Hello!
I am very proud to announce that I finally took my white belt test on Saturday… and I passed! I officially have a white belt, woohoo!
I started learning properly a few weeks ago. I actually finished learning the form within 2 weeks and was invited to take the test on July 3rd, but I wasn’t able to make it… then subsequently, they didn’t have time to test me… then I wasn’t able to make it again and… lol, let’s just say, on Thursday, one of my Sifus was like “You’re so ready, are you gonna take the test or not??”
I’m glad I had a bit more time to work on my foundational skills and my form to be honest. Now that I’ve taken the test, I think the extra couple of weeks’ practice helped a lot, both with polishing my form and with stamina increase.
Not gonna lie, I was so beyond exhausted towards the end of my test I could barely do my form properly lol. And then they asked me to do 10 pushups!
I freaked out because if my belt was dependent on pushups, I was 100% going to fail. They reassured me that I wouldn’t fail if I couldn’t do it; they just to see my upper body strength so to just do as many as I could. So, I gave it my best shot.
I started trying to do full depth pushups and my Sifu stopped me, saying half way is fine. He advised that in wushu, we need to practice speed and power, so half depth at a fast pace is what they’re looking for. I am so very, very glad I’ve been working on my pushups throughout my fitness journey.
I’d completed pushup #6 before they said, “That’s enough, you can stop now.” I was sooo surprised since I was still mentally preparing to push myself through the rest of them (they may have stopped me because I probably looked like I was about to cry with how hard I was pushing myself, but I was determined lol).
My Sifu said that I could probably do 15 pushups if I tried. I felt elated! It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you just put your mind to it. As a result of the test, my Sifu said that my current ability is probably between a yellow/green belt!
To be honest, I didn’t think I had done very well because I was absolutely knackered and wasn’t able to perform at my best, I got confused by some of the names of the foundational kicks and punches and made mistakes lol, and I even stumbled a bit at the end of my form.
Not to mention it was the end of an already exhausting week. My body was not at its best by any means. I felt drained and was aching all over, and even when I showed up to wushu class I was still low on energy. But they were very gracious and encouraging. Plus, I still passed! Ahhh! So happy! (But also they said this test was pretty easy anyway hahahah. It gets harder once you reach purple.)
I’m honestly so thankful for Martial Club for inspiring me to do this. I have been interested in wushu since forever due to my love for Chinese Wuxia TV series in my teens, but that never went further than a 2 week wushu summer camp when I was 15, and doing a bit of Taichi with my dad briefly around that age too.
I don’t think I would have tried even now had I not had the opportunity to hang out with the Martial Club family recently. Just seeing what they’re doing and what they’re capable of… it’s incredible! I’m excited to keep improving, and gotta make my MC Fam proud, after all.
Muchos love,