Do you have testing stories gone bad

[darci]

I just tested for my orange belt in kung fu. I feel really stupid because I knew everything I needed to know. When it came time to do my Tiger form I completely went blank and stood their like a fool half way through and had to start over and still screwed up, I even think I made the guy next to me mess up. Any way now I am wondering if I should continue because I am doubting myself. So I thought maybe if my fellow martial artist could share some testing stories it might help.

Maybe I should lighten up and not be so hard on myself.

 

[kidswarrior]

OHhhh, yeah. Anybody who's ever tested more than a couple of times has testing-gone-bad stories. Just let go of what's done and move forward. If you like the art and the instructor, don't worry about the ranking/testing. It'll work out.

 

[jks9199]

I just tested for my orange belt in kung fu. I feel really stupid because I knew everything I needed to know. When it came time to do my Tiger form I completely went blank and stood their like a fool half way through and had to start over and still screwed up, I even think I made the guy next to me mess up. Any way now I am wondering if I should continue because I am doubting myself. So I thought maybe if my fellow martial artist could share some testing stories it might help.

Maybe I should lighten up and not be so hard on myself.

That's a pretty normal experience...

Under pressure, your mind will go blank. My instructor taught me that rule, and I've proven it...

Quite a few years ago, I showed up for a job interview, and the interviewer asked me if I had any "PC skills." I was stumped; all I could think of was "political correctness" or "professional courtesy." Yeah... I was pretty sure he wasn't looking for either of those. I asked... Oh, Personal Computer...

Yeah, I didn't get that job.

Another time, at a tournament, I walked out, and announced the form I intended to do. I proceded to do a different form. The only thing that saved me that day was that it was an open tournament, and the judges didn't know the difference!

Keep training. You'll one day be in the position of giving advice to someone else who blanked out during a test.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I just tested for my orange belt in kung fu. I feel really stupid because I knew everything I needed to know. When it came time to do my Tiger form I completely went blank and stood their like a fool half way through and had to start over and still screwed up, I even think I made the guy next to me mess up. Any way now I am wondering if I should continue because I am doubting myself. So I thought maybe if my fellow martial artist could share some testing stories it might help.

Sorry, no.

I have trained with 3, well actually it is 4 different sifus (but 1 was for a very short period of time) and none ever gave belts. However they do test in their own way and generally that ends with me laying on the floor thinking "ouch, I probably should not have done that"

I have been doing Traditional Taijiquan with the same sifu for over 13 years and every single class we start with the long form and there have been time, in this past year, were I am going along fine and then BANG I forget the rest of the form.

A good friend of mine was doing a staff form on stage many years ago in front of a rather large audience and it was a form he had done at least 100 times near perfect and all of a sudden just after he began... he forgot the entire form. Same stage presentation another friend of mine went out and was doing a Dao form he had done for years and he lost grip of his Dao and it went flying across the stage much like a throwing knife.

Don't worry about this stuff it happens and it is no big deal

Maybe I should lighten up and not be so hard on myself.

Yes you should

 

[Kacey]

I just tested for my orange belt in kung fu. I feel really stupid because I knew everything I needed to know. When it came time to do my Tiger form I completely went blank and stood their like a fool half way through and had to start over and still screwed up, I even think I made the guy next to me mess up. Any way now I am wondering if I should continue because I am doubting myself. So I thought maybe if my fellow martial artist could share some testing stories it might help.

Maybe I should lighten up and not be so hard on myself.

The purpose of testing is to put you in a stressful situation and see how you react - welcome to the wonderful world of stress reactions!

I remember one testing when a friend of mine (no, really, another student in the class) was called up for testing; she was told to perform the pattern below her testing pattern, but did her testing pattern instead (she did Hwa-Rang instead of Toi-Gye), and did Hwa-Rang extremely well - all of the students junior to her were clapping and nodding; all the seniors were covering our faces and trying not to grimace. The testing instructor looked at her, said "Very nice. Now do the pattern I asked for." She turned beet red, took a couple of deep breaths, and then performed Hwa-Rang. She told me later that she realized it was the wrong pattern about 3 moves in, but she was afraid to stop for fear she'd confuse herself too badly to continue.

