Black Belt Certification

06/09/2014 17:05

A while back I was reading an article written by Master Sam Masich and I followed a few links and then I saw another article where Master Masich had been awarded an 8th degree black belt by his teacher (and one of my greatest influences) Grandmaster Shou-Yu Liang.

I was curious about this “black belt” so I did some research and learned the GM Liang heads up the International Wushu Sanshou Dao Association (I.W.S.D.) and that they have a curriculum where they will award black belt certificates to anyone in the martial arts who desires to undergo and pass the required testing.

Now, please realize that the IWSD is not an internal arts organization, it is a Sanshou association and sanshou basically means “fighting”. So while the vast majority of what we do at our club is based on the healing side of tai chi, to a lesser extent we also cover the martial side.

So I thought… cool! One, I didn’t know I could get a black belt while practicing a Chinese art form and second, would the techniques we teach at the club pass the test?

So of course I applied :)

Testing for 1st degree consists of:

20 one hand push ups (with each arm, feet up on a bench)

Show the 8 essential energies in push hands

3 open hand forms

1 short weapon form

1 long weapon form

10 shuai jiao techniques

10 chin na techniques

20 - 2 step fighting techniques

Free form sparring

The IWSD was helpful in exempting me from the one handed push ups due to a chronic shoulder injury, 6 separations to date!