New Black Belt Candidates

It’s official! Our dojo now has two new black belt candidates. Elinor and Avi are finally starting their black belt tests. With a combined nearly fourteen years of training, they are starting the thirteen month journey. Starting on June 1st they will begin their test. This is extremely exciting to see since I have been training with both of them for many years, but it is also really nice to see new people going into this test after me. It’ll be a nice feeling to not be the newest black belt candidate as I have been for a while now. I am extremely close with both Avi and Elinor so we will be able to do some training together. Originally when I started this test, there was no guarantee that any of my thirteen months would overlap with anyone else’s test, but now I get a full four months of overlapping test time with them! So throughout those four months I will get a chance to train with both Avi and Elinor! I’m really excited to see them go through this journey and to finally see someone go through this test, with the experience that I have now!

My current Challenge progress as of June 3, 2026.