2nd Kyu in Aikido

I had my Aikido grading.

For the uninitiated, Aikido is a Japanese martial arts that uses and redirects the opponent's attacking energy back onto themselves. Aikido's techniques are very practical in real life situations and are used for disabling and/or disarming an attacker and can be quite lethal if you really intend to hurt the attacker. Aikido means "The Way of Harmony".

The grading system goes like this:
6th Kyu (n00bs)
5th Kyu (university/college n00bs start here)
4th Kyu
3rd Kyu (where I was before)
2nd Kyu (where I am now)
1st Kyu
Shodan/1st Dan
2nd Dan
3rd Dan
4th Dan (the highest rank you can get from grading, the other ranks are given as honors - current highest rank in Malaysia is my instructor, Low Sensei)
7th Dan (Steven Segal sensei)
8th Dan (Seiichi Sugano Shihan* who is the Shihan* for us)
*Shihan - a master's master


Our grading involves doing techniques as the instructors grading us tells us to do.
All this is done non-stop for both the uke(attacker) and nage(defender).
In the 5th Kyu's case, they have to do 6 techniques before they can pass. In their case, it takes roughly 15 minutes per person to finish his/her technique which means for 5th Kyu graders, they are doing techniques for 1/2 hrs non-stop.

In my case, 2nd Kyu grading has about 40++ techniques...
Lets just say, it's like running a marathon carrying 30 Kg backpacks with no water for 10km. Aikido really trains your stamina during grading. O_O
We did the techniques roughly 30-40 minutes per person. Which is about 1 hr non-stop.

I'm glad I managed to pass. Now, I'll have to prepare for 1st Kyu. :p