This is it! This has finally happened! After six months of training hard as candidates in the black belt boot camp, the boys were invited to test for their black belt. They were to join candidates from 27 other schools along the west coast to show their stuff.
Testing took place in Campbell and San Jose, CA. over a period of three days, Thursday – Saturday. First session was Thursday, from 5-10pm. Friday, from 9am to 11pm. Saturday, 9am – 11pm.
We checked into our hotel Thursday. About an hour before the boys were to begin their testing, we had them read a bunch of letters and emails that we collected for them from family and friends. It was a really sweet moment.
Thursday night testing took place in Campbell, at the main school/headquarters of Ernie Reyes West Coast Martial Arts (he actually has schools all over the US). Both boys did very well testing here. There was a lot of sitting and waiting, and they had to stay alert and well formed the whole time. After testing around 10pm, we headed to Denny’s for late night dinner #1…
This is a poster at the school. The owner of the schools, Ernie Reyes, is on the poster, along with other black belt masters. He has quite a resume; one that includes movies!
The remaining two days were at a college in San Jose. It was hard to get decent action shots, but here’s a little sample.
‘A’ kicking a board.
Post board testing. He had to re-test board breaking back at his home school, where he nailed them.
‘R’ at attention and in the zone…
This is the written part of the test. They had to memorize a bunch of things.
Ernie Reyes speaking. He actually tested himself for 9th degree of 10 degrees possible. They brought in a master from Okinawa, Japan (around 80 years old) to test him. This master showed his sills as well. It was very inspirational to watch. Friday night wrapped up at 11pm and we headed to Denny’s again for late night dinner #2…
After a morning of final testing, the boys spent the rest of the day practicing for the grand finale event that night. This took place at another college stadium. It was a huge event, and loooonnnnggggg, event. We left at 11pm, and headed for Denny’s late night dinner #3!
We received the test scores back at the home school. The boys both did fabulous on everything, and all they needed to do was break the boards they did not break at testing. ‘R’ had one board to break; he did. ‘A’ still had issues. The instructors took a look at the boards and realized they were either the wrong wood or too thick. They swapped his board out for the standard ones and he broke them all one after the other.
We are so proud of them! They were pretty burned out around Christmastime. They wanted to quit. We told them we weren’t going to make them stay, but if they left, they would regret it. They had come so far. So, they pushed through, and after they got their black belt, we gave them the option to stop and try something different. Both decided they wanted to stick with martial arts.