Mugen Karate Aoyama Grading 2016 August 28


Sunday August 28th was a full day of belt grading at the Aoyama Dojo. There were lots of fantastic moments again filled with many motivating words of advice from Yamaguchi-Sensei. The first round of testing was with kids from 3 - 8 yrs. All tried hard and all enjoyed themselves a lot as you could hear it in their voices. Yamaguchi-Sensei always takes extra good care of the very little karate kids and their appreciation you can see at the end of all his classes.

After that we had the kids from 8 - 12 year range trying out for their next belts. This also was a show of great effort and performance. These kids are so flexible and so fast it is hard to keep up with them especially when trying to take photo's of them.

In the afternoon we had the adults grading rounds and this also was exciting to watch. It is great to see everyone supporting each other. Yamaguchi-Sensei is right when he advises that "kokoro no karate" is a very important aspect of his style. No matter if you have no more power left in your arms or legs you at least have your spirit and this is stronger than anything.

"Soul Karate" what is written on a sign in his dojo and this is what drives him and his students to do so well in and outside the dojo.