What Testing Teaches us about Preparation

"Preparation is the mother of skill." -Roland Osborne

With testing coming up, it's normal to feel some jitters. It's time to see if all of your hard work is going to pay off! If everything goes as you're hoping, you should leave the mats this weekend with a new belt rank. That being said, sometimes we don't reach our goals as quickly as we expect to. This could be a mix of bad luck, making a mistake, or any other factors that are out of your control. What actually happens at testing is out of our hands to some extent, but the way