Red and yellow and pink and blue...

I somehow knew that JJ kyu gradings were not going to be as straightforward as normal when one student pulled out and another's budo pass went 'walkies' all at the last minute. Then, there was mini chaos when unbeknown to me, head sensei had changed some of the belt colours around (I seem not to have received the circular that went around a few weeks ago). White belt was now yellow and yellow was now orange. This led to dozens of yellow and white belt students running around not knowing which hall to grade in and which colour belt to wear. Still, it was all sorted out in the end so I settled down to watch my green belts grade for their blue. Oh dear, what are the chances of two of your students who week in week out produce quality techniques to have a really bad grading. Poor chaps, they looked almost ashamed of their performance. But it wasn't all that bad, their minds just went a bit blank. They passed in the end, though Meerkat was given a little bit of a dressing down by one of the examining senseis about the performance and I could only mumble something about possible nerves getting the better of them as my defence.
Still, the day was not all lost. I got to catch up with my original sensei, Steve H, and it was really nice to see him again after such a long time. Plus, with slightly fewer numbers of students at these events due to a couple of clubs leaving the association, I quite like the newer slimmed down version. Previous events always seemed to me rather bloated with huge numbers of bodies running around, the noise, the nerves, the whole thing seemed a bit too much. Mind you, it means less places for grading students to hide on the mat - so that probably contributed to my blue belt's nerves. The events of the day gave me the resolve to get students working harder and committing a little more to their training. Hopefully, the next grading will be incident-free!