Testing Reflections, 8/1/2024

[bushido_man96]

These are the reflections I had on this recent testing at our TKD do-jang.

Testing scoring:

60 – No-change

65 – Recommended rank/below average

70 – Average

75 – Above average

I judged a testing at our do-jang today, and it got me thinking about testing white belts (it was a small testing, with five white belts and one high orange belt testing). I listed the scoring table above for context on these notes. In thinking about a white belt testing, I came to this conclusion: if a white belt should fail a testing, that failure is on the instructor, not the student. Barring a catastrophic brain meltdown or a mental reaction to stress (panic attack, anxiety disorder, etc), I truly believe this is the case. As an instructor, being exposed to the students daily, the instructor should know if the student is ready to test or not, and if they are not ready, they should not be allowed to test. If an instructor allows a white belt to test that isn’t ready (or any student, for that matter), then that is akin to malpractice in my eyes.

This brings me to scoring white belts in testing (how I do it, anyway). Most white belts aren’t going to blow away a judge on a testing board. Sure, exceptions exist, like naturally gifted athletes that pick things up quickly, or students with prior martial arts experience, but these students aren’t the norm. As a testing judge (tournament judge is whole different animal), my expectations aren’t low for white belts, but they aren’t high either. A white belt won’t test like a black belt, or even a mid-rank colored belt (we have young black belts that when asked if students performed their one-steps correctly, they start to get into minuscule technical aspects, and I have to remind them that they are white belts).

So how do I score? Barring a complete lack of effort from the student, I score average. I might modify it with an up or down arrow next to the 70, denoting if I think the student is on the high side or the low side of the score (we don’t use .5’s for some reason), but otherwise average. I expect some fudge in stances, less power and speed and the like. Distancing on one-steps will vary greatly and will probably be subpar due to general insecurity in striking so close to someone and not understanding their range. But I know their kinesthetic awareness will improve with time.

White belts tend to get nervous, too. The first test is always an eye-opener. As an instructor in the past, I’ve taken the time to explain to new students how a testing will run, the procedures involved, and what to expect, but even with all this preparation, most white belts will still be uneasy going into the test. They are unsure of what to expect, there’s the added tension of judges sitting up front watching them, etc. A big part of that first testing is learning how to handle the nerves.

New white belts face a lot in their first testing. One never knows what a student will eventually be capable of. There are hopefully plenty of testings down the road in which I will score tougher.

Other notes:

We had a high-orange belt that tested very well. She had good stances, decent power and technique in her form. This faded a little on the one-steps, I believe due to being nervous about the distancing. She had a decent go at sparring, too. She needs more of it, for sure (as does the whole school, not much time is spent on it at the end of classes due to getting through basics, forms, and one-steps). She also needs to learn to use her rear hand for blocking. Like many beginners/early rank students, they tend to try to block or parry everything with their lead hand. It’s a weird habit, but funny to watch as a high rank.

We had three black belts do a brief demo today. Even though they weren’t testing for rank, I told them that I tested them anyway. While doing their Do-Gons, they ran some things together during transitions. They would start a step transition before getting the previous technique finished. Getting in a hurry. Impatient. I told them they needed to learn how to speed up without getting in a hurry. Fast techniques is a good thing, but they can’t run them together and end up with sloppy transitions.

On a final note, there was a blue belt that wasn’t allowed to test, due to not being ready with the material. This is a quality I admire in our school.

[sensei8]

I greatly appreciate you sharing how your dojang runs its Testing Cycle; very informative. Your Testing Cycles are NOT handled in a flyby fashion, but is integrity based throughout.

Edited August 4 by sensei8

[Zaine]

I agree with you on the white belt comments. There is no reason we should be testing white belts that aren't 100% expected to pass. I can't imagine how disheartening it would be to go into your first test and fail. It would definitely hurt retention not only in new students, but also in older non-black belt ranked students who might see that as unnecessarily cruel.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Thanks for sharing!

It's so true for white belts and the level of nerves that they would be feeling.

Although "High-Orange" Belt has me confused. @Bushido_man96 can you fill me in on the ranking system for your organisation? and what makes one a a "high-??" Belt?

