The Black Belt Pretest

I want to congratulate Keri for participating in the black belt pretest and representing Ward's Family Karate. This test is only open to brown belts. Keri has earned her 2nd degree brown belt. This test gives brown belts their first look at what the black belt test will be like while qualify the 5th and 6th browns who which to start their training and take the black belt examination.


The pretest is a tough 1 1/2 hour examination. The brown belts ran a 35 minuted khon. That is pretty good, since the actual test will run the khon in 30 minutes, and the candidates will be doing daily khon practice as fast at 17-19 minutes before the test.

I was very please with Keri's performance. She held up very well. She even moved to the back of the room when the techniques where above her grade and observed and tried to perform these new techniques.


Keri also did a great job demonstrating here five Heian katas and one advnced weapon kata.


She also got a good taste of what is to come. Keri Uked for Lura one of the candidates and I think she was a little suprised how much she got thrown around as she attacked with a knife or a gun!


Once again, congratulations for a job well done, by Keri, and thank you for so powerfully representing Ward's Family Karate with discipline and honor.

New Class!

Well sort of. I'd like to give our advanced students, particularly our brown belts a little extra help. Brown belts only get one belt cycle to learn their kata, unlike the beginners who get two. So we will extend our Monday class for advanced students (green belt and up) for an additional 15 minutes. We will bow the all ranks class out at 7:45 and continue with the advanced belts for another 15 minutes. This is where we can do crunches and push ups, work on technique improvements and details of your katas.

We will start this on March 30th.

I hope my advanced students will enjoy this extra training time.

Class Canceled - Thursday 03/26/09

It's snowing out there!

Yes the verdict is in. I am canceling all karate class at Ward's Family Karate, tonight. Roads are already getting bad and the hill at our PRC location is usually a dangerous place in a snow like this.

So stay home!

That does not me you can not practice. If you remember your new self-defense or one-steps then see if somebody at home will help you practice them, or just work solo like a shadow boxer and let your mind provide your training partner. You'd be surprised how much you can learn working solo. If you have not got your SD or OS down. Then try some kihon. Make it fun! get some card board and hold it in a door jam and close the door. You get to pick the height. Then practice front kicks, round kicks, and crescent kicks. Try drawing a target on the card board and be precise about hitting it right on target.

We will wind up self-defense and one-steps next week. Then it is on to Kihon.

Have fun and be safe.

A Change In Our Belt Cycle

We are going to try something new. Currently our belt cycle runs 8-9 weeks. I made it this long to accommodate those students who could not get in for all the classes. I know that things come up and sometimes you can not make it to class. However, this is creating two problems. First, this is not fair to students who attend class regularly. I would like to let students be able to test and progress more often. Second, since we learn self-defense and one-steps first, its a long time between that and the belt test review. I think students would be able to recall their self-defenses and one-steps better if we shortened that time. So we are going to shorten the cycle to 6 1/2 weeks. here is how it will work.

Belt Cycle

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Self-Defense/One-Steps 1 1/2 weeks
Kihon 1 1/2 weeks
Arnis 1 week
Kata 1 1/2 weeks
Review 1 week
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Total 6 1/2 weeks

This schedule will also bring us more in line with the cycle that Kyoshi Haynes has. I realize this may mean that at times when things get busy some of you may need to take two cycles to earn your rank. That is just all part of managing your training.

So get ready for a fast ride. It's going to be fun.