Congratulation, you have reached the rank of San Kyu, third degree brown belt. You can now just barely walk and talk and are about to go through a process which will cause a radical transformation in your life. The journey from San-kyu to Shodan is a difficult path, you first step onto this path as a San-Kyu who has just passed your third degree brown belt test and you emerge from this path as a disciplined and accomplished fighter who has just successfully completed a Shodan test. It is worth while to discuss in more detail how this transformation occurs and what is expected of an individual who is taking this journey.

A new San-kyu looks a lot like a Blue Belt. He/She moves like a Blue Belt and has about the same speed and power that a good Blue belt has in their Kata and Kumite. A new San-Kyu does not have much lethality in their moves, maybe a few moves look strong and powerful, but by in large their moves are smooth an relatively coordinated but most of the moves lack the in depth focus which brings true power into being. As the new San-kyu continues to practice and learns new Kata and practices a weapons demonstration they become more accomplished. Their Kata begins to look more powerful, more of their moves gain in lethality and their blocks become more effective. They student gains a better understanding of one weapon and becomes able to talk about the weapon and execute a weapons Kata with some degree of skill. They student may or may not be able to throw many combinations during their Kumite. This process takes approximately 6 months to complete if the student trains at least twice a week in class and practices at home. During this process, your Sensei would expect to see a San-Kyu participate in the Friday nite Kumite classes. It is not necessary to participate every Friday nite, but enough so that you Sensei can see the progress you are making in your Kumite. Typical pitfalls are a lack of attendance, lack of willingness to work at becoming better in the students Kata and Kumite.

The student arrive at Ni-Kyu with a set of skills with your hands and feet and in reasonably good physical condition. A Ni-Kyu generally does not have a lot of skill in the "strategy" of Kumite. As the Ni-Kyu practices, he/she begins to use strategy in their Kumite. They use sweeps to set up strikes, they use strikes to set up kicks, they know how to distance them selves from a kicker and a puncher, and they can throw a reasonable strong set of techniques with their hands and feet. They throw combinations when they block and attack during Kumite. They generally don't have problems in Kumite when facing students of a lower rank and they can produce a reasonable defense against students of a higher rank that are their same size and ages. A good Ei-Kyu candidate is in good physical condition and exhibits that conditioning by fighting 4-6 rounds during Kumite, is a serious Kumite student and can deal with some power in punches and kicks. This doesn't mean that an Ei-Kyu candidate will be able to defeat a Shodan, it means that the Ei-Kyu candidate can demonstrate a set of blocks and kicks which look reasonable strong and can move properly during Kumite. This process generally takes 6-9 months to master if a student trains twice a week and practices at home. During this process, the student has good attendance and participates on a reasonably regular basis in the Kumite classes. This rank has a lot of pitfalls because the student is proficient and can be mislead into believing that a lot of hard work is not necessary. Typical pitfalls are lack of attendance, lack of practice at Kumite, and a lack of practice at the lower belt Kata.

The student arrives at Ei-Kyu in good physical condition, with skill in the strategy of a fight and the ability to move and throw a wide range of solid techniques. The student shows the glimmer of what he/she will be as a Shodan. Much of the work of this rank is in polishing what a student has already learned. Their strikes become more lethal, their blocks become harder, and they learn longer and more complex attacks by combinations. When the student fights they general fight using combinations and show a good ability to deal with power in attacks directed at them. The student is involved in a lot of Kumite at this rank because he/she is try to improve their Kumite skills. As the student practices on their weak points these points become stronger, the student eventually arrives at the point where the majority of what they throw is well executed with power and technique. They student works a lot on improving their Kumite skills such as timing, distancing, combinations, blocks, and physical conditioning. They student exhibits their physical conditioning by being able to fight 6-8 rounds of Kumite. When the student who does this looks like a fighter they are ready to test for Shodan. This process generally takes 9-12 months if the student is diligent, attends class twice a week and practices at home. The typical pitfalls in this process are that the student fails to take seriously the task of preparing for the Shodan test, or that the student thinks they can take some "time-off" from training because they only have one more rank to achieve, what they don't realize is that they will loose the skills they have gained if they do not continue to practice.

Congratulations, you have passed your Shodan test. You now have more to learn than when you were a White Belt. You are now able if you choose to step onto the road to Mastery. .