Well, what did you think?

[Earl Weiss105]

One of the reason we went to mounted holders was to eliminate problems with human holders. Once you get to 4 and more real boards, #2 pine from the lumberyard and not the BS breaking boards sold by some suppliers it becomes more difficult for humans to hold.

 

[StuartA]

I just try to avoid it when i can, and I am diplomatic when i cant avoid it.

Me too. I have been asked to sit on BB grading panels (not neccesarily for kids) and have politely refused as TBH, I knew of the gradees before hand and most likely would have had to fail them - nothing personal, but I grade by what I define a BB is, therefore if asked to be part of a grading, thats my requirements and though I am open to leeway for school differences etc., bottom line is its my name on the cert and thus what I require needs to be adhere to or else it may one day come back to bite ya!

Stuart

 

[StuartA]

Can I ask a follow up question?
My BB test was grueling, I had to break a bunch of boards, do a bunch of forms, fight a bunch of people, and defend myself, not to mention write a 10 page paper. I have seen bb tests that just have forms and a couple of boards. I have also seen 6 year old black belts.

Am I missing something?

NO... they are!

Stuart

 

[jks919981]

Me too. I have been asked to sit on BB grading panels (not neccesarily for kids) and have politely refused as TBH, I knew of the gradees before hand and most likely would have had to fail them - nothing personal, but I grade by what I define a BB is, therefore if asked to be part of a grading, thats my requirements and though I am open to leeway for school differences etc., bottom line is its my name on the cert and thus what I require needs to be adhere to or else it may one day come back to bite ya!

Stuart

It's one thing to be asked to observe another style's test. It's another to sit on the panel as an evaluator. I'd be honored to observe and sort of bear witness to the test; I can't imagine the circumstances where I'd actually serve as an evaluator. I lack the knowledge of the style! How can I evaluate bassai sho or any other kata that I don't know?

 

[StuartA]

It's one thing to be asked to observe another style's test. It's another to sit on the panel as an evaluator. I'd be honored to observe and sort of bear witness to the test; I can't imagine the circumstances where I'd actually serve as an evaluator. I lack the knowledge of the style! How can I evaluate bassai sho or any other kata that I don't know?

I got the impression he was watching the same style as himself (the OP)!! Like you say, observing is one thing as you can push the positives and bite your lip on the negatives.. unless you are there to give a straight up honest evaluation of course! As an examiner, one shouldnt eb affored that luxury.. though of course many do so they get another pay day next grading!

Stuart

 

[IcemanSK]

It was, as StuartA said, the same style (TKD) as I study. Although not the same lineage, background etc.

I would almost feel more comfortable on a board of a style that I don't study (almost being the operative word here) because I wouldn't have expectations of the same (say, side kick of TKD) should look like.

I've mentioned here before that I had a young jr. BB from another school in my town show up at my school who was not up to my standard. I allowed him to wear the belt but made it know that he had to work to be up to my standard. He switched schools (as I figured he would) soon after.

When I was a gup student, we always had an outside instructor test us. Sometimes it was the same person. Sometimes not. For my 1st Dan, it was a man I'd never seen before. It was not an easy test.

My goal in walking into this test as an observer last week was to try to find as many positive things as I could & to be as encouraging to this child as I could. And to be fair, she had quite a bit to be proud of. She had a great deal more focus & technique than her same-age counterparts. The adult BB's in her school were quite good, actually. So she has good role models there. I have high hopes for her. My concern is that she see this as a begining & not an end.

 

[Nomad]

AHAHAHAHAHA, you never had a bad holder then....Bless you.

Seriously, if you got somebody flinching right as you strike you might not be able to break....that's why we got the rule that you can request different holders. But then again... is true for the match, too....would have won but they punch to the head, we don't...

Good or bad holders can absolutely make the difference in a break; what I found funny was her father (who does no martial arts) giving it as an excuse for his daughter, without being asked, and then stating that you can see it clearly on the video (keep in mind I wasn't arguing with him... this was more his justification for his little girl not performing up to his expectations, IMO)

That's one reason I prefer bricks for my breaking; if they don't break, you have no-one to blame but you. Blaming the holders for a failed break is ridiculous IMO, since it's YOUR responsibility to make sure they know what they're doing, are holding the wood correctly, are solidly rooted, etc. Admittedly, that's probably asking too much of a 9-10 year old, which just begs another question in my mind...

 

[granfire]

Admittedly, that's probably asking too much of a 9-10 year old, which just begs another question in my mind...

well, you can bet you bottom, it won't happen to her again. While a lot of people see the failed break/test, i see a tremendous learning experience! We had a test round we forgot one kid to call up for forms. The center manager had simply forgotten to put the little guy on the lust. Normally we ask if everybody had their turn, but sheesh, we are all human...so we get to sparring and the little guy comes up to the table and states his issue. Quick check, yep, we forgot him. A few years back he would have gone running off crying. HUGE deal (he later on didn't break, but that is another story all together, involved an ignorant parent and a lot of vaseline).

Working with the kids, I have a pretty good idea what I am dealing with, when I hold bords for them in preactice I know whom I can tell to aim for me (aka through the board) and the ones who would take me up on that offer! and once they get into the red belt area when they have to break, I make sure I tell them what they can and can't do. Like tell the board holders where to set it up, etc. (but with the kids, 3 tries and the chief instructors looming, chances are that at least on the last try the good holders are out.)

 

[terryl965]

Mosr Kids BB are either Junior BB or a poom by the KKW standards, remember alot of school retest when they hit a certain age for a reall BB certificate.

 

[Earl Weiss105]

On Friday I was invited to a friend's daughter's black belt test. The girl is 8 or 10 years old. The standards of their school is quite different than mine. I focused on the possitives of how she did & was able to be encouraging. Discussing the differences between the standards of the two schools wouldn't be helpful to anyone.

Have you had similiar experiences (invited to another school to watch a test)? How did you approach it? Would you do something different next time?

I think this is a problem without an easy answer. We need to be polite guests. Yet, if we care about quaality MA we have aa responsibility to say something. (There was one thread where I caught a lot of flac for suggesting there was an error. ) I do not give my opinions if not asked for it. If asked I try to be diplomatic yet make my opinions clear. Inviting people to observe my testing is one possible choice.

Unfortuneately, many think their instructor walks on water yet have nevewr been outside their little comfort zone, so have nothing to compare. This is a sad state of affairs.

 

[Kacey]

I was invited to a BB test for multiple schools in multiple arts (interesting in and of itself - trying to determine the fitness of students in arts totally unlike my own); some very good, some, by my standards, extremely poor. The only thing I could do at that point was judge each student against others from the same school.