Here are the grades from the 8-5-2012 Kyu Belt exam that was held in Lafayette.  If you click on the image it will become larger.  Your certificates, cards and possible new belts will be given at your next class.  Thanks,  Sensei Scott

Class Saturday July 21, 2012

There will be class Saturday, July 21, 2012. Although Sensei Scott, Sensei Steve ans Sensei Candis will be out of town at instructor, Sempai Chase Norris will conduct the trainings and he will be assisted by Dr. LeAndre Odom. It should be a great training. I look forward to hearing from everyone about it.

Here are your results from the Kyu Exam. Please click on the image to see it larger. Your certificates and new belts will be given out in your upcoming classes. Everyone have a great Easter! No Karate Saturday or Monday. OSU, Sensei Scott

Here are the results from the 12/03/2011 kyu test as conducted and graded by Sensei Mikami. The first group, the white belts through the orange belts, did excellent as the results will show. However, those are easier tests and require far less mental concentration and physical focus (see the definition of Zanshin below). The second group, the green belts and above, was much weaker for their rank and did not exhibit the spirit, concentration and physical technique necessary for higher belts. You will see the results are a lot lower.

Frankly, the brown belts did not do a good job at all. Sensei Mikami's comments to me were that none of the brown belts even looked like brown belts. Honestly, how do you expect to get black belts if you can't get your standards up to brown belts? You can only get better by one method, harder more concentrated training.

I know most of you guys are young, but we have had young black belts before. If any of you want to achieve a black belt, you have a lot of work to do. All the horseplay, cutting up and goofing off is catching up with you all and your lack of a a serious concentrated effort and strong foundation will continue to be a problem. I would suggest that you all go to more classes and especially more basic classes so that you can relearn that which you should have already learned.

ZANSHIN is the "returning" or "remaining" mind. It is the state of total awareness in Karate. To achieve this mental state you must focus your concentration and energy into your opponent or imagined opponent. This relaxed state of alertness allows one to be completely prepared and quickly react. Please develop this important martial arts attribute and take your training more seriously. Without it, your Karate will not improve at advanced levels.

Please double click on the grades below to see a larger image and for the "good news / bad news." Keep training harder!

Here are the test results from this weekend. Everyone did very well. If you want to see the results clearer, please click on the image once or twice. Thank you for your hard work and effort. Also, special congratulations to our two newest black belts, Thomas Dean and Kyle Jeffreys. Keep training hard guys.