![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fiona passed her pre-test this week and will be testing tomorrow at noon for her double black stripe (note: this is the last preliminary belt before BLACK BELT!) Delia was pre-tested, hoping to test for her single-black stripe belt (she's a brown belt now) but didn't pass; she needs to know her Discovery bo form (stick-fighting) better. She didn't seem too broken up about this; she always really wants to know her form extremely well before testing, and she will often balk at taking the test a month or two after even her instructors think she's ready.
I am going to take pictures at the belt test tomorrow as usual and will post those. But I also plan to try to use the camera to videotape Fiona's two forms, and if all goes well, I'll post those on YouTube next week so you can see them too.
The black belt tests are held in another (citywide) location, so this is Fiona's last belt test at our dojo.
I had a wonderful talk with Fiona Wednesday night about karate. I love watching her doing it (well, aside from seething with lust because I want to do it, too). I love watching her execute the crisp sudo-block-punch and inside forearm block-punch-palm heel during classical marching basics. Then there's her powerful sidekicks, and her fast up-down-cross-cross-THRUST with the bo.
When she came into my office to say goodnight, I just had to marvel again, overcome with awe at her athlete's body. She is built like a goddess, with muscles in her arms and legs and abs of steel. Just the way she moves practically brings tears to my eyes. We talked about the satisfaction of slowly gaining mastery over your body, of the frustration of never quite getting it right, while still knowing you are getting better and better (it reminds me an awful lot, I told her, of my experience with ballet when I was her age). She loves karate. The big big question will be whether she can keep it up while still keeping abreast of her school work next year. School work will absolutely have to come first. But she wants to continue on past her first degree black belt.
She's just gorgeous. I know I'm biased, but she really is.
I am going to take pictures at the belt test tomorrow as usual and will post those. But I also plan to try to use the camera to videotape Fiona's two forms, and if all goes well, I'll post those on YouTube next week so you can see them too.
The black belt tests are held in another (citywide) location, so this is Fiona's last belt test at our dojo.
I had a wonderful talk with Fiona Wednesday night about karate. I love watching her doing it (well, aside from seething with lust because I want to do it, too). I love watching her execute the crisp sudo-block-punch and inside forearm block-punch-palm heel during classical marching basics. Then there's her powerful sidekicks, and her fast up-down-cross-cross-THRUST with the bo.
When she came into my office to say goodnight, I just had to marvel again, overcome with awe at her athlete's body. She is built like a goddess, with muscles in her arms and legs and abs of steel. Just the way she moves practically brings tears to my eyes. We talked about the satisfaction of slowly gaining mastery over your body, of the frustration of never quite getting it right, while still knowing you are getting better and better (it reminds me an awful lot, I told her, of my experience with ballet when I was her age). She loves karate. The big big question will be whether she can keep it up while still keeping abreast of her school work next year. School work will absolutely have to come first. But she wants to continue on past her first degree black belt.
She's just gorgeous. I know I'm biased, but she really is.
