Di Qi Ji

 That's Chinese for Orange Sash.  After about a year and a half of being a gold sash, Grace FINALLY was able to test for her next belt level.  This time in karate has been very trying for us.  While Grace continues to love going to class, we got pretty frustrated that she wasn't able to move forward faster and felt like we went to class after class with little improvement.  19 months without any acknowledgement of improvement or advancement is kind of a long time for a kid.  I don't entirely agree with the system.  It was partly due to the structure of the class for a long time - that she wasn't able to work on the requirements and then the sheer number of requirements became pretty steep.  The list of forms and moves for the orange sash are much much greater than those for the gold and she had moved to the upper age group in the mean-time too, and so was given even more to learn.

She had to memorize and perform:

*7 kicks and strikes

*4 blocks

*3 forms (long series of movements)

*13 self defense techniques (shorter series of blocks, kicks, and punches)

*count to 20 in Chinese

*recite the Kenpo Creed from memory along with rules of concentration and values

Grace set a goal in November to be able to test for her Orange Sash by her birthday.  Her instructor finally took her seriously and in the mean-time also changed the structure of the class to be more conducive to learning and memorizing the forms.   Both things helped her to move along and stack up her knowledge so that she actually tested on the day of her birthday.  No pressure there!  Luckily, it all worked out and she passed her test.  I think she appreciates that Orange Sash more than anything she's ever worked towards.  She's definitely never had to work that hard or that long for anything in her life.  What a great birthday present for Grace!

Gracers, we are so proud of you and so excited that you were finally able to move up.  We hope you keep it up and will be our little Black Belt ninja girl some day.

Apparently the video is too long to upload to the blog.  Take my word for it - she was intense!