I previously wrote about a goal I have, earning a black belt in martial arts.
Since that post, I’ve been training as much as I can amid a hectic travel schedule. In a future post I’ll mention how to get in some quality workouts while on the road, but for now I want to focus on my first personal glimpse at the black belt test.
This morning I got to participate, as a helper, in Day 3 of a Muay Thai black belt test at our gym. Two students were taking their black belt test, and I was very impressed with the skill, dedication, and heart they demonstrated today.
On Day 3, each student had to survive eight rounds of sparring, including three rounds of Thai pad work and five rounds of contact sparring.
Each round was divided into 30 second intervals. In each 30 second interval, two people (from the pool of the two coaches and the students, like me, helping with the test) held pads or sparred with the two testing students, one person for each testing student. At the end of the interval, the two people rotated out and were replaced by two new people for the next 30 second interval.
The testing students, however, did not get to rotate out—they had to stay in the fight. In this way, they faced fresh opponents every 30 seconds, for each three minute round. They only got to rest a minute between each round.
This is putting it a bit mildly, but this was very hard on the testing students, which seems to be one of the points of the black belt test. The coach can teach techniques, but he can’t teach heart. It was up to the black belt students to demonstrate during this sparring gauntlet not only their technical skills but also their ability to keep going when their bruised ribs, cracked shins, smashed noses, and screaming lungs told them to give up.
And, to top it off, just when the testing students thought they had crossed the goal line, having survived their eight rounds, coach asked them to pick up their game and go one more round yet.
After their ordeal, and though this wasn’t Crispin’s day, this passage from Henry V by William Shakespeare came to mind:
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.
The two students earned their scars—they can proudly tell of the feats they did today, for they never gave up the fight. And, after three and a half years of training, today they earned their black belts.
I was fortunate to have been able to participate in their exam. I saw their skill and their heart, and now it is clear just how much farther I have to go in my own training.
If you’ve seen or participated in a black belt test, I’d love to read your comments below.