Friday night, I was officially awarded the rank of Ikkyu, or first-degree brown belt, in Shuri-ryu karate at the Academy of Okinawan Karate.
The black stripe down the center of the belt signifies the next step is Shodan, or black belt. This means I’m done testing for rank for a while, and it’s up to me [...]
Posts Tagged ‘rank’
Officially an Ikkyu
The Midget Makes Blue Belt
New Blue Belt
Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.
It’s been 11 months since I first earned my blue belt and left my son in the dust, but he’s finally earned his new rank and he’s wearing it proudly. Friday night he didn’t even want to take it off, as if he were treating it like a new black [...]
New Belt, New Kata, New Challenge
Last night I earned my purple belt in Shuri-ryu.
I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. A lot of new material comes with the purple belt, and several of our higher ranks have told me purple belt is when our karate really starts to come alive. I’ll also learn a new kata called [...]
