Grading

Grading. It is always nerve-racking. It is the moment you show what all your sweat has come to.

A partner comes in. Receive one and send them on, and the next is already coming.

In that moment, the opponent is not the person in front of you. It is yourself, the self you have trained all this time. Everything you have built up shows plainly, just as it is.

So a grading is not a place to defeat someone else. It is a gate to pass through in order to go beyond yourself. It is also a way to see where you stand right now.