White Belt Testing

Master Richie told me that I’d be doing sparring during our testing, which was the first event of the evening. So, after gearing up, I faced off against Nico, a twelve-year old first degree black belt going for his second degree, who looks more like he’s fifteen. Nico held his own for most of the fight, relying on his experience, but his weakness, which he’d shared with me during our warmups, is my strength. His fighting style is one of a patient fighter, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake, so that he can capitalize. But that means that he’s susceptible to more aggressive fighters, who can overwhelm him with a barrage of attacks…aka, me. And since most of the people in our class are more passive and therefore also patient fighters, Nico had never fought someone like me.

With my strong right leg, I bombarded his body with side kicks and round kicks, evading his attempts to block and keeping him off balance with combinations. Searching for some answer to me, Nico tried to gain an advantage by switching to southpaw, so I switched with him. And he quickly learned that I’m equally as adept from that side, so he went back to his stronger right side. And when he finally started kicking over my kicks to make a few contacts, I surprised him by going even higher and tagging him in the head. But my strongest weapon, as I was told later by Mr. Tyson, is my side kick. I can generate so much force in my kick that I don’t just make contact, I literally can push my opponent backwards by a couple of feet. And I used that kick to keep Nico off balanced and retreating while I picked my shots.

After my win over Nico, I was paired up with Mr. Tyson, a third degree black belt and one of our instructors. Mr. Tyson is twenty-two, a lot more experienced, and has unbelievable flexibility with his vast arsenal of kicks. I didn’t really stand a chance in this fight…or so I thought. Since we had never sparred before, he made incorrect assumptions about my fighting style, and since I’m only a white belt, he underestimated me. I guess this is a good time to note that several people in the class have told me that I’m a natural sparrer. I have good instincts about fighting, great reflexes, and I’m deceptively strong. And one other weapon that I employ that very few others use effectively in our class…I’m an excellent blocker.

I went straight after Mr. Tyson, unloading combinations of side kicks and round kicks on him and causing him to retreat. Being a last-minute substitute, he wasn’t wearing gear, so I refrained from going for his head. He blocked most of my attacks, but the effort meant that he couldn’t throw any counter kicks. He dodged and rolled away to get some space between us, so that he could switch to offense instead of defense. He tried to keep me at bay with his long legs. He tried side kicks, round kicks, crescent kicks, and even hook kicks. I blocked them all. Not finding an opening on my body, he tried to go for my head, but I blocked that too. And then, I unloaded a devastating side kick that caught him square in the ribs and sent him sliding backwards two feet. And that’s how the fight ended. I’m not sure that he even managed a single point on me. Now, he might have been holding back on me, but I still believe that I surprised him.

My last fight was against Evie, an eleven-year old brown belt. She had recently broken her wrist, and I knew that she was extremely timid when it came to combat anyway, so I decided that I’d throttle it way back with her. Instead of being aggressive, I tried the patient route and waited her out. Unfortunately, all she did was retreat. She never even attempted a kick or punch. I threw a couple of weak kicks at her just to try to spur her on, but nothing. I could hear her family trying to encourage her to come at me, and she even turned her head to look at them, which made me laugh. Never take your eyes off your opponent. She finally threw a punch and caught me in the chest, and that seemed to waken her up. She attempted a few kicks after that, which floated harmlessly by me. And then, she made a rookie mistake. Instead of fighting me from a side position, she squared up in front of me, exposing her entire torso. I lashed out with a front kick and caught her square in the chest. Even though it wasn’t a particularly hard kick, it caught her off balance, and she went flying onto her back. I stopped to help her up, but she lost all fight after that, and we just danced around each other until it was over.

Mr. Tyson later pulled me aside and asked if I had ever done martial arts before. When I answered in the negative, he was surprised. Bewildered, he asked, “Then, how did you get so good at sparring?” I tried to flatter him by telling him that he’s just a good teacher…which he is…but he was still shocked. He told me that my side kick was unreal. And since Mr. Tyson rarely gives compliments to anyone, choosing to usually critique everything to perfection, I took that as high praise.

The night wasn’t without drama for me though. After executing my form perfectly, Master Richie asked me to do it again facing the back of the room. I don’t know what happened to my head, but I got disoriented and kept turning the wrong way. He asked me to start over, but by then, I was mentally wrecked. It was kind of embarrassing, especially since I’ve done my form a hundred times without issue. What a time to have a meltdown.

After everyone had executed their forms, the black belts did their board breaks, and the testing was concluded. But Master Richie wasn’t done with the surprises. He said that there was an extra board left over, and he asked me to try to break it doing a flying side kick. It should be noted that black belts actually spend time during our classes practicing breaking boards. We have special plastic boards that snap together and “break” to simulate a real board’s toughness. It is NOT something that white belts spend time doing. I had never even attempted a board break of any kind before much less a flying side kick in front of thirty people all focused on me.

I’m not sure if Master Richie saw something that made him believe that I could actually do this, or if he just wanted to see what would happen if he introduced some chaos to the night. Maybe he just wanted me to redeem myself for screwing up my form. So, I got in my sparring stance, did a few bounces on the balls of my feet, slid forward, leaped into the air, and shot out with my right leg. I caught it almost perfectly in the middle of the board, and it split into two pieces. I kicked it so hard that I probably could have split two boards. And that was a much better way to end the evening than sulking over my botched form. And now that I think about it, maybe that’s what Master Richie intended all along.