やったね！

[shadowspar]

I passed my second grading test at judo class tonight. This moves me up to 四級 (yonkyuu; orange belt).

This one was a bit of a surprise. I wasn't actually supposed to test until Wednesday, but towards the end of class when all the juniors had gone home, Jonathan (my judo partner) and I were pretty much the only folks left. My teacher asked if I wanted to try my test tonight, and knowing that we have a lot of tests to fit into very few classes in the next little while, I figured I'd give it a go, despite feeling rather underprepared.

As it turned out, I was able to rattle through 17 right-handed throws, three left-handed throws, eight hold-downs, six strangles, one combination, and one counter in about eight minutes, so I suppose I couldn't have been in terrible shape. I wasn't very happy with my technique -- I thought I had to use a lot more force than should have been required at times -- but the folks who were watching apparently didn't share that opinion.

Poor Jonathan -- after tonight, I really have to buy him a beer. By the end of the test, he was in pretty bad shape, not just from being thrown about, but from me nailing him in the knee a few times with some throws that weren't supposed to have any knee-on-knee contact. He did get me pretty good later in the night with a koshi guruma that left me checking to see if my kidneys were still installed, but still, fair is fair. =)