Recently I tested for a new sash, or belt, as most schools call it. At my school you only test when asked and testing is the doorway to additional learning. New material is not presented to you in classes until you demonstrate a certain level of proficiency and understanding in the material previously taught. I like this approach a lot - it just makes good common sense.

After a test, there is always a gamut of emotions one can feel. Over the years, mine have ranged from a feeling of disappointment in myself for not doing as well as I felt I should from feeling fairly satisfied that I did as well as I was capable of doing. I always try to remember going into a test these two things:

1. Look at it as a Learning Opportunity
2. Don’t Focus on the Outcome of the Test - Do it for the Experience

Now that I think about it, that approach works for pretty much anything we strive for in life. Testing can be a chance for learning, not just about corrections on the material and execution itself, but a chance to learn more about yourself, how you approach things, react to the stresses and challenges of the test.

So I decided to make a list of the top 10 Lessons I learned when testing in the martial arts …

1. Eat Well and Drink Lots of Water Leading up to the Test – Obvious maybe but I think worth mentioning. No one does well dehydrated or hungry on a test but it is also important to be careful not to eat big meals a few hours before the test. I found even snacking on a banana during a break was too heavy for my sensitive stomach.
2. Pay Attention to your Breathing – Everyone is nervous before a test and often when you first get started. At least that is true for me. It is very obvious that when I’m nervous it impacts my balance, my fluidity and my endurance because my breathing is shallow. Knowing this now from previous experience, I focus on trying to breathe deeply before the test begins. Then, even if I’m nervous when starting, if I continue to focus on regulating my breath that very act seems to calm me down because I am thinking of my breathing instead of my nerves.
3. Comparing Yourself - There is almost always someone performs better than you at something (if not many things). It can be very hard but try not to compare yourself to others – it does not serve you. Unfavorably comparing yourself to others will not only erode your self confidence but will cause feelings of frustration. It can also unnerve you making your own performance less than what it ought to be.
4. More than What Meets the Eye - I learned this one after having the bad judgment to ask my teacher how we could perform well on long tests. He quickly set me straight telling me I don’t know what he looks for on a test. As students of the martial arts we tend to focus on the physical execution of techniques or forms but your teacher, if you are lucky to have such a teacher, is busy absorbing many things including your focus, etiquette, response to praise or criticism, reaction to getting “bested” in a sparring match, endurance, determination etc. Take a look yourself and such things and your test may reveal many more things about you than you realize.
5. Your daily practice habits leading up to your test is far more important than the test itself. Recently, I got a cold bucket of water thrown in my face. It became very clear leading up to the test and on the test itself that I had not practiced certain parts of my curriculum enough.
6. Use the test experience as a blue print for future training. Do all you can to absorb the corrections you receive along with assessing yourself – what did you do well and what could you have done better? Then make a plan to work on the things that you didn’t do well and then stick to the plan. Without a solid foundation the building will eventually fall.
7. If you make a mistake during the test, let it go and move on.  Beating yourself up will just distract you from what you should be doing in the present and likely lead to additional errors.
8. Controlling your emotions is every bit as important as controlling your body. Personally I try to take on a somewhat stoic demeanor during all of the physical parts of testing. I just find it easier to simply focus on the business at hand.
9. Don’t spend energy thinking of what is still to come on the test or how much longer it might be. For me, this can be one of the biggest dangers since, as we continue to advance, our tests can be very long. It will zap my energy if thinking “oh I won’t make it I still have xyz to do”. It can become a self fulfilling prophecy. Take it one step at a time. Your brain can convince you that you are ready to quit before you body really is done. In fact, I’ve heard telling yourself “I am strong” can prove helpful when feeling ready to give up (or fall down).
10. Don’t make excuses for yourself or to yourself. No one wants to hear it and it just makes you look bad. After all, if you can’t own what you did, then how can you fix it?
11. If you do really well on the test or get praised by your teacher don’t brag about it or preen. This also makes you look bad. Accept praise humbly and keep it in perspective.
12. Try to remember to have fun with the experience. It is not life or death. I find it helpful to go back to my reasons for wanting to practice in the first place and keep in mind it was never because I wanted to achieve a certain belt. As my teacher says, just practice… and the rest takes care of itself.

