Red Belt

Luke has been practicing Karate Tech since we arrived here in Germany and he absolutely loves it.  Every time you master something (knife defense, kata, cane defense, etc.) you receive a black stripe on your belt.  These stripes keep up with your progress.  As a blue belt Luke must earn 8 black stripes to receive his red belt.  To earn these stripes he must be able to perform the following:

Forms:  Kata1-5  (Each belt has a Kata that must be memorized)
Self Defense:  75 or more moves
Knife Defense:  25 or more moves
Pistol Defense
Escrima Form/Defense
Jagger Defense
Cane Defense

This is a LOT for a little 6 year old to remember.  When he earned his blue belt, for instance, he needed to know 50 or more moves of self defense.  So, they do add on which makes it easier to just add to what you already know.  Along the way when earning belts he's needed to know how to do front snap kicks, round house kids and spinning back kicks.  Each belt gets harder and the Kata's have more moves and get more and more complicated.  On top of that trying to remember each of them proves to be difficult and requires a lot of concentration.  It's taken Luke since February/March to earn this belt.  He's worked so hard not only in class but also at home on his own.  Tucker has started back in Karate so Luke gets extra practice working with and teaching Tuck.  

Luke's instructors offer seminars every month or couple of months.  You can earn 3 stripes at a seminar.  In the classroom Luke has green belts up to black belts in his class. The classes only last one hour and need to cater to all kids in the class, so they need to touch specific aspects of each belt.  There is very little work done on each particular belt because there is such a large range of belts in class.  The seminars are awesome because they take about 50 kids and have an instructor per belt color.  The kids are divided up according to belt color and get 3 hours of work just on what they need to know to reach their next belt.  It's a pretty intense couple of hours, but Luke loves going to seminars and getting the extra work.

 Here Luke is earning a stripe.

For some reason this picture was placed here in the order.  It should have been last.  Luke only needed a couple of stripes to earn his red belt, so after receiving them we was able to belt test.  He passed his test and Professor Jorge presented Luke with his certificate and belt.  On a side note...last weekend was the world championships in England.  Luke did qualify to go but we chose to sit this year out.  Professor Jorge and his son Master J both attended, along with a few of Luke's older classmates.  Professor Jorge won the gold medal in sparring making him the world champion.  He also received the silver medal in forms getting beat out by an Irish man.  Professor J received the bronze medal in Sparring.  They are both outstanding instructors. 

 Luke working with Master J on cane defense.

 Luke working on stick defense.

Luke performing more defense moves.  Me and Tucker spent most of the afternoon in the room through the door sitting at a table.  We ate lunch and I kept Tucker entertained while Micah watched Luke practice his skills.