Old men and brown belts

Wednesday night was the year end judo function. It was a little strange to see our large group of Judokas gathered together in civilian clothes. More strange were all of the parents of the children who join the handful of oldies for our twice weekly sweat sessions.


Not long ago, I had been stressing about my grading. We had found out on a Wednesday night that we would be graded on the Friday night. A Provincial representative would also be present to adjudicate the grading, and we would have to complete a special kata, which we were yet to learn! The four of us, who were grading for brown belt, arrived two hours before the grading to try and figure it all out. By grading time, I was dazed and confused, after being slammed into the floor on countless occasions. But we were as ready as we could be. The grading was tough, but we knew our throws, although our execution left much to be desired!

It was rather a relief to see my children receive their new belts; Luke an orange, and Matt a blue stripe. And their dad got his brown!

In order for me to achieve my black belt goal, it will take another two years of Judo. Then I will get to stress all over again as I face a panel grading.

The upside is that I get to do Judo with my children for at least another two years! And it often surprises me how valuable this shared time is to all of us!

A new colour belt

I like to be prepared for anything that I do. Perhaps too prepared! If I need to know something, I like to research it, think about, day dream about it, and eventually go and do it. I like to know absolutely everything I need to know for any test I may take. I hate not knowing. I suppose not knowing is a personal failure and I don’t like failing.


Right now I feel like a bad parent. I did not adequately prepare my boys for their Judo grading on Monday night. We went through their stuff together a couple of times over the weekend, but they still needed more work. A lot more work, I thought! Hence my absolute surprise at their confidence and calmness as they were called up to grade.

My immediate thought was that they just did not know what they did not know. Yet every time, I looked over to the grading, they looked assured and executed some lovely throws. Hopefully, the right throws!

Afterwards, both were very happy with how it had all gone. Nonchalant!

I have to grade on Friday and am a little concerned. Adding some pressure is the presence of a Boland official at the grading. I am going to have to be on top of my game. Luckily, Wednesday night saw us learning an 18 throw Kata for the first time. And it will be tested on Friday!

I have a lot of work to do before Friday, and sadly none of my children’s confidence or calmness!