Testing

[Shizentai]

I've been MIA for a few weeks, but I am back, and with a 3-dan. The camp was great. I am tired.

It got me thinking. What would you say is the hardest test (MA related) you've ever taken, and why?

[OneKickWonder]

It got me thinking. What would you say is the hardest test (MA related) you've ever taken, and why?

When I was a white belt testing for my orange belt.

Why? Well every test since has been physically harder. But my body has been prepared for it so that cancels out the increasing physical toughness.

But more importantly, my mind is prepared. I know roughly how long a test lasts. I know that, for example, once they stop asking us to show off kicks and kick oriented combos, they'll ask us to demo hand techniques. Or once we start demonstrating forms, it's only a few forms then one fight, break a board, then we're about done for the day.

Whereas testing for my orange belt, I had no idea. All of knew was I was exhausted, drenched in sweat, and they kept asking us to do more and more things. I had no idea how much longer I'd be on the floor. Or how much longer I could remain on the floor without ending up actually, on the floor.

[JR 137]

Congratulations on the promotion, Shinzentai!

My shodan test was easily the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done. It was about 5 hours long with no realistic breaks. Put it this way - I brought a regular sized water bottle (1 liter?) and drank about half of it the entire time. I tested with 1 other guy, and it was the first black belt test my sensei ran by himself. Prior to my test, the head of our organization ran all dan testing with the various dojo owners and other yudansha assisting. My sensei withdrew from the organization about 2 weeks before my test. Test test was closed to everyone but the adult black belts in our school.

We were told we’d start at 9 am, and he’d be there at 8 to give us time to warm up and stretch because warmup wasn’t going to be done during testing time. At 9 exactly, we bowed in and went right into it.

First thing was basics. We had a black belt holding a pad a kicking shield in front of each of us, and sensei says “100 front kicks with your right leg. Go.” The with the left leg. We ended up doing front kick, roundhouse, side kick, hook kick, inside-out and outside-in crescent kicks, and back kick. Then came hand techniques - punches, various shuto, tetsui, etc. After all that he says “now that you’re warmed up, we can begin.” Begin?!?!?

We do a bunch of different stuff. Everything with and without a resisting black belt partner. After about 20 minutes, says “that’s the white belt syllabus.” 20 minutes later, “that’s the advanced with belt syllabus.” And on and on until we re-tested every kyu rank syllabus. He had a guy carrying the entire syllabus for him so he could look at it from time to time in case he missed anything.

After all that he says “I’ll let you catch your breath while we do kata.” We did every kata in every series without stopping. Ie “Taikyoku 1-3. Go.” “Pinan 1-5. Go.” “Sanchin, Gekisai Dai, Yantsu, Saiha, Tensho. Go.” In retrospect, that was the easy part.

Then we were told to put on our sparring gear. “And drink some water while you’re at it.” The only water we drank. 20 two minute rounds of knockdown rules sparring with a fresh black belt every round. The we sparred each other for a 3 minute round. We had a huge burst of energy because we knew it was the end of the test and we wanted to finish strong. About 30 seconds into it, and I’m sure we looked like zombies because we were so tired and beat up.

We sat down afterwards, and he called us up individually to tie our new belts on us, said a few things about each of us, and that was that.

The other guy I tested with is still a student there, and he’s his highest ranking student. He was just promoted to 5th dan. I went to my former sensei’s dojo a few months ago for a seminar. I hadn’t seen them in about 15 years. We started talking about our shodan test, and there were a few laughs. My former sensei admitted that it was the hardest test he’s ever given. He said it was his first one so we were the guinnea pigs. And he knew we could handle it. He’s eased up a bit on the intensity, but he still goes through the entire syllabus (my buddy holds it for him ) and still ends it with 20 rounds of sparring. He gives them more water breaks though.

From what I’ve heard, my upcoming shodan test in Seido wont be much different. Only it’ll be spread out over a few evenings instead of all in one day (although there is that option every now and then). I’ve got quite a while to prepare.

Thanks for letting me reminisce, Shinzentai.

[JR 137]

It got me thinking. What would you say is the hardest test (MA related) you've ever taken, and why?

When I was a white belt testing for my orange belt.

