Orange Belt - Say "Yah!"

I'm in the running for Mother of the Year - again.  Jackson has been taking karate for almost a year.  In May, we got a brief note to all the karate parents in his take-home folder that if the kids wanted to test for their next belt, they could contact the instructor and set up a time to test.  I, being the wonderful mother I am, thought Jackson was way too young to test for a belt and hadn't yet even mastered his current form as he was having trouble remembering it.  I figured it was just a generic note sent to all the other kids who had been doing karate for much longer than Jackson.  Jackson didn't say anything about wanting to do it, so I didn't think anything more of it.

Fast forward to Open House night at school.  I talked with his karate instructor briefly just to see how Jackson was doing.  Her first comment was that Jackson was really disappointed that he didn't get to test for his orange belt, and now he felt really excluded since he was the only one who didn't have his orange belt. Ouch!  That knife in the stomach really hurt.  So, she told me the next test was a month away (now this weekend) at 9am.  I said "great - we'll be there" and put it on my calendar at 9am.  So on Friday, I called the instructor just to confirm it was still at 9am - she said she didn't know if Jackson was going to be there since she hadn't heard from us, but it was now at 10am.  His soccer game was at 11, so it would be tight, but we'd make it work.  Surely it wouldn't last more than 1 hr, right?

We got to the studio right on time and walked into a room filled with kids - all much older than Jackson.  And that's when I started getting nervous.  There were 2 judges dressed up in suits with scarves and medallions in front.  they called all the kids on the mat to "warm up".  Holy smokes - this is really serious.  Jackson looked so small next to all of the other kids.  But to his credit, he held his own and did well.

Next it was time to test everyone's forms.  I wasn't sure how this was going to work, since it appeared that everyone was at all different levels.  They had 4 kids test at a time, and each kid went through their form on their own at their own speed.  We didn't know whether Jackson was supposed to say each part of his form (like we'd been doing in practice), but it turns out, it's all supposed to be quiet.  So that (combined with everyone else doing something different and having to do his forms in front of all the other kids) threw him for a loop.  Thankfully, his instructor recognized that he was really nervous and came out to do his form with him.

After doing his forms, they also had to test for self defense.  I'm pretty sure they hadn't been working on any of this with Jackson, so his instructor came out to teach it to him.  Jackson had to test with another kid who was at least 3-4 yrs older than him, so I was more than a little nervous (especially since this was one of the better kids who tested!).  Jackson did really well.  His instructor, when teaching Jackson how to do some moves, was using sound effects to simulate the fast motion.  Jackson thought he was supposed to say those sound effects, so while he was practicing, you could hear him say "whackity wack - step back" which then morphed into "whackity whackity get backity".

After Jackson was finished, he had to wait for all of the other kids to finish - over 1 hour later!  Needless to say, we missed soccer.

All of the kids, judges and his instructor from testing day:

We didn't know what to expect afterwards - would he get his belt?  All of the kids lined up for a belt clip.  I also found out that Jackson was supposed to be saving all of his belt clips and putting them on his belt (belt clips are given out as rewards for a good job).  Oops.

I was starting to get a little annoyed - we had spent $70 and 1.5 hrs for a belt clip (that he hasn't even been saving)?? And then he came back and said he didn't even get a belt clip!  Thankfully, she came over a little later and gave him his orange belt - and a tiny tiger headband.  He seemed to like it - especially the head band.

Jackson's an Orange Belt! We're really proud of him for trying this - it was way more nerve racking than I thought it would be!

Jackson was so cute doing all of the forms.  Here's a video of highlights from the morning:

Tom and I were clueless as the testing was going on.  There were so many rituals and phrases that I had no idea what they were saying or what they were supposed to do.  Thankfully Jackson figured it out!

Jackson wore his headband all the way home.  He couldn't believe that he got it - especially since orange was his favorite color!  So next time you're in trouble, just say "Yah!" and Jackson will be nearby to protect you....