At our school, we just finished a black belt test with 48 students, of whom five were testing for 2nd degree and 43 were testing for 1st degree. The group included a number of children nine years of age and older (testing to junior black belt) and a number of adults who ranged from in age from late teens to the late 40s (testing for adult rank). The adults represented a number of professional occupations, including doctors, teachers, college faculty, large business owners, small business owners, insurance, research scientists and housewives.
Only a few of the children would have been called good athletes. Most had normal physical skills, and a significant number (maybe 25%) were, or had been, what we fondly refer to as “karate nerds.”
What I enjoyed about this test, more than any during the last 30 years, was that it would have satisfied any old-time karate teacher who longs for the old days when we “really had standards.” The katas (forms) were crisp, snappy and strong. The attitude in the room was excellent, discipline was tight, and they could fight. Really fight. Even the little kids and, yes, even the housewives. Plus, everyone in attendance knew that this was a real test and that the possibility of failing today and not immediately earning their black belts was very real.
There’s considerable buzz in our industry about the problem of lax black belt testing. The success that my staff created and I enjoyed was dramatic. What’s the secret to developing this kind of success in every school in the country?
First, determine what you don’t want from your students.
Let’s assume you don’t want poor technicians (which would be determined by whatever style or art you teach). You don’t want people with attitude problems or egomania, causing havoc in your school or in the community. You don’t want people who are weak in the body or weak in the mind (I am not referring to disabilities.), or who can’t fight their way from a paper bag, wearing a black belt from your school.
As you develop your curriculum, seminars, extracurricular activities, etc., make sure that you address these issues. Your curriculum should support the standards you want for your school. Your students can’t learn it if you don’t teach it enough and with the right emphasis.
Your etiquette and the rules of your school should support the image of how your school thinks a black belt should act—and you should be consistent in applying them to achieve a consistently school-wide product. Have you been listening to the interviews with our soldiers in Iraq? The consistent training has produced a consistent product among our military. They are overwhelmingly positive, motivated, respectful and professional.
Last, if you want them to be strong of body and mind, don’t expect people to evolve in some mystical way. You need to train them, help them, motivate them and demand more of them.
Then, determine precisely what you do want. The techniques, skills, concepts and principles that you teach in your art, and that you want represented by your most basic black belts, must be properly prioritized in your curriculum.
During your classes, concentrate on what you want your students to do when they are tested. It’s easy to be sidetracked during your daily training if you aren’t exactly sure what product you want to develop at your school.
Finally, a word to the wise. You should expect them to achieve all of this at black belt rank—and not at orange belt. Remember that it took you time to develop. Give them the same benefit.
Here is a closing thought about your “karate nerds.” Remember that many of the biographies of past masters mention that they were sickly as children. They started training to strengthen their bodies and their minds. It’s a good thing that nobody “cut” them during their earlier training, but it’s equally important that somebody required high standards from them or they would have probably never become masters.u
Douglas Adamson teaches Shorei Kai (an Americanized Okinawan karate system), Yamani Ryu, a classical Okinawan weapons system, and Pikiti Tirsha, a classical kali system. You can contact him at adamsonkarate@aol.com.