When I was testing for my III Dan, I was in another city, in an unfamiliar dojang with indoor/outdoor carpet. In the middle of one of my testing patterns, I caught a callus on my foot on the carpet, and instead of stamping on the sole of my foot, my foot turned over and I stamped on the top of my foot (mostly on the top of my arch), fell over, got back up, and limped my way through the rest of the pattern. I spent all of the remaining time during that testing that my group wasn't actually on the floor with an ice bag on my ankle, so I could walk when I stood up.

 

[ggg214]

Sorry, no.

I have trained with 3, well actually it is 4 different sifus (but 1 was for a very short period of time) and none ever gave belts. However they do test in their own way and generally that ends with me laying on the floor thinking "ouch, I probably should not have done that"

me too.
i guess using belts to determine one's Kung fu level may come from Janpanese Martial arts, such as karate do etc. i have never attented any kinds of test, even i have two masters teaching taiji skills. in their opinions, martial arts couldn't be tested in settled ways. they don't tell you which level you are now, they just tell you where your problems are.

by the way, in our practise, we don't wear kung fu clothes, so we don't have any place to wear the belt.

 

[Xue Sheng]

me too.
i guess using belts to determine one's Kung fu level may come from Janpanese Martial arts, such as karate do etc. i have never attented any kinds of test, even i have two masters teaching taiji skills. in their opinions, martial arts couldn't be tested in settled ways. they don't tell you which level you are now, they just tell you where your problems are.

by the way, in our practise, we don't wear kung fu clothes, so we don't have any place to wear the belt.

My taiji sifu is a subtle, he walks by and adjusts a posture I am doing or, as previously stated, I find myslef laying down looking up, thinking well that wasn't right. He has been fairly happy with my form of late and working much more on push hands, this is where I fall down.

My Sanda sifu is less subtle, as I said in another post the "Are you serious or just playing" question I was asked not to long ago and then again there is the I find myslef laying down looking up, thinking well that wasn't right.

As to what we wear; Depending on which of the 2 sifus I am training with, Taiji tends to be Sweatpants and a tee-shirt. Sanda tends to be whatever I am wearing when my sifu calls to train, which tends to be street cloths

But you can't let this stuff get to you, it is all part of training and learning. You make mistakes and learn form them and hopefully you don't make them again that is the way it is

 

[darci]

Thank You For The Encouragement. It Just Seemed I Was The Only One In Class With This Issue.

 

[Drac]

Does splitting your cheap gi's pants in the middle of a kata during your Yellow belt test count???

 

[Flying Crane]

A few years ago we were doing a demo on an outdoor stage in San Francisco's Chinatown, for part of Chinese New Year celebration. It was a little intimidating, because much of the audience were Chinese and Chinese-American, San Francisco's Chinatown is probably the biggest center for Chinese culture in the US, and here I am, a white boy doing a Chinese art. I got up to do one of my Tibetan White Crane forms, one that I have done over and over for years. I got halfway thru, and my mind just went blank. I sort of froze there for a couple seconds, quickly realized I was screwed and wasn't going to be able to salvage anything, saluted the audience, and walked off the stage. I think most of them may not have realized anything was wrong, but I sure as hell did.

These things happen, especially in your early years of training. Don't worry about it, and of course you should continue training. You just stumbled. You didn't die. Get back up and keep on going.

 

[kidswarrior]

Does splitting your cheap gi's pants in the middle of a kata during your Yellow belt test count???

Every response I can think of is just wrong on so many levels.

 

[Drac]

Every response I can think of is just wrong on so many levels.

My only saving grace was that I had purchased a new gi and it was in my car.I was allowed to bow out and re-dress...

 

[kidswarrior]

My only saving grace was that I had purchased a new gi and it was in my car.I was allowed to bow out and re-dress...

I would think the real saving grace was whatever you had on under the first trousers. :jaw-dropping: :uhoh: :lol: You know I love ya, dude. :highfive: