Karate: Students up all night to earn their black belts

Luke Haidy in action at the black belt grading session held over the weekend. Photo/Andrew Warner

There was no shortage of courage on show at the annual National Black Belt Grading held at QE2 Youth Centre over the weekend.

An elite group of 15 young people who tried out for their black belts were the stars of the large group of 200 students from Auckland and the Bay of Plenty who underwent testing.

Students included 10-year-old twin sisters testing with their Mum, who went through what 6th Degree Kempo Karate Master Grant Buchanan says "is the toughest Black Belt test in martial arts".

"Those testing started at 6pm Friday and finished Saturday at 12.30pm with no sleep," said Buchanan, who has taught in Tauranga for the last 15 years.

"Although from the outside this seems an almost impossible undertaking, particularly for such young students, the truth is we have a thorough and robust process that allows students to rise to and achieve massive goals. The lead up to the grading has included an extensive prep cycle with all students doubling their weekly training hours leading up to the test."

Chris Newton, one of the higher level black belts who supervised the sessions, says keeping the students awake was not a problem.

"They train through the night with regular breaks so there is always something happening for them, and plenty of adrenalin and excitement keeps them going," he said. "Mental strength at this level is a key to becoming a black belt as well."

During the night the students ran around the Tauranga estuary from midnight until 2.30am before they went over to Mount Maunganui and walked to the top of Mauao.

"They trained for an hour and a half up there, then walked down and around the Mount, and came home for breakfast," Newton said.

Most of the 15 aspiring black belts achieved their goal and were awarded their belt at a special ceremony.