Owen

It turns out that today was a pretty big day.

Two weeks ago, Owen started performing his Blue Belt exam. Our instructor was away, so we had to make do. Cosme acted as Owen's on-screen partner, while I ran the camera and read out the technique list.

Owen managed to perform both the Mount, and Guard segments. Nothing is ever perfect, but when the three of us decided that an attempt was good enough, we put it aside for our instructor to OK later. If things didn't go well enough, we reshot the segment.

Last week we did the same thing, except with the Side-Mount and Standing sections. This left only the Free Style Fight Sim to record.

Our instructor was back this week, and looked our efforts over. He declared all except the Guard to be acceptable for submission.

Today, Owen performed his Guard part again, and the Fight Sim. Cosme was again his partner, I was the camera guy, and our instructor read out the technique list, and oversaw the whole operation. We had to do the Guard recording a couple of times, but the Fight Sim produced a keeper on the first go.

The whole shebang will be uploaded to Gracie headquarters for actual grading. All he has to do now is wait.

Results have come in as little as a couple of days, and as long as two weeks.
It can seem a very long wait.

The good part is that we're so picky about what gets submitted that our pass rate is outstanding. In fact, no one who had graded for Blue Belt since I've been in the group has failed, and only one before that. The overall failure rate for the entire organization is about 30%.

Having completed the test there are three phases. Owen is entering the first. This one is limbo. It is full of wondering about failure or success.

The second phase starts when the news arrives about passing. The news comes instantly, but the actual belt takes a while to arrive. One becomes a Blue Belt, but is still wearing a White Belt. Wearing any old Blue Belt isn't allowed. You have to wait for your official, Gracie University one to arrive in the mail.

The third phase is when the transition is over. The student is a Blue Belt, and starts wearing a Blue Belt.