I came to the martial arts relatively late in life, taking my first class on my 40th birthday. I recently had the honor of taking a portion of my red belt test. The rest of the test starts this week when I again begin taking classes as a white belt. I will then spend weeks to months at each belt, white through blue, being given the opportunity to look at the the curriculum for each rank through the eyes of an 8 year practitioner.



This blog will contain my reflections on the process.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

This looks wierd!

Yesterday I taught my first class ever wearing a white belt.

I was first faced with the challenge of deciding what to wear. When one is a female martial artist in a school founded by a women, part of the culture becomes about "the outfit". I realized that all my favorite uniforms are not white and that my favorite white pants were worn in the test and therefore still home in the laundry.

Having picked out my boring outfit my young students and I agreed that the whole thing was a tiny bit unsettling. The were all wearing green belts! However, that unsettling feeling is quite welcome. It has echos of the first weeks of training ever when I had no idea what I was doing and felt unsettled more often than not.

The goal--empty cup

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