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Last night was the final part of my Black Belt test. I fumbled a few things, but after it was over my instructor said I gave an excellent performance and all the other highly ranked students who were judging me said pretty much the same. I suppose I can’t complain.

Thursday is our graduation ceremony, which is about ten minutes of ceremony and half an hour of snacks afterward, followed by dinner at a nearby Chinese buffet. You can consider yourself invited to come see me get my actual physical belt, get some free cookies, and then join us for dinner.

I came through my sparring test pretty well. I lost both contacts, got a black eye, a jammed left middle finger, banged right forearm, sore ribs high on the right side, a bruise the size of a silver dollar above my right pectoral, and some banged up lips. Nothing serious. I’m told I busted up the other guys pretty well, but by that point my contacts were gone and I couldn’t really see what I’d done to them.

See for yourself, though:

Now I just have to demonstrate everything I’ve learned over the last three and a half (give or take) years in front of my instructor, his instructor, and half a dozen other instructors and black belts of our style.

Tonight is the first part of my black belt test: sparring. I’ll be fighting five rounds with short breaks (thirty seconds or so) between each round. The first is one guy against me, then two against me, then three against me, then two again, and finally one-on-one again. I’ve seen these tests a few times and there’s a pretty wide range in how well it can go. For the three rounds against multiple opponents, the most important thing is to stay cool and in control of the action. Force opponents to get in the way of each other, trip over each other. Don’t allow yourself to get flanked. Don’t turn your back on an opponent while he can still hurt you. Don’t turtle, cower, or run, unless you’re running toward the fight.

Those are just details, though. All you really have to do is show that you’re a fighter.