown belt; I didn’t feel ready. I had seen female brown belts and they looked strong and deadly. I questioned that I was as strong as these women but regardless I went to work.
This is the studio I have in my gym at my condo (picture to come), I call it ‘my dojo’. I spent hours every day here and the more time I spent here the stronger I felt and the more precise my movements seemed to be. No amount of nervousness could distract me from my katas because I had done them so many times. I felt great at the grading, so much so that I continued to train this way afterwards. I had questioned that I was ready to move on to brown but I was told that Sensei knows best and always has a larger plan. After this grading I thought maybe this was part of it, to push me further and keep me focused and it worked. Sensei does know best and I am a big fan of this challenge and highly recommend that you try to find time in your busy schedule to train this way if you haven’t already.
My Daily Sanchin 