Don't worry, you are only testing for Black belt... no one expects you to hit the target

So here we are, almost at a real turning point in my life.


See, on Sunday I test for my black belt in Kyudo. I thought it was my halfway to black belt, but no, that's called something else... we adults, we don't test for red, green, blue, purple... whatever, no no, we simply test for Black and then you go on from there... Had I been in High School I would have been passing through all those other belts...

I have struggled with this all of my life... I would get to a pretty high belt in something, then quit before I could make anything of it...

So now we are actually about to do it... and do it right. You can't get much more authentic than testing for a black belt in Japan...

Anyway, I digress. Sunday I drive to Mito (The capital) and take my test.

It's a two parter, a practical and a written test.

"You can write the answers in English" says Sensei, "But they will ask you the questions in Japanese"

Nice.

So, now we prep to do the test, and for the first time I'm actually doing the complete competition procedure (And I thought the 8-step firing procedure was tough... step with your left foot, step with your right at a 45 degree angle, bow to the judges, step to the Waiting line, kneel, bow to the target, stand, move to the firing line, kneel, turn, kneel, put the bow in front of you, pivot the bow... no, take the string at no more than 10 centimeters from the bottom of the bow, load the bow, turn the other arrow counter... now wait....

That hurts... I'm sitting in what's called "Kiza", this is like Seiza (The traditional Japanese sitting posture of "kill your toes", but instead of having your feet flat on the floor, you are sitting upright on your toes (As in kneeling more like how westerners are kneeling). You can't move so much as a muscle as the other archers go through the firing procedure... approximately 3 or four minutes. If you think that's nothing, you should try it... it HURTS.

Now, and this is the part that kills me every time, you must go to the next "wait-point" when the person 3 archers before you fires... not 2 archers, not the guy in front of you, no... the timing must be perfect...

Man... suddenly I'm forgetting everything... Worse, I forgot to do the stepping procedure, a "day one" thing that you learn before you even learn to not wear rings on your fingers (Ha... that is a brilliant thing to learn)... I'm getting all kinds of tangled up in the procedure, Sensei is yelling at me... boy I'm pretty down.

Then Mr. Graves says "Good. You'll do fine" and I feel the weight of 10 tons lift off my shoulders...

Here's an interesting thing to note:

I have been at the Dojo for 19 months now (78 weeks, 150 or so classes), I have been to class an average of 4 hours a night twice a week (I have been less times and more times, but on average it was twice a week), for a total of some 600 hours of practice. I fire at the makiwara (Practice target placed about a meter and a half from the archer) approximately 5 times a night, or about 450 pulls. I had one seminar where I shot at the Mato (Real target) probably 16 times (It seems it was four sets of four arrows). The target was at short distance, about 10 meters or so.

After all this time, last Tuesday was the first time I actually fired at the target at 28 meters. My first arrow went very, very wide, hitting the burm about a meter to the left and 2 meters too high... the second... HIT!

Everyone stops and looks at me with shock...

"Was that a hit?" Asks Mr. Middle. The targets are paper, and they make a very distinct "snap!" when the target is hit.

"I... think it was" says Mr. Graves...

It was! I hit the target at position "2"...

Of course... I... I um... I was at position "3"...

"Don't worry, you are only testing for Black belt... no one expects you to hit the target."

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums up Kyudo, right there.

Now lets see if I can not really mess up on Sunday... and lets see if my toes will stay attached to my feet as I sit on them...

--ShodanMae