When I first started training in Okinawa-Te I paid special attention to belt tests. I watched others test, and was very happy when it was my turn to test, both for the opportunity and for the way the test was conducted. I have since found, as I have trained in other schools and styles, that the purpose and the method of testing in Okinawa-Te was quite different from the way other systems and styles of martial arts do testing.
Most systems I have observed take the test part of “belt test” to mean the same thing that the word test means when it is used in school. In school you have a class with a set quantity of knowledge that you must learn in a set period of time, then you are tested. There is no room for variance in learning speed or style, and the test is to see if you have mastered the material at a minimal passing level, or greater. In school there is always the possibility that you will fail the test, especially if the particular material was hard for you to understand or remember. Everyone tests at the same time, and if you fail, you have to repeat the entire class.
The school model seems to be the model of test that most karate schools use. Tests are offered at set times (usually monthly or quarterly). Your eligibility to is based on your time in class, not your understanding or ability to perform the material. Just like in school there is a significant possibility that you will fail. Interestingly, in many schools they may still “pass” you even if you do fail (the more commercial the school, the more likely this is to happen).
This is not the model used in Okinawa-Te. In Okinawa-Te tests are administered only when the student is assured of being able to pass them. This makes the test much more like putting on a play than taking a test. You have practiced and practiced, until you know your lines perfectly. The only reason for you to fail is performance anxiety (stage fright). This is the only way I know for someone to fail to pass a test in Okinawa-Te. The “test” in Okinawa-Te is more a public performance, to demonstrate your skill to all who witness the test, rather than public exposure where everyone sees if you successfully crammed your homework well enough to get a passing grade.
One of the first times I witnessed a test at another karate school, I was shocked. Fully one third of the students were unable to complete the items they were asked to perform. To me this didn’t reflect poorly on the students, but on the instructors. I couldn’t believe that the instructors would allow someone to get up in front of family and friends who was not fully prepared. It was especially difficult to watch kids fail so very publicly, kids who the instructors should have known had no business being there because they weren’t ready. It was just as bad to watch the instructors “pass” kids who had clearly failed, and who knew they’d failed.
The other thing that shocked me was the difference in what was being tested. In Okinawa-Te a belt test is comprehensive. Everything a student has learned up to that point is tested. Each higher rank test takes longer because there is more material to test on. When I witnessed my first Shotokan test, I was shocked at its brevity. They only tested on the new material, plus one or two other things. The test was very short, and didn’t seem to me like a real measure of the student’s progress. Many schools seem to think that this is normal. I feel that a cumulative test is the only way to get a true measure of a student’s ability. A yellow belt and brown belt both need to be tested on the side-kick, but the student testing for brown should be much more proficient while doing the “same” technique.
In Okinawa-Te students test when they are ready. If they are ready in one month, or two years, it doesn’t matter. This is where belts and testing come together. A belt test signifies that a student has achieved or passed a certain level of knowledge and ability. They may know significantly more than they need to, for a given test. That only makes it that much more certain that they will pass. A student should never be invited to test if there is any doubt as to their ability to perform all the requirements for that test.
Some would say that this way of testing isn’t a test. Maybe it isn’t, by the school definition. But performance anxiety still makes a test a trying experience, and therein lies much of the value of a test. When a student finishes a test, they know that they really do know the material, and everyone who watches knows it too.