If you're on your way to a black belt training, then first of all: Congratulations. Most students never make it this far. Secondly: You should know that black belt doesn't make you an expert... It makes you a beginner.

It's the black belt where you really start learning karate. Everything leading up to black is, essentially, a practice course, a tryout session. It's after your black belt promotion that you'll really be privy to the secrets and techniques that the martial arts have to offer. From here, the journey has no end. You have only passed the first trial, but if you stick with it, you'll only continue to get better.

So know that, when your sensei is ready to promote you, he or she is going to be demanding more from you than they've ever demanded before. Karate isn't some fitness program at the YMCA, it's a culture unto itself, with a deep heritage, and being made black belt brings you into the deeper level of the game.

Stamina is key. At a previous belt promotion, you may have done a typical warm-up period and then had to throw a few kicks, do a kata or two, and compete in a couple sparring matches. The entirety of your brown promotion is barely even going to qualify as your warm-up for black.

Here's what you want to do for the month or so before the test to get ready...

Cardio Workouts

It's all about how long you can last. Your test is more about how long you can go without stopping than it is about how hard you can hit, so make sure you've got the stamina to go the distance. Remember, you're going to be doing a routine that will feel like a whole week's worth of classes crammed into two or three hours. Sparring, running, kata, drills, in fact, it's more like every day you've put into Karate so far all crammed into one, so do some jogging, calisthenics, breathing exercises, just make sure that you can go two hours and not break a sweat for the first sixty minutes.

Watch What You Eat

Obviously eating well is part of Karate in the first place, but you really need to watch what you eat leading up to the test. Watch your guilty pleasures, be it sugar, fats, salts, or even caffeine. If you smoke... You really need to quit before you even think you're ready for your black belt test. Drink more water and watch the soda, because the last thing you want dragging you down is a few extra pounds on the big day.

Get Your Sleep

It'll be tough getting eight hours the night before the promotion, but you really don't want to show up short on sleep and unable to perform even a single kata without getting winded. Do whatever you have to do to get some sleep. Don't drink any caffeine that day, just spend the day relaxing. Obviously, you don't want to work out too hard the day before or you'll be sore for the promotion. So rest well and save your energy, because that test is going to kick your butt regardless.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Obviously, keeping your body in shape is important, but if you don't know every kata back to front, if you can't snap into each one on cue, you may as well be doing Jazzercise, because all you're getting out of Karate is a trim figure. We all get a little rusty at our low level kata as we move up the ranks, but you need to spend a month prior practicing each one front to back to make sure you can pull them off at the test.