Disappointment

[pegkerr]

I heard from sensei yesterday that Fiona did not pass the third pre-screening, so she won't be taking the September black belt exam. She'll have to go through the pre-screening process all over again, which means that she has to go through three pre-screenings and (assuming she passes them all) the soonest she could test for black belt is December.

Sensei assures me that this isn't unusual (he went through the entire process three times himself before getting his own black belt). She hasn't been a double black stripe for very long and mostly needs to build up more strength, but we'll get the specific notes on what she needs to work on when she goes back to class next week.

Still, it is, of course, a disappointment.

Comments

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Any martial art worth the name should reserve black belts to people who are very capable and have worked damn hard at it. I'm not saying she isn't/hasn't, I'm just saying it should be hard. I know with TKD, black belt is a pretty huge deal and I think it's a mandatory 1 year of study from the last color belt until you can even be considered to test for first dan black. If it were too easy it wouldn't mean as much.

Is the testing there open? In our TKD school anyway, black belt testing is private, just the student and the masters, and lasts from 6 to 10 hours. I've had single hour classes that I was incredibly exhausted from; I can't imagine going for 10.