Ok, that was 12 but whose counting? Have any of your own testing for rank experiences you’d like to share?

I think one of the most frustrating things and interesting things about practicing martial arts is that are always new challenges. Having acquired a skill in one area does not always seem to seamlessly transfer to another area of practice. There always seem to be something put before you that is difficult to get right. Lately, my list of things I need to work on, things that don’t seem to come natural continues to grow, rather than shrink.

My teacher’s advice for this tends to be this: Pick one thing and work on that. Often training that one thing will automatically raise other skills along with it.  Now I do not think he means practice this one thing to the exclusion of all else.  But he does mean to pick one thing and really focus on it.  This is good advice. I need to take it to heart more but sometimes it is difficult to narrow it down to that one most important thing but I have decided and now need the discipline to stick with it.

And so, as I find with virtually everything in my martial arts training, I can take this idea of picking out one thing and really working on it into my life. What one thing in my everyday life needs the most improvement? If I work on that, will other things naturally improve along with it? I think that one is for certain.

Better get busy.

Sometimes when I saw people younger than myself in class, particularly someone who I know started taking martial arts as a child, I would think how lucky they were to have begun training their bodies at such a young age. I would reflect on the fact that if I were younger, I too would be a little faster, stronger and more flexible. 

Yet, recently I am realizing there is a flip side to all of that. I think because I did start at an older age (in my thirties), that I did have something working in my favor. I had the maturity to appreciate the practice at a level that I might not if I had joined at a much younger age. I can listen the philosophy behind the martial arts and I am easily able to see it can help me in my everyday life partially because I can draw upon my own pool of experiences. I have had the great fortune to have enough mistakes under my belt that I can step back and see what areas I need to work on in my life.  Those years reveal patterns in my thinking and actions making it easy to clearly what behavior has served me well and what has not.

I have some people at my place of dojang who are many years senior to me in age and let me tell you, every one of them is an inspiration and an example to the rest of us.  I don’t think there is an age where you are too old for martial arts.  I just think the experience you will have will just be different.  No doubt, due to their more advanced age, there are some unique frustrations and bodily limitations, but just think of the wealth of life experience those people can bring into their practice!

If I am ever in need of some martial arts inspiration, I only need to look to those people at my dojang who are practicing in their fifties, sixties and even seventies. I am both humbled and grateful to be practicing with them.

Most people begin taking martial arts classes for one of two reasons…they want to get into shape or they want to learn to defend themselves. But what most don’t realize is that while getting your butt kicked you learn alot about yourself and what you are made of. You end up leaving your ego (along with some blood, sweat and tears) on the floor and it is just you in your raw form trying to not to get punched, pushed or kicked. Yes, it sounds a bit brutal but no worries, you’ve got gear on. A good partner won’t be trying to take you out and I am surrounded by good people at my school luckily for me. In fact, my teacher emphasizes “partners not opponents” but I digress.

So back to getting my butt kicked…you see I am new to sparring and am working on my defense while trying to figure out how to get in a few hit of my own.  During the process of this early learning stage I get a bit pummelled sometimes. So feeling like I am back in grade school with a bully on my back can be a bit frustrating. But that is part of the point. You need to learn to keep your head, your wits about you and not get all emotional over it.  You see, there lies in the difference between doing yogo or pilates and doing kung fu. It pushes you to your physical and emotional limits and forces you to tap into inner reserves to keep going.

Martial arts, taught by a good teacher, is about destruction of the ego and at the same time teaches you to face adversity inside the safe walls of the dojo (dojang). So when you get out into the real world, you take with you the lessons you’ve learned and are able to apply them when things get tough.

And if you are over the age of 10, you know how tough life can get. Why not be prepared?