My Black Belt 2nd Dan - by Joshua Torrance

My name is Joshua, and I started doing kickboxing at Kong about 7 years ago when I was 6 years old.

The main reason for me doing my second dan was because I knew Sarah would make me do it and everyone knows that you’re not allowed to say no to Sarah, the second reason is that was I started Kong, I knew from the start that I wanted to be a black belt, and when I achieved that goal last November I decided that I wanted to take it a step further and get a second dan black belt.

The reason I started kickboxing was because when I was younger, I tried lots of different sports and hobbies, but I never enjoyed them enough to stick to them, also my parent would notice that there were times when I would get quite angry and wasn’t sure how to let that anger out. So, one day when I went to my aunties house and she saw an advert for Kong, and I decide I liked the look of it and wanted to try it. After my first class the coaches were really nice and helpful and I really enjoyed what I did there, so I decided to keep going back which has now led to me taking up jiu-jitsu and coaching.

One of the most memorable parts of my martial arts journey was my black belt. Even though it was a year ago now, I can still almost remember every day of the month leading to it, I remember the constant training, the worrying about the day that was soon to come, and much more. I can remember all the training I did with the other five people who were going to sit it with me, I can vividly remember when everyone sitting the black belt and Ryan did a run (with LOTS of hill sprints) that added up to about 10km and made my legs ache for days, and even when there were times I wanted to quit on the day, or when I was forced to do a 10km run with loads of hill sprints, there would always be someone there, supporting me and pushing me to keep going. And even though I found the training really difficult and the day itself was one of the hardest days of my life, it is still my favourite part of my martial arts journey because of what it allowed me to achieve, and it showed me what I am capable of.

This time around, I have found the training much less intimidating as I already knew how much work I have to put in and what to expect, while I really enjoy the technical aspect of training, since I know what to expect I know that I need to focus more or on the fitness aspect this time. In order to do this, I have started doing not only the kids class but the adults beginners and adult advance class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also feel that it has helped massively that I did my first dan only last year because I haven’t had to start becoming fitter from scratch and a lot of my fitness carried over from last year.

I have been finding my training phase extremely difficult, however it has been easier than last year because I know how fit I need to be, I have been doing a lot of runs and sprints in order to help with me fitness and to prepare for the run that I have to do at the end of the grading and I have been slowly getting faster and being able to go further or run for and longer period of time, this shows that slowly, I have been getting fitter and along with the adult classes I have been training very hard every day because of my determination to achieve my second dan black belt. I have also found it very hard to balance my training with things like school work especially because I have just started my GCSE options and have a lot of homework, but I make sure that I always get my training done, even if that means running when it is cold, dark or even raining but I always do it. Another part that I have been struggling with is staying motivated, as there a lot of times where I have thought things like “I can’t be bothered to train today” or “I won’t train today and I’ll do double tomorrow”. But even when I do think these things, I think “no, I have to train, or I’ll fail and will have wasted months of training”. So even when I think it doesn’t matter if I miss one day off training, I still push myself to do it because I know everyday counts.

I feel extremely nervous for the big day, but I know if I pass it will be worth it. I am prepared for it to be physically and mentally challenging and I know it will take a lot to push myself through it, but I know that there will be a lot of people supporting me and helping me push through it and I know that not only my family, but my friends and people from Kong will be there to support me and cheer me on and I have even convinced five people to do the run with me at the end! I also know that my want for me to become a second dan will keep me going through the times that I will be struggling. I’m also determined to make my family and coaches proud of me and hope that I will act as a role model for the younger kids and the people on their journey to black belt.