Testing Reflections, 8/7/2025

[bushido_man96]

There was a lot going on with this testing, even though it wasn’t one of the bigger testings.  Here’s the big one:

We had a 2nd dan, who is the daughter of the CI, managed to get herself bumped from 2nd dan back low brown belt due to some…respect issues; not with everyone in the school, but more along the lines of father/daughter dynamics.  When your are father/daughter at home and then come to class, it can be difficult for kids to switch to the instructor/student dynamic.  I never got the exact story of what took place to cause the rank stripping, but that’s the gist of what caused it.  That 2nd dan in-a-brown belt had to test on the three brown belt levels to get back to her 2nd dan rank, and today marked her finish of that journey.  She was basically doing the 1st dan testing all over again as a skunk belt; all forms, all one-steps, sparring, board breaks, and writing the essay again and reading it aloud before testing.  She has matured a lot, and it was great to see.

Ok, onto the performances.  When I mention the 1st dan recommended, she’s the one I’m referencing.

1st dan rec:  good power in Do-Gons.  She made her low rank forms look like black belt forms.  Great power, technique, focus, etc.  She had a few brief memory hiccups, but nothing terribly egregious.  During a sparring match with an orange belt, she worked with them, helping them out.

White belts:  good stances, transitions, and power in their form.  In one-steps, their distancing was pretty good, but their stances needed focus.  I see this often in one-steps at the lower levels; the students are worried about blocking a technique, where their targets are, and everything going on up high that they forget about what their legs are doing in the stances down low.

The group of white belts looked very good sparring.

Orange belts:  needed to clean up stances a little bit, along with some transitions to front stances.  The forms have some more difficult transitions, which add to this.  The square blocks needed some correction.  I told them not to rush their one-steps.

In sparring, the orange belts need to work on their blocking skills some more.  I’ve had them working on drills in sparring class to help with this.  I see too much “fencing,” where low rank students are trying to block everything with their lead hand.

One of the high orange belts is quite flexible, and it I asked her to show that more in forms, one-steps, and sparring.

Overall, all the students showed great power in their forms, and I told them to keep it up.  I asked them to add focus, and to concentrate on the stances and transitions.  At the end of testing when handing out belts, the CI got a bit choked up giving his daughter back her rank, and didn't quite have his thought sorted yet.  I stepped in and told her that when something like that happens, a person can handle it a couple of ways.  One, they can just quit and not deal with it.  Or two, they can take responsibility, hold themselves accountable, and get better.  She chose the latter, and that has made all the difference.  The CI was able to gather his thoughts and summed up how proud he was of her, and they both had some tears.  I made them hug it out before breaking the testing. 

[sensei8]

Congrats to those that earned their promotion; well deserved!! Sorry for those who had not earned a promotion. 

Being demoted from 2nd Dan to low brown is quite harsh. Daughter or not, testing cycles should have all ties severed so as integrity remains!! If I had relatives as part of my student body, I’d sever said ties while on the floor no matter its contents; they’d be just a student to me and nothing more!! 

I’m sure your CI has cause for demoting that 2nd Dan. Your CI only owes any explanation to that 2nd Dan and no one else.