Impressions from a Rank Promotion Test

Sunday's rank promotion test went off without a hitch. The candidates were ready to roll and the volunteers running the RPT did a fantastic job. My son received his 5 Kyu and is now ready for some bunkai, kotigitae and kyu kumite. Unfortunately, I could not watch him perform the whole time as I was judgng one of the other candidates in his group. I did get to see his sparring and that was fun. I was pretty impressed with how well a lot of the students performed, especially the beginner ranks. There were lots of good fundamentals on display.

Judging was a treat. It was my first time on the test board and I have to say I really like it. It was nice to see some old friends who were there on the test board and as candidates, one who was promoted to 1 Kyu. Judging is also difficult. You need to be fair. And some performances were a bit shaky in parts. For example say someone testing for 7 or 6 Kyu makes mistakes they shouldn't be. How do you handle it? Mark them down, maybe fail them? Probably/maybe if it's an adult. Our school has pretty strict standards, I know from my own testing experiences. But what if the candidate is 7 or 10 years old? They certainly are nervous, you can see it in their eyes. But you also know they are ready for the next level, having seen them in class. So would you fail them? In the end it's a judgment call and I learned a lot about judging and scoring from Master Folta, 7 Dan and the 1 Dan who I sat next to on the board (FYI, I don't use names from my school unless it's pre-approved by the person in question). Oh, no one failed. :-) We also had some really good free sparring at the end.

We were very lucky to be able to have the RPT as the worst of Hurricane Irene just barely missed us. We had a lot of rain and high winds - and sticks for my son to pick up. I know many people who were hit very hard by the storm in the Southern and Eastern parts of Virginia and Maryland. Luckily no one was seriously injured. We all wish for a speedy restoration of electrical service and all repairs. So count your blessings and help out your neighbors and fellow martial artists caught in the storm's path. Get more information here.

Zengu - Martial Arts/Boxing Equipment Wholesalers

There is new martial arts wholesale site online now. It's called Zengu and is part of the team from Karate Depot. It combines equipment for owners of martial arts schools (Karate, BJJ, TKD, etc.) and Boxing gyms. (Side note - it's funny how we tend to seperate Boxing from other MA styles even though it is a Martial Art).

There is a good selection of equipment on the site and prices are pretty good as well. It seems a big feature draw is the ability to create lists of equipment that you need for various events. I do like the system they use for further filtering your search results with links on the left side of the page, it reminds me of the system used on Puma's website -- BTW, I'd love a gi from them; I may need to create a Puma-based MA style to justify it. :-)

I cannot test Zengu's ordering system as I am not an owner and can't prove that I am one. They do restrict membership by having you send them a copy of your business license and a copy of a brochure from your school. I don't know how or if they verify this information.

Zengu.com looks like a great resource, espcially for the selection and pricing. There is more information on their site here and on the Ikigai Blog.

Another RPT Coming Up

It's Rank Promotion Test time again. It's Summer so there are fewer students overall going for their next rank, but there are more younger kids and "lower" ranks testing. My son will be going for his 5 Kyu. A little work on the history of Uechi-ryu and I think he'll do well.

It's also nice seeing the kids I helped teach in the no belt - 8 Kyu class earlier this year move up the ranks. They have definitely improved. We'll see how they do in a few weeks.