This Saturday, W took his 2nd degree Black Belt test along with fellow 1st degree Black Belt, Zacharie. W has been a black belt for over two and a half years, Zacharie for about the same time, and both were well prepared.
The test was a marathon of well over two hours, and even then, they skipped free sparring. It began with almost over an hour of forms, with Master P. heatedly berating W and Zacharie individually for their hideous deficiencies, though as the test progressed he morphed more toward an instructive tone. The other judges even looked slightly taken aback, at first, at how angry he sounded, but they seemed to absorb his points pretty quickly. To their credit, both Zacharie and W took Master P.’s corrections in stride.
Interestingly, Master P. and all the judges stressed for both of them that their basic forms were almost perfect while their recent forms were weakest, simply because they’ve done the basic forms hundreds of times over the years.
After forms, one-step and a series of difficult multi-step sparring techniques were tested, followed by multiple breaking techniques. W is deemed still too young to attempt breaking bricks. At his own initiativel, Zacharie attempted to break four bricks at once, though everyone doubted it was possible. No bricks were broken, and fortunately, no bones were apparently broken, either. Credit was given for the attempt.
Afterward, Master P. brought them both into his office for a breakdown of their performance. At this level, a simple pass-fail isn’t given. Instead, a list of areas for improvement was assigned, and certificates will be given if they successfully satisfy the criteria Master P. set out for them in the next couple of weeks. They have to work together, though.