A Black Belt Test is One Test to Watch!

Every three months Master Johnson and Master Nathan announces an upcoming Black Belt Test and encourages everyone to come and watch. There are a lot of reasons to see these tests and usually it is scheduled two weeks before our own color belt test. One Saturday my husband and I drove over the Buckman Bridge to the Main School to allow our daughter Randi watch a black belt test. She was a green belt/blue tip at the time and was at that point in karate where she was tired of the sport where it felt like a never-ending road to her black belt. Well, we watch that test from beginning to end, learned from it and enjoyed it. Randi started "kicking butt" since that day and I took her to almost every black belt test until she finally tested herself. She nailed her test because she knew what to do by watching previous tests and was not flustered. Some of the ones who did fluster did not observe a previous black belt test and it showed! Students travel from the Georgia schools, the Florida schools and farther to the Main School on Blanding Boulevard to test for their black belt. It can be well over 60 minutes for a lot of them to drive there, but for us at the Mandarin School its just crossing over the St. Johns River. If your current belt rank is a blue belt/brown tip or above, then you will be testing for your black belt within the next 12 months. So please attend a black belt test, cheer your senior belts on, learn from it and enjoy it. You will be very glad you did!