The Black Belt Challenge - Introduction

Our very own Kerry adds a different style of clothing to her fashion collection as she takes on the challenge to become a Black Belt.................!

The Black Belt

The term Black Belt is widely known as a way to describe an expert in martial arts where a practitioner has obtained a level of skill in their chosen style through hard work, great commitment and a high degree of dedication. The Black Belt is commonly the highest belt colour used and denotes a high degree in competence.

Timescales

There are many varying styles of martial arts each with their own time span in obtaining the ultimate goal of wearing the convened Black Belt. Even in the required time of say 2 to 2 ½ years in kickboxing, it could take longer due to the student’s ability or other many different factors. Factors of say injury, work commitment, holidays, lack of enthusiasm and boredom are just a few.

The Best or the Master?

I earned my Black Belt in kickboxing not because I was the best fighter or stereotypical athlete or even the best student in the class. I earned it because I didn’t accept the excuses to quit, by regular commitment to training, continuously working on my fitness levels and flexibility and sticking to my goal of becoming a Black Belt. I would not say it was easy, there were times of boredom and lack of enthusiasm, but I knew what I wanted and achieved my goal in 2 ½ years. I went on because of my love for my chosen style of kickboxing and in 16 years have reached the level of 5th Dan and have just learned that I have just been awarded The Spirit Award in the London International Martial Arts Hall Of Fame, the 5th consecutive year that I have been chosen to receive awards from this great institution.

The Other Belts

You will begin as a white belt and will learn your skills very quickly, but it will take you time to master them, something you must do to reach your target Black Belt. Training is hard. You will need to work on increased physical fitness, increased cardio-vascular ability, flexibility, stamina, co-ordination skills, control and skill of techniques used and most of all commitment to obtain all these key elements. Train hard, and consequently you will be able to achieve and maintain positive results, success is a choice and not a coin flip. You will succeed by deciding what you want, knowing why you want it and committing to it.

Dancing to Success!

Over 16 years of teaching kickboxing I have helped over 200 students to reach the rank of Black Belt, with some going on to reach levels of 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dans of which I am proud. In that time I have become aware that students vary in the time reaching that high level, mainly due to the fact of varying physical abilities. I have noticed that students with a background of gymnastics and dance tend to reach Black Belt level in the required time element or even quicker. This is mainly because they have a high level of good flexibility obtained from dance and gymnastics. Learning the kicking skills of martial arts is very hard, but is much easier if you have good flexibility.

With this in mind I came up with the idea of challenging someone with a dance background to see if they could with hard work and dedication, reach the level of Black Belt in an earlier time of 1 ½ years. The training will be hard with I am sure many obstacles in the journey, but with regular class and personal training sessions I am sure the challenge can be met.

Kerry Takes Up the Challenge

With the above in mind it came to my attention that our very own Fashion Editor - Kerry Lucy Taylor- has a dance background with a good level of flexibility. I asked Kerry if she would be up for the challenge in mind and also interested in gaining a different style of Black Belt to her fashion collection. With no hesitation Kerry has accepted the invite.

Over the next months Kerry will be writing a monthly blog about her road to becoming a Black Belt with no holes barred. Talking about the ups and downs of training, talking about her fitness levels, change in body, state of mind and many other aspects with of course her progress to the ultimate goal, Black Belt or bust!