Hi folks,
on Sunday 30 September 2007 I will be grading for my brown belt with red stripe (1st Kyu) in Shotokan Karate.
As the name 1st Kyu implies, this is the belt just before becoming a black belt first Dan.
For this grading exam we have to do our basics (Kihon), Kumite (Kihon and Jyu Ippon) set 4 and the Kata Bassai Dai plus any previously learned Kata they might ask us to do.
(So far we did Taikyoku Shodan, Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Godan, Heian Yondan and Tekki Shodan), so we have to be prepared to perform up to eight Katas (although they rarely or never ask you to do all of them during a grading below black belt).

A lot to get through and this will be especially tough for me since I was not allowed to do any training whatsoever for 4 weeks after having had a nose operation. I have only resumed my training two weeks ago.
Fortunately i was fairly much on the right level with everything, but I still have to catch up.
So, it looks like I will need all the luck i can get.
I will keep you posted on my progress and of course on the result of the grading too.

Good luck man. I have a first dan black belt in Tang-So-Do. The black belt testing was very hard but it was not as serious as you have explained your testings. My sensei(is that how you spell it?) does not invite us to testing unless he knowns you are ready. The point of his testings are to see how much effort you are willing to put in to get your new belt.

But anyways, good luck with that. Hope you do well.

Good luck, do your best

Thanks for the good wishes, folks.
Will, yes, you spelled 'Sensei' correctly.
The thing is, if our Sensei feels we are not ready for grading he will hold us back.
You think this grading is tough, well, when I will do my 1st Dan grading (in a year's time hopefully) I will have to do all the above, with the difference that we will have to do all sets of Kumite (1,2,3,4 and 5), we might have to do all 9 or even 10 Kata's we wil know by then and we will also have to do a fight against a number of opponents for 10 minutes continuously.
I get scared even thinking about it.
But, by then I will be a year older and, hopefully, wiser.

If you are dedicated enough, you can do it. Just go in there and do your best. Dont get scared, or too nervous. Do your nest and you will be fine. Goodluck!

Hey, Good Luck on your belt test.

I'm not the martial arts guy but I can see in movies/animes/manga how important the ranking of the belts are. If you're going to test for the brown belt, you are good.

Do your best. 1 more day!

No linekill, another 2 weeks.
But thank you for your good wishes and encouragement.
After doing (and hopefully passing) this grading the real work starts.
It will mean a whole year of intense and hard work to work up to the black belt.
(Shiver....)

Good luck! I don't know much about karate or whatever your doing, but i know people who have gotten black belts and spent like 12 years trying to get it, sounds like a hard accomplishment to get pretty high, good luck.

Good luck with it! But don't over-exert yourself, since your operation wasn't exactly a long time ago.