Grading:PASSED!

There were 8 of us who just finished our various gradings (tests). We were asked to stand in two lines of four. I was listening to Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania’s words but not looking up as I anticipated the results. He mentioned that everyone had strengths and weaknesses but then said that we all…passed.

My celebration was not the one I envisioned in my head as I was way too knackered after a very long grading (3 hours). But I smiled and was really happy, hugged Lun and congratulated everyone. Everyone walked around shaking each others hands and it was extra special for the level 6 guys.

We meet up at our instructors Simon Campion’s house and 8.10AM. Simon’s brother Rob has his own class of students and they were going to come along with us. We took 3 cars on a perilous trip to Warwick (actually it wasn’t perilous but because nothing much happened on the way there I thought I make it sound special!)


We got to the sports hall that the grading was held at 10.45am. After we paid our respective instructors are grading fee, we waited for Pangulong Guro Krishna. We didn’t wait too long as was on time, as we entered the sports hall I thought to myself “This is it!”

Ray was going for his level 1 and level 2 grading and Mark and Andy from Rob Campion’s class was doing level 2 and 4 respectively. I partnered Ray for his level 1 and 2 as we are a similar size and Simon thought it would be a good idea to pair us up. Later we had to mover rooms and into a squash court! Although the floor was newer in this court but it’s such a familiar surrounding as my current Eskrima and Capoeira class held in squash courts!

Ray did very well, as did Rob’s group, but when that was over it was time for Lun, Paul, Mike, Kinder (from Rob’s group) and myself to do our grading. Simon didn’t want to pair me and Lun in the sparring as we were brothers I think he might have thought we wouldn’t turn up the intensity (yes as Rick Faye once said we were the only brothers in the World that he knew that didn’t fight with each other and for the record we have never fought!). Rob however insisted we did spar as he planned for Kinder (my original opponent) to pair up with someone else first. When it was time, we did tear into each other and really smacked the crap out of each other with the sticks and I was taken down a couple of times! It’s the closest we ever got to a physical fight with my brother but obviously no tempers flared as it was the grading and we still remain as probably the 1% of brothers in the World who have never fought each other!

It was a very tiring grading as we sparred several times but we all made sure that rather than hitting each other with the sticks we showed techniques. Not only there was stick sparring but there was knife sparring and empty hand (which I really enjoyed). I did my empty hand sparring with Kinder from Rob’s group. It was pretty cool to spar with someone different as Kinder is a very skilled fighter.

Yes we were all knackered in the end but I thought the whole experience was fun and intense at the same time. I thought Lun did well despite his asthma and that he was away this week, Ray did well for his 2 levels, Paul also did well with two levels that he was graded on, Mike did well too in the sparring as did everyone else. My own assessment of my performance is that I thought I did some stuff well but others not as well as I wanted.

However Krishna told us that for all those who just finished level 6 apprentice instructor level…the “real” training begins!..........

I will be sent more pictures very soon(I didn't get chance to film/photograph anything today!) but in the meantime enjoy the current batch!

My next post will be a “thank you post” naming all those who have motivated, inspired and trained me and trained along side me leading up to the grading. This will be a long list!

Thanks for reading
Really Happy!
Kit!