What I do with our white belts to help is the week of I review and we do like a mini-grading. So they are introduced to what it is like, but without the pressure.

[bushido_man96]

Although "High-Orange" Belt has me confused. @Bushido_man96 can you fill me in on the ranking system for your organisation? and what makes one a a "high-??" Belt?

Sure. Each belt color is broken into two ranks, a low and a high, instead of adding more colors. It goes this way:

9th grade White Belt

8th grade Low Orange Belt

7th grade High Orange Belt

6th grade Low Green Belt

5th grade High Green Belt

4th Low Blue Belt

3rd High Blue Belt

2nd Low Brown Belt

1st grade recommended Middle Brown Belt

1st grade decided High Brown Belt

I hope that makes sense. The lower of the colored belt rank is denoted with a belt with a white stripe through the middle, and the higher is a solid color. Then our black belt ranks start.

What I do with our white belts to help is the week of I review and we do like a mini-grading. So they are introduced to what it is like, but without the pressure.

This is a great idea. It at least allows the students to see what the process and order of the testing will be. I would like for us to do it.

I greatly appreciate you sharing how your dojang runs its Testing Cycle; very informative. Your Testing Cycles are NOT handled in a flyby fashion, but is integrity based throughout.

Thank you, Bob. That means a lot. I can remember testings where I've actually gotten frustrated with some things I've been seeing, knowing there were classes that I had hounded on them about it, and expect them to be fixed, and have mentioned as much in the post-testing comments. I constantly take notes on the back of my testing score sheets. This post is a reflection (and expansion on) the notes that I take. I don't know why I didn't think to start putting this stuff down on paper sooner, but I've got a lot of testings to look forward to, and I plan to post more of these.

I agree with you on the white belt comments. There is no reason we should be testing white belts that aren't 100% expected to pass. I can't imagine how disheartening it would be to go into your first test and fail. It would definitely hurt retention not only in new students, but also in older non-black belt ranked students who might see that as unnecessarily cruel.

Exactly. I can understand being a hard-nosed grading judge, and I'm ok with that. But on the white belts who are just beginning. I'm not saying that the white belt test is a mail-in test; not at all. I still expect the students to work hard and perform to the best of their abilities. If they did not, then I would be disappointed, and I would note that in post-testing discussion. As I mentioned in my post, if the student showed a complete lack of interest and energy in the test, it might be grounds for failure, but it would have to be completely on their lack of effort, and not on the instructor's failure to prepare them.

[aurik]

Our dojo does things similarly, but with some key differences.  First of all, students have to be invited to test.  Meaning: there are time-in-grade and attendance requirements, but our CI (or the student's supervising instructor, if they are at a satellite school) will not invite a student to test unless they are confident that the student will pass.   Our school has four groupings of kyu ranks: white, yellow, green, and brown; there are three levels within each grouping (except white belts), for ten kyu grades in total.  Students who are testing for a yellow belt grade will be required to know the same material; they will all perform the same kata, the same two-person drills, and the same kotekitae exercises.  As a student progresses through the yellow belt grade, they'll have added requirements added in (bunkai / kata interpretation), and they will be expected to show a more nuanced unerstanding of the material.  

The way our instructor performs testing is he'll bring all of the students for a given grouping up to demonstrate their material.  He'll have assistant instructors watching groups of students within that grouping so no one instructor is watching too many students.  After the group completes, he'll check with the instructors to see if anyone was struggling with the material or made gross errors.  In that case, he'll have those students stay on the floor and re-demonstrate the material to give the student a better chance.  If the student still struggles, then he'll have the student perform with an instructor (in the event they were having difficulty with a partner).  If they still struggle, he may fail them on that part of the test.  So each student gets 3 solid chances to succeed, and there are some parts of the test that you can technically fail, but still pass the test, depending on which kyu grade you are testing into.

In the years I've been attending the school, I've only seen three students not pass a test.  One of them just couldn't get their rights and lefts together under the stress of testing.  One of them just had a terrible attitude on the test day (he had a very complicated family situation, and the CI spoke with the kid's parents before failing him), and I don't remember the third reason.  Our CI also stresses to students that even if they don't pass today, they can test the following testing cycle (which he usually runs at least one per month).