What Karate Dan Grade Are You?

When people ask me what karate Dan grade I am, I always respond with the same answer, DESPERATE DAN!

Many years ago, in ancient China, oh! Sorry, I’m getting carried away here. I'll start that again, several years ago I attended a seminar in London, England, there was a selection of Japanese Karate masters, all were brilliant.

There were hundreds of Karate practitioners, all ages and all grades. The Dojo captain shouted, 'Line up' and we all moved to where we thought our Karate Dan grade equivalents would be standing.

I remember looking towards the top of the line and there were some awesome Karate legends in the line, Terry O'neill, Bob Poynton and several others. There was also a group of very senior looking Karateka, their black belts were extremely worn, they had a certain look of authority about them, but they also looked worried and were standing down near the 1st and 2nd Dans.

The training began, warm up and stretch lasted maybe 20 minutes, then onto Kihon (basics), the theme of the seminar was to be a particular Kata (form). I will refrain from mentioning the Kata being taught, because a lot of karate seniors will know what seminar I am referring to, because they were probably on it, not that I’m saying they were the group I am going to talk about, because there were some hot Karateka on the course. I later realized that these paper martial artists were only on the course because it was a Kata seminar, if it had been Kumite (fighting), they would definitely have stayed at home.

I was near this group of what I thought were senior karate instructors, I was still wondering why they were down my end of the Black belt lines when I suddenly noticed one of them execute a sort of, reverse punch, it was weak, slow and with about as much focus as my 1 year old son has, when he’s watching the CNN news channel.

I know what you’re thinking, why wasn’t I concentrating on my Karate, all I can say is SHOCK!

There was 5 or 6 senior karate instructors in the group and in my opinion, they were awful, nice guys, but their karate was of a very poor standard. I later found out that the lowest grade in the group was Godan (5th Dan). Now I’m not the best in the world but when my instructor packed his bags and moved away, he said to me, ‘Linden, always train with the best, because there’s a lot of s**t out there’. I now know what my instructor was talking about.

Now there is a point to this story, thank god I here you all say. Because of this event happening all those years ago when I was still a teenager, I decided wasn’t going to test ever again, what a PRATT I was, I stayed Nidan(2nd Dan) for 15 years because in my mind I thought the Karate ranking system was a joke.

A great karate man changed my mind, he said, ‘ It’s all about you! Do not worry what everyone else is doing, it’s what it means to you that’s important, now go and grade.

I now realize more than ever that Karate is a one man/woman journey, it’s your journey and I wish you the best of luck.

Ossu,

Linden Huckle
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