3rd kyu!
Wheeee-ha!
EDIT: more comprehensively ...
I'm bored at work now, waiting for someone to come overhere, and he's late. Which means excellent time to blog a little! Afterward I have to go home right away anyway, because I have to collect my flu shot for this year
It was a fine grading session! Everyone passed (2 people for 6th kyu, 4 people for 5th kyu (alexilian, my gf and currently 4th kyu, did ukemi for one of those), 2 with 3rd kyu, 2 for 2nd kyu, and 2 for shodan! The shodan exams and 2nd kyu exams were wonderful to watch (photos will probably be coming in the near future). I think the ultimate prerequisite for a 'successful grading' (which may or may not be a 'passed grading', that's something else) is that both tori and uke have fun, especially uke. This was certainly the case for those 2nd kyu and shodan gradings this time!
My uke was someone who is always very relaxed, very supple and very good at keeping contact whatever tori is doing. This made me somewhat too relaxed; so relaxed that sensei asked for 'more spirit!'. I had no problem with that! The techniques asked were a good subset of the techniques on the list (if you had to do them all the exam would last 90 minutes) you could do in 10-15 minutes. A few hanmihandachiwaza techniques (gyakuhami udekiminage, gyakuhanmi yonkyo), one suwariwaza (kokyu-ho, we always get that at the end of all gradings) and most of it standing in tachiwaza (ushiro katatedori kubishime ikkyo, ushiro ryotedori shihonage, katadori sankyo, shomenuchi sankyo, sankyonage and sumiotoshi, jodan tsuki ikkyo, chudan tsuki nikyo and a few other I can't quite remember at this time). At the end I had to take freefall breakfalls from shomenuchi sumiotoshi.
I was very pleased at being able to stay more or less calm this time, but less than impressed with my posture when I saw some of it on film. Also, I saw that I need to throw more from my center and less with my arms so I won't have trouble keeping my back foot flat on the ground.
EDIT: more comprehensively ...
I'm bored at work now, waiting for someone to come overhere, and he's late. Which means excellent time to blog a little! Afterward I have to go home right away anyway, because I have to collect my flu shot for this year
It was a fine grading session! Everyone passed (2 people for 6th kyu, 4 people for 5th kyu (alexilian, my gf and currently 4th kyu, did ukemi for one of those), 2 with 3rd kyu, 2 for 2nd kyu, and 2 for shodan! The shodan exams and 2nd kyu exams were wonderful to watch (photos will probably be coming in the near future). I think the ultimate prerequisite for a 'successful grading' (which may or may not be a 'passed grading', that's something else) is that both tori and uke have fun, especially uke. This was certainly the case for those 2nd kyu and shodan gradings this time!
My uke was someone who is always very relaxed, very supple and very good at keeping contact whatever tori is doing. This made me somewhat too relaxed; so relaxed that sensei asked for 'more spirit!'. I had no problem with that! The techniques asked were a good subset of the techniques on the list (if you had to do them all the exam would last 90 minutes) you could do in 10-15 minutes. A few hanmihandachiwaza techniques (gyakuhami udekiminage, gyakuhanmi yonkyo), one suwariwaza (kokyu-ho, we always get that at the end of all gradings) and most of it standing in tachiwaza (ushiro katatedori kubishime ikkyo, ushiro ryotedori shihonage, katadori sankyo, shomenuchi sankyo, sankyonage and sumiotoshi, jodan tsuki ikkyo, chudan tsuki nikyo and a few other I can't quite remember at this time). At the end I had to take freefall breakfalls from shomenuchi sumiotoshi.
I was very pleased at being able to stay more or less calm this time, but less than impressed with my posture when I saw some of it on film. Also, I saw that I need to throw more from my center and less with my arms so I won't have trouble keeping my back foot flat on the ground.