His First Real Test

This week is Stripe Testing week at the boy’s martial arts school. The school has these evaluations at the end of each month to give the students a chance to progress through the belt levels. The boy currently is at the red level and needed only 1 more stripe to qualify to graduate to the next belt level- his last prior to becoming an apprentice. So he’s getting real close.

He went on Monday and after testing the instructors said they’d be giving him his stripe but that he needed to get an “Intent to Promote” form filled out. This is a supplemental form they use to solicit feedback from the parents and even school teachers to make sure that they are applying things they learn to other aspects of their lives such as being a good student, helping around the house and so forth.

So I took him to class again last night (he’s supposed to go, minimally, twice a week). That’s when things took a little detour.

On Monday, the instructors running the class were the usual Monday crew, but their are also not the head instructors. The head instructors were there for Wednesday and they essentially re-evaluated him and, to cut to the chase, they did not promote him to the next level. They had him perform his belt level form several times- twice with a group and then a final time on his own, and they deemed it not up to par yet. Being familiar with the form, I couldn’t disagree with their assessment (I’ll have to do the same one to attain my next belt level.)

To his credit, he did it as well as I’ve seen him. I don’t know what happened with the other red belts whom tested on the same form.

When he came out, the boy was, unsurprisingly, upset. Not to the point of tears, but unhappy because he thought after Monday that he’d be graduating. He was blabbering about how he would be stuck at the red level forever and ever and I decided I’d just let him blow off steam without commenting. We’ve all been disappointed before and sometimes we just need to vent frustrations. I realized the boy is no different, so I let him vent. So long as he didn’t get out of hand.

When we got home and the boy informed her about the results, the Wife was also upset about how it turned out.

I was initially disappointed for him as well. That said, I also felt it was an opportunity to test the boy’s mettle. To this point, he had advanced on time through every belt level. As his belt level increased, I began wondering when the lack of crispness and body control would start to catch up to him.

One thing I’ve tried to maintain with both kids is the ability to honestly evaluate their abilities. I don’t know that I always succeed, particularly with schooling, but with the martial arts stuff I feel I’m a decent judge. I thought on more than one occasion that he could stand to be held back a bit at previous belt levels, but they continued to move him along. I had refrained from interfering with them because I realize the instructors have seen 100’s, if not 1000’s, of different kids go through their school at this point and many had made it to black belt. I’ve also seen the quality of their adult and teen black belts and can say that they are well taught and skilled practitioners. In other words, they know what they are doing. And here now, finally, was a moment where they basically told him “It’s not good enough.” He will have to work to improve himself and his technique.

On the way home, while he continued to vent he lamented that he didn’t even know what he’d done wrong or what he should do to improve it. I took a chance and explained three different parts of the form that would make it significantly better. He listened quietly to them. When I was done he complained “That’s a lot…” I didn’t think so, though. He had already learned the whole form, which was a lot more than 3 things, and he did more of the form correctly than not. He seemed to calm down a bit after that. Perhaps the idea of a direction helped to comfort him.

Neither the Wife nor I ever felt that attaining his black belt should be a pro forma matter. Indeed, part of the reason for signing him up was to give him something challenging to attain to. So that he might be given the opportunity to learn that success takes work. Here, now, he will finally begin to receive that lesson.

Whether he learns it remains to be seen.