On Friday Deirdra and I rode with Heather and Annalise, a couple of other students at my school, to see our instructor test for his sixth degree black belt at our grandmaster’s school in Picayune, Mississippi. I think another six or seven people from our school made the trip as well, so it was a fun group thing. Sort of a bonding experience. I half expected to get jumped by ninjas in the Waffle House parking lot.

It’s a long trip to Picayune, but it was worthwhile. They’ve got a really nice school and it was very motivating to visit another Lung Shou Pai kwoon and see how they train. There are some pictures of the test over at the Dragon Claw site. It’s a shame the batteries in Mike’s camera ran out before the weapons forms and sparring started. Hopefully some of the other folks taking photos and video will contribute their media as well.

The test itself was really interesting. Along with my instructor, there was one white belt testing for his Gold 3, one Green 1 testing for his Brown 3, several various Browns testing for higher Brown degrees or for Black, and (I believe) one Black testing for a 2nd Black.

It was kind of odd seeing the tiny differences in techniques and forms that I’ve become accustomed to. The variances are small, but they quickly add up to produce a strongly different feel. There’s no doubt that we’re all practicing the same style, but I think that any Dragon Claw student would be able to pick out which school another student came from, just from the way he does certain things.

There are also some marked differences between the way they train and the way we do. They don’t seem to do bagwork nearly as much as we do, but they work one-steps a lot more. They tend to respond to an instructor’s command with a sibilant ussss as they perform the required technique, while we don’t really respond at all beyond the technique itself (and possibly a harsh exhalation of breath).

I’ve tested twice before, but I (unfortunately) never stuck around until the end, so I got to see some of the techniques that are practiced at the higher levels for the first time. The throws, the one-step techniques, the Tiger form, Crane form, Tiger/Crane combined form, the Ching Jong form (done both empty handed and against the dummy), the broadsword, spear and tiger fork forms were particularly awe-inspiring. Deirdra mentioned that watching Sifu Crake working his forms is like watching a hurricane; at the edges, it’s whirling death and destruction, but at the center is a core of calm serenity.

The sparring for the test looked like it was about medium contact. They did several rounds of one-on-one, running three matches at a time, then did a sparring circle. One person went into the center and four attackers were spaced around him. Each attacker had a number, and Sigung would call out one, two, or three numbers. Those who had their numbers called would attack the guy in the center for ten or fifteen seconds, until Sigung called for them to break off. That was pretty entertaining to watch, but I’d bet it was harrowing for the guy in the middle.

The test finished up with breaking. It was mostly single breaks on 1″ pine boards with simple bottomfists, vertical punches, or ax kicks, but there were a few 2″ cinderblock slabs broken as well. Master Bob Meteye did a forehead break on a pair of slabs, and Sifu did several specialty board breaks. He did a fingertip, a crane neck (the top of a very bent wrist), a spinning wheel kick, and a speed break where he dropped the board and then broke it in mid-air. He also demonstrated candle-punching, putting out a candle by propelling air at it with a palm strike or a vertical punch.

I don’t know for certain whether everyone who tested passed. They’ll each find out privately. I’m pretty certain Mike passed, since I’m familar with nearly everything that was required of him and it all looked fine to me. The only one I’m sure about is Sifu. Sigung announced then and there that my instructor achieved his sixth degree. Unless I’m mistaken, there are only two other practitioners at that rank in our system, and only the grandmaster himself is higher.

On Saturday, I got together with Darryl and a white belt from our school, Micah, to work on some areas that Micah felt he needed to improve upon as well as to just mess around. We went through most the Beginner phase 1 and 2 one-steps to get a better feel for what they entail, worked on Yun Tung quite a bit, breath controls, did a little bagwork, some single hand chi sao, and tried some double handed chi sao. We’ve never done that particular drill in class, though, so we were kind of improvising from what we saw at the Dallas tournament. I don’t think we accomplished much, especially since we really had no idea what we were doing, but it was fun. I was hoping to get in some sparring, but we didn’t have two full sets of sparring gear between us.