I found all of my rank certificates in the piles of documents that came over from my parents house. I thought it would be fun to post my rank timeline. My rank certificates are going to get framed and hung in our library/office room soon!
- Kari 9th kyu (AJKA certificate) – June 1, 1991
- 8th kyu (AJKA certificate) – August 22, 1991
- 7th kyu (AJKA certificate) – December 14, 1991
- 6th kyu (AJKA certificate) – March 20, 1992
- 5th kyu (AJKA certificate) – May 30, 1992
- Kari 4th kyu (AJKA certificate) – November 14, 1992
- Kari 3rd kyu (AJKA certificate) – May 21, 1993
- 3rd kyu (AJKA certificate) – November 19, 1993
- 2nd kyu (ASKA certificate) – May 20, 1994
- 1st kyu (ASKA certificate) – November 19, 1994
- Time passes as I fail two Shodan tests…
- Shodan (ASKA certificate) – January 15, 1997
- More time passes as I train at college and teach at the WISK dojo…
- Shodan (WISK certificate, cross ranking) – November, 2001
- Nidan (ASKA certificate) – April 11, 2005
For the unindoctrinated: AJKA = American Japan Karate Association, ASKA = American Shotokan Karate Alliance, and WISK = Western Illinois Shotokan Karate. In 1994, the ASKA branched off from the AJKA and it is our current organization. WISK was the dojo I was training at during my college years, and they are affiliated with the USANKF (USA National Karate Federation). Therefore, they required a cross-ranking exam that Sensei Kuras insisted that I take before I left. So I did.
These dates slightly change my parents take on when I started… I distinctly remember congratulations announcements for Sensei Hartman getting his Nidan, which (I believe) was late 1989. This bears out the timeline, because I know I had two sessions at the Boy’s Club and that would place the date I started in mid 1990 at the latest. My Dad still contends I started when I was 8 because Ains needed to be at least 7 to get into the YWCA club, but I think it’s more logical that I was 11 and she was 9 and the cutoff age was 10, which bears out the timeline exactly.
Either way, it’s approaching 14 years since I got my yellow belt. I’m sure I’ve got another 14 in me at the very least.
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1 user responded in this post
that’s a long time
makes me wish I’d stayed with training :/
hrmm my aikido certs aren’t dated. wierd.
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