Black Belt Essay by Ananya Venkatachalam
The year in which I tested for and earned my senior black belt was a very tumultuous one, at best. I had just made the transition from elementary school to middle school; it’s not a very easy change for anyone involved (including the parents of those hormonal, pre-pubescent teenagers). It was, actually, just a little […]
What My Blackbelt Means To Me by Trey Scarborough
I began karate when I was 4 years old. My mom told me that her and my dad started me in karate so that I could have an activity outside of the house. I had already tried soccer and I did not like it. When I first started karate, I thought it was easy. I […]
Black Belt Essay by Joshua Rehn
When you get your black belt it is just the beginning. The moment it touches your hands, you feel like a master, but it’s not that easy. You have to continue to earn it everyday. You have to go through the pain, the tears, and the glory before you get your black belt. You have […]
What A Black Belt Means To Me by Lara Ongan
Typically, receiving a black belt means that one has reached a higher level of knowledge in the field of martial arts. However, to me, a black belt means so much more. Getting a black belt is coming so far – so far, in fact, as to have gone from being a small and weak white […]
Senior Black Belt Test Essay by James Kennedy
Since I’ve gotten my black belt I’ve learned that I still have to learn, not even just the katas and techniques. I can learn to teach lower belts more. I can learn new sparing strategies/techniques, and of course I need to remember all of my old curriculum, my nine katas, forty techniques, and all my […]
What a Black Belt Means To Me by Zachary Pervil
A black belt means the world to me. I always wanted a black belt. I have been thinking of working for a black belt since I was a white belt. It is a goal that I made for myself. I told myself I would not give up. I will work hard, practice and train. I […]
What it means to be a black belt by Mason Galette
I should show honesty and respect to everybody and be nice. A black belt takes lots of responsibility like teaching a class. It takes writing an essay, practicing thirty push ups non stop, fifty lunges, fifty squats, and techniques and a whole lot more. I should do my katas nice, not sloppy. I should not […]
What a black belt means to me By Cole Stiles
I think I started doing karate when I was 5, so getting a black belt is a long-term goal that I will have accomplished by working hard and being focused which is not always easy for me. I have a ton of energy and like to do things like sports and karate helps me to […]
Junior Black Belt Essay by Jayden Walker
When I first started karate at 5 years old, I wanted to be able to defend myself. I thought that I could just do it for a while and be done with it. But I quickly learned that it actually takes a pretty long time to get to the point where you can use the […]
Black belt essay by Sophia DePietro
What does it mean to be a black belt? That’s a hard question to ask someone who has never hadexperience with being a black belt but I do have experience with peers of mine being black belts so I cantry to explain. Being a black belt to me, means that you were just a white belt that never quit. You are awhite belt that had the confidence, courage, dedication, heart, bravery, and hard-working skill of a blackbelt. Being a black belt isn’t some award you get for coming to karate classes, it’s way more than that.You have to earn it. Being a black belt and having one is a privilege not a prize. When I talk to peopleabout karate, they think it’s some easy sport that anyone could do, they tend to just ignore the fact thatthere are much more things then just kicking and punching just like any other sport. A black belt is asymbol of years of sparring, techniques, katas, training, boxing, and hard work. Being a black belt wasmy dream ever since I started but I didn’t want to put any effort into it. As I started to grow more andbecome higher belt, I realized that if I wanted to be honored as a sensei, I had to put all of my effort intothis and do better than I did the last time. Being a black belt means working hard but it also means haverespect. You should have respect for yourself, other students, sensei’s, grandmasters and even peopleoutside of karate. What I mean by having respect for yourself is you must believe in yourself, not on justcomparing yourself but believe that you can accomplish anything you want if you work hard for it suchas a black belt. You also must be compassionate about this sport. You can’t just learn and forget a technique. You have to learn, work on it, perform it, find little details that you might be doing wrong, fixthem, and perform it again. When you do forms you have to be serious about it not just do the moves,you have to do the correct stances, do the correct moves, you have to be strong, and you have to havepower. Another thing you need to have is practice. Like I said before you can’t just do it once and thenforget about it. You must keep practicing and ask questions if you don’t understand or can’t do a moveright. It’s better to ask questions then not and do a bad technique or kata. Trust me I’ve made thatmistake before. When I was part of the lowers belt from being a white belt to a brown belt, I didn’treally care about remembering things that much. I thought as long as I knew them at the moment, Iwould be okay. But as I started to be expected of more, I was getting more and more embarrassedabout how little I knew. But I’m glad that I had the learning experience because after that I made theright choice, I went to one of my sensei’s and asked for a booklet about everything I needed to knowfrom katas to technique to what kicks and punching I should know. Now I’m a proud red belt with tonsof experience with everything. One last thing is that you should be humble. You must be humble aboutwinning or losing. No body wants to be considered a sore loser or to cocky when it comes to winning.But you also don’t want to be to down on yourself. Everyone probably knows a lot more than they thinkand having the confidence in yourself about knowing a lot is good. But you also don’t want to have tomuch where it’s being rude to others and making them feel they’re not good enough.