My Sankyu Test

Sensei Danny Saragosa was kind enough to take some pictures during my promotion. It's strange seeing myself in martial art pictures. I look like a different person. It's also a little embarrassing. I definitely over analyze myself in pictures. Like, "Am I falling correctly?" and "Oh, am I doing the right thing?". It's the perfectionist in me again. Curses....Here we are standing in front of the dojo. On the left is Sensei Danny Saragosa and to the right is Sensei Bruce Raney. Both men are full of martial art knowledge, plus look how big they are. Ha! You wouldn't want to get in a fight with them.


Sensei Noah Harders is presenting me with my sankyu certificate and belt. How exciting! I was nervous and happy at the same time. It's an amazing feeling to be promoted.


Whenever we had visiting instructors, I was always looked down upon because of my belt rank. Our dojo is very old school, so we didn't even give out strips or different colored belts besides blue, brown, and black. Belt colors are at the dojo's discretion, but many senseis have decided to add ranks in between to give their students a sense of accomplishment. The visiting instructors were mainly from the AJJF organization. Their organization has a striped blue and a green belt before brown. I already reached those ranks, but because my belt didn't show it, they thought I was a beginner until I started training.

Many instructors are quite impressed when I hit the mat. They're like, "Wow, she's strong for her size." Also, learning the hard way, instructors don't want to glorify good martial artists. If a martial artist is exceptional, they will simply correct everything you do until you're frustrated out of your mind. Grr...I wanted to punch someone so hard that they couldn't get up!! AHH!!!!

Can you tell they did that to me? You betcha! I was frustrated out of my mind. I was so angry and sad. I thought to myself that I could do nothing right. Well, it just so happens that it was the exact opposite opinion in the instructor's eyes. They saw so much potential and skill in me that they only wanted to help me become the best. Wow! I couldn't believe it when I found that out. I was in complete doubt. "Are you SURE????" Sensei said yes. Oh gosh, after hearing that, I felt so small. Like a tiny ant. Squish me!

My Poor Aching Knee

About a week ago, I was promoted to Sankyu. Yay! It was surprising but not surprising at the same time. I kinda knew it was coming. Actually, I wanted to be promoted a lot earlier. I mean, since it took so long, I thought I was never getting promoted. Ha! So, it was really nice to change from a blue to a brown belt. The last time I was promoted was in April 2008.

Well, the so-called "test" wasn't easy. I got some bumps and bruises along the way. My left knee is still aching. It's puffy and still bruised. Noah threw a beautiful and super high Hane Goshi, but I went so high in the air that I basically was landing on my face. Noah held me up after he saw what he did, but beside my face smacking the mat, my knee wasn't so lucky. I hit my knee on the mat right smack dab in the center. Wowee, did it hurt like a b*tch.

I also bruised my right achilles pretty good throwing Sumigaeshi. My right ankle was caught and hit while kicking Noah over. It wasn't my intention but my ankle was stuck. It wasn't too bad, but it swelled up.

Noah admitted to me after the test that he tried to throw me without holding back. He said that if I was going to wear that brown belt that I had to know how to fall. *Gulp* No pressure. Haha!

But, I passed! I'm so happy!