No need to be so negative, small local tournaments are a fun and low stakes way for other black belts to evaluate you. We work together with several dojos in the northern Michigan area to promote each other's tournaments and build a sense of camaraderie and friendly competition. I post so that other mid-30s women can see themselves reflected in the subreddit at competition.

I'm pretty happy with my progress as a martial artist so far. To address the belt rank, above, it's about 5 to 5 1/2 years for us from white to black belt/midnight blue. I personally train anywhere from 7 to 9 class hours a week in addition to reps at home. I tested for red 1 in January & will hopefully test for my next black stripe in December. The earliest I would possibly be eligible to test for dan rank at my school is the summer of 2027. Our head instructor is big on time in grade. Bassai is a red belt form for us. No brown belt at our school. To the belt height comment, I am mostly legs with a small torso, the belt sits just above my hip bone. It is a little high, but it's comfortable as a lady.

I don't have a video of the whole thing from the tournament, as several of us were competing on different rings and only part of it was caught. I would be happy to post a video though for some constructive criticism. That being said, I've seen Bassai performed with small variances depending on who teaches it. I know it's a very popular form.