"train hard, fight easy. train easy, fight hard"

by teresa
Last night I took Nick to his belt testing (karate). He was 3 months over due for the test. He kept postponing it because he was having trouble memorizing the verses. One of his sensei's got on him so much last much last week and forced him to study. He also told him if he didn't show up to test...he was coming to his house and dragging him there. This particular sensei is a sweet 20yr who grew up at the dojo. He took classes from the time he was Ben's age and now he is one of the instructors. Nick thinks the world of the young man. So any words of encouragment from him are taken very seriously. The belt test took 3 hours. I thought I would pass out from the strong feet smell coming from all of the participants...and the fact that my feet don't touch the ground when I sit on the bench (this cuts off my circulation). Anyway...he did great and earned his purple belt. He was so excited on the way home that he was just rambling and rambling on about every aspect of the evening. He had me take a picture when we got home with his new belt on. Ben will be testing out of little dragons in about 2 months. He is a red belt now, and will be getting his (little dragon) black belt next month. After that he will be in the regular classes as an orange belt. I know that sounds confusing, but upon graduating from little dragons you are promoted to the orange belt level for adults. He is so thrilled about this!