Garytt's Belt Test

This weekend Garytt had his second belt test in karate.  In October 2013, he tested from a white belt to a yellow belt.  This test will take him from yellow, skipping blue-stripe, to a blue belt.

First, they all got lined up and did a few stretches and warm-up moves.

This whole ceremony was almost all done in Japanese, so I'm not sure how much Garytt understood, but he followed pretty well.  Yugihara Sensei does teach the kids quite a bit of Japanese in class, so I'm sure most of it he could follow easily.  It was when Sensei's grandfather (91 years old and still running around punching, kicking, blocking and striking like nobody's business!) stood up to explain things that Garytt was probably lost.

The Boy is the yellow belt in the center of the picture to the left.  Garytt's sensei, Yugihara Sensei, is standing up with the blue tie on.












He was the third group to test.  First up, his punches, blocks, and kicks.

Next, the second kata in the pinan series.




When he was done with that, he took a little test.  This always makes me nervous, because he is only reading words like:  kick, cat, plus, dad, etc.  But, he said he just had to draw pictures of fists, hands, and feet in the positions he's learned in karate so far.

We should know in a couple days if he passed.  Then, it will be another week or so before he gets his new belt.

The whole testing group photo.  Sensei Yugihara's grandfather, the man who taught him karate from the moment he could walk, is in the back row, third from the right.