The Big Test!

Me and my boy James Dixon (right) after testing!

So I'm catching up on a few things that have happened this year.  One of my major life events this year was testing for my first black belt.  I've been a student of Jeet Kune Do for seven years and finally made it to that pivotal moment when you're told..."hey you're testing for you black belt; get ready."

I was lucky enough to test with another phenomenal martial artist and friend, James Dixon.  He's a natural athlete and a great training partner.  He is one of my favorite individuals.

THE TEST 
The test was set early Saturday morning.  With nerves running high the test began with a series of knowledge demonstrations.  James and I went through the curriculum and demonstrated our knowledge of the material.  It was a test of not only how much of the material we knew, but also how well we knew the material.  In
other words, being able to show competency in our motions and execution of the techniques.

We moved away from the curriculum to showing application of the knowledge.  I refer to this as Flowing.  You start out of range and transition through the ranges until you're in close contact to takedowns.  There is not a particular set path just a start point and an end point.  How you get there is an expression of your own skill and how you interpret the interaction.  It's one of my favorite training environments.

The last bit of the test was endurance driven.  How long can you go and do you continue even though you're drained.  James and I expended a lot of energy during the other portions of the test...now was the time to scrape the bottom for more.  Our endurance portion is composed of three minute rounds.  Two Mauy Thai kick and knee rounds, a Wing Chun gates round, and a ground portion where you have to escape three dominate positions.

It's needless to say that once it was all done that dead tired was an understatement.  It felt good though.  Seven years of hard work and dedication and finally seeing a dream come true was all worth it.  I can't stay still though, now it's off to train for the next one!

Train hard!
-David