As we got further into the class it was taking me a good 5 seconds to stand up each time and I remember thinking “the last time I had to put this much effort into standing up off the floor was literally my black belt test.”

So if you want a gauge for how hard the self defense portion of a black belt test will be, just imagine doing jiu jitsu after having donated a few pints of blood.

Wow it’s been a hot second since I’ve been on Tumblr. So I couldn’t use karate as my gym alternate cause NYS regulations are dumb but it’s all good.

The internship went really well though I didn’t get to work with the fight choreographer.

Also! I got accepted to Niagara University which was my first choice and got offered a Trustee’s Scholarship for $23,000 a year which is insane and I’m so excited for the next four years. I’m going into Theater Design & Technology and maybe double majoring in Social Work.

All in all we’re thriving.

Karate is still great. I’ve been going slightly less cause school is a bit hectic (also I got my first job as a cashier at our local Cooperative Market).

So a few updates:

1. I might be able to use karate as an alternate gym for school next year so I don’t have to take gym class in school. The requirement is 32 hours per semester like honestly I get that in a month. 

2. My friend Ryder tested for his Junior Black Belt on Saturday and did really well, so now me and the two other boys I was originally testing with have all gotten our black belts. 

I just need to rant about some concerns I have at karate. For those of you who don’t know I’m female to male transgender and came out about 3 years ago, and to the main senseis at my dojo about 2 years ago. 

I’m at a weird place now because I've changed my name on my school records and transitioned literally everywhere except karate. Sometimes I genuinely dread going to class because I know I have to hear a name I no longer use. 

Probably 80% of my dreams either take place at the dojo or will have my senseis show up in random places they shouldn’t be. Anyway, this was a particularly entertaining karate dream. 

For some reason I was going to another school within our group of dojos, (I’ve been there a few times for tournaments and jujitsu but not their standard classes).

So I walked in and they were testing my friend M for her second kyu brown belt even though she’s a green belt but they were like ‘she seemed ready’, but I had just given blood so I couldn’t spar her so I just yelled really loudly instead.

Then we went into warmups and I just warmed up with the other students cause even though I was a black belt I was too awkward to be with other black belts. Then they had this weird procession thing for ‘the best students’ from the week and they went and warmed up in a little separate section of the room. Throughout this dream, my completely rational justification for everything that was happening was ‘maybe this is just what this school is like, after all, of course, it’s not exactly like my dojo’. Plus nothing in this dream seemed to surprise anyone like yep apparently everything is totally normal. 

Then they were like ‘you have fifteen minutes until you have to be in class’ so I went out with this one girl who I randomly befriended and we sat with some other student in this little teepee thing for ten minutes and she was like ‘you should go to weapons class’ and one of the senseis from my school was teaching it so I was like ‘yeah totally I know him’. 

So the group of us walked down and everyone lines the sides of this gravel pathway and started doing this weird hula dance, and I was just following along and panicking like ‘oh no they’re gonna think I have no business being a black belt cause I don’t know what I’m doing” also questioning ‘is this just what weapons class is really supposed to be like and my school is just weird’. 

Then maybe five minutes later my sensei just comes skateboarding down the path with like combat boots and loads of random little weapons strapped to his person, and did some speech including the phrases “learn to fight with REAL weapons’ and “kick their broadway fighting asses” because he was very passionate about stage fighting not being real fighting. 

Then he just screams “you have fifteen seconds to find a weapon!” 

So we all go sprinting off and I follow this girl and I’m like “I’m sorry I don’t know where anything is” and she just laughs and runs into this hidden tent thing and starts rifling through her apparent secret stockpile of weapons for whenever he teaches this kind of class. 

So she’s got boxes of katanas and knives and stuff but she turns and just hands me a pair of sewing scissors. And me being my socially anxious self doesn’t ask for a better weapon which might be reasonable cause ya know she has katanas. 

Then I woke up. 

Hi! So I’m really excited. We’ve been throwing around dates for my black belt test but it’s finally set for June 22nd. 

I started working self-defense specifically for my black belt test. I get to choose the moves off of the attack so that’s pretty cool. I’m writing the moves here for future reference, though they may change within the next few weeks. Ignore the random terms I use, but we give moves nicknames. I’ll have more later. 

One arm grab - distraction, counterclockwise circle to pass, reach around to a standing guillotine. 

Two arm grab - distraction, both arms circle in, left wristwatch, left chicken wing, circle to guillotine same as one arm grab.

Lead arm punch - push block, transition, grab with left hand, palm strike to the jaw, right knee leg strike, clothesline to ground to jujitsu armbar.

Back arm punch - fan block then the same as lead arm punch.

Okay, so the tournament went really well. I got there a few hours early to watch other divisions and support some kids from my dojo. 

So Katas were first and my division was myself and three girls. I was second in the lineup. The first girl was a green belt and she did the third kata, Saken, and was amazing. Then I went.

I am so genuinely proud of my kata. This is rare cause I have really high expectations of myself and in 4.5 years of karate I’ve only been proud of two katas I’ve ever done, this one being the second. I performed Avoidance kata our fifth and highest kata. We got scores and mine ranged between 8.6-8.8 with the scoring range being 8.0-8.9. So pretty good. I placed second after the green belt which is fine, I’m pretty happy. 

Then sparring. Oof. So I sparred that green belt again and she absolutely destroyed me. I lost 5-1. She has amazing speed and height on her kicks she was so good. So that put me in the bottom bracket then I won my second fight 5-0, so I got third. Brackets always kinda annoy me cause if I had fought the second girl first I would get second. I wish there was a kind of round robin where everyone fights everyone else.