I sat at the same grading table last night as I have done so many times in the past; I went through the same tedious process of filling in the forms, dating licences and organizing the graders for their examination. The only difference last night was that it was Emily's turn to grade for her 6th kyu green belt. I was so nervous for her because she was still having trouble remembering the japaneese translations and blocks.

There were 4 kids in total grading for their green belts, at this stage they are familiar with the grading set up and have no fear of the amount of people witnessing the exam as they had participated in 3 previous exams in the past. The childrens confidence was blatent even before they started so 'naturally' Roger decided to shake them up a bit and changed the set up of the exam; the kids were re-arranged, the grading was ablout to take twice as long! I sighed and thought 'kids don't like change'. I sunk my face in one hand and re-wrote the sheets, by this time the kids were looking about nervously, fiddling with their Gi's and scratcing their heads - they really got to feel that they were the centre of attention, Roger purposly wanted them to feel like this was they're first grading not their forth. His philosophy is to keep making them feel like they're in a battle and not a re-run of something they had done before. He got 10/10 for effectiveness in mine and the kids eyes!

The grading started, you could see the intensity of the childrens focuss - probably wondering all the while if sensei was going to 'change' something again. Gawd he was hard on them, he had them going over the same techniques over and over .... they were sweating like horses before they had even got half way through, and bare in mind they had already done a 2 hour pre-grading class before this exam.

Just when the kids were comfortable with their basics techniques and applied them effectivley they seemed to relax into the changes and were showing a little more confidence, Roger changed the grading again!

Instead of the children demonstrating the block against each other, roger selected each of them to apply the block with the black belts (who were by now falling asleep on the bench suffering with intence boredom and frustration lol) The kids were all a panic, I know I would have been if I were in their shoes, because usually you keep the same partner for weeks prior to the exam to make sure our distance is right, we'd swap little tricks to remember which foot you'd go off on etc. Well no doubt the kids had their own little methods of making life esier, but if roger changes their partner on the day, they would be put on the spot to remember the moves at the blink of an eye! This technique and spontaneous change is to ensure lightening induced responce! poor beggers, I would have pooped me knickers!

Each of the students nervously went through the blocks - not as confident as they would have been if they had their own appointed partner, but they did it and compleeted the grading. Now it was emilys turn, now she was the shortest so she had Joss lol. She felt a little better and thought that since Joss had been teaching her here at home assumed that he would be kinder since she was his blonde sister lol. No way, joss knows he'd loose his belt if there was any sign of easiness on his part. He came at he full on, she went (((WHITE))). Her eyes filled up as she was applying the blocks, she filled up at one point, and by now I was ready to puke, but something inside me knew by the determination on her face and seeing her hold back the tears I knew she wasn't going to give up at this stage. I watched her compleete her grading with a respectfull bow to Joss as she wiped her eyes. Still she didn't let it out. She passed with flying colours and is now a fully fledged green belt. Joss give her a big squishy hug at the end of class, he said he was going to cry when he saw her filling up in the blocks, he said he looked at her with hope that she could see that he was never going to hurt her or hit her by mistake. She found trust in joss as she went through the blocks not like the usual sibbling rivalry who'd give each other a dig. In Karate it's different, she learnt that last night.

I'm so proud of her. I'll post a picture of her later. Her green belt grading was harder than mine by a long shot.

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