Why? Well every test since has been physically harder. But my body has been prepared for it so that cancels out the increasing physical toughness.

But more importantly, my mind is prepared. I know roughly how long a test lasts. I know that, for example, once they stop asking us to show off kicks and kick oriented combos, they'll ask us to demo hand techniques. Or once we start demonstrating forms, it's only a few forms then one fight, break a board, then we're about done for the day.

Whereas testing for my orange belt, I had no idea. All of knew was I was exhausted, drenched in sweat, and they kept asking us to do more and more things. I had no idea how much longer I'd be on the floor. Or how much longer I could remain on the floor without ending up actually, on the floor.

My 9th kyu test was easily the 2nd most difficult test for the reasons you mention. I had no idea what to expect. We had that one at a public park with all the satellite dojos testing together for each rank. The worst part about it was there were 3 or 4 guys in front of me that had previous experience, unbeknownst to me. They were kicking way over their heads and made everything look easy. They were the only ones I could see, and because I didn’t know any better, I figured everyone else was like them and I was going to fail because I sucked compared to them. My sensei at the time thought that was pretty funny when the test was over.

[Spartacus Maximus]

The hardest test was the first time for shodan. An excruciating ordeal lasting an entire week. Looking back it seemed almost as gruelling as basic training required for military recruits.

Everyone had to do the same thing no matter how old. Each day was a hell of knuckle push-ups, crunches/sit-ups and drills. Following that was all the kata in the curriculum up to shodan. On the last day in addition to everything, everyone had to run about 8km and do kumite immediately after. Kumite was with the seniors one on one, two on one and three one one. Finished with a bruised rib and a very obvious black eye.

As physically demanding as that was, it was harder to re-test for shodan in the same style under a different sensei after starting over the same style from white belt. This time around the test lasted less than an hour, but it was focussed on practical application of three kata under pressure. Barely passed due to difficulty controlling an anxiety attack.

[DWx]

Congrats Shizentai! It might have been a tough grading but bet it makes it feel like you really deserved your new rank.

My hardest grading was my 4th dan. It was just myself and two others testing. One of the guys is just over 6ft and a 100 kg of pure muscle, <15% body fat. We've always tested together and I always end up sparring him but this time as there weren't many of us I ended up partnering him for most of it. We spar without pads in gradings, just gum shields, so needless to say I got beat on pretty bad but held my own.

It was a guest examiner sent by HQ and the worst part was the breaking. Rather than let us use wood he made us use the 3/4" plastic boards, the solid plastic ones you shouldn't hand hold, fresh out of the packet. These things are so stiff and they are really unforgiving. He made us do all sorts of spinning and flying kicks. All things considered I don't think I'm half bad at breaking and my training partner is an absolute beast when it comes to smashing things. The final break we had to do was an air break with ridgehand (on suspended board held loosely by the holder). Training partner goes up, did it with the right hand but not the left, comes over to me and says that was really hard, I've damaged my hand. Oh great, if he can't do it I'm hardly going to be able. First attempt I sent the board flying. Second attempt I crack it but the joint doesn't quite split. Then the examiner tells me I have to pick a hand technique and if it doesn't break I'm not passing I thought things were going really well up until that point but now I'm having an internal meltdown. Chose to do outer knifehand and by some miracle it broke first time so I passed. Got home and my ridgehand was all black and stayed bruised for like a month.

[sensei8]

Congrats with you earning your Sandan; feels great, huh?!?

My hardest Testing Cycle was, by far, my Hachidan's. Dai-Soke put me through the paces as though I stole something from him.

[MatsuShinshii]

Congrats on earning your Sandan.

Shodan and Sandan were the toughest.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Congrats on the promotion!

The hardest i’ve done is for my Nidan. Having vomitted 3 times throughout, with twice during kumite.

At the end i thought i had failed and felt like giving up throughout.

[tallgeese]

I've been MIA for a few weeks, but I am back, and with a 3-dan. The camp was great. I am tired.

It got me thinking. What would you say is the hardest test (MA related) you've ever taken, and why?

Congrats on the promotion!

As to the hardest, it has to be my shodan test. For the karate organization I came out of this is the watershed test. It's long (about 3 hours total), technical, and culminates with an hour of sparring. Exhausting. Mentally and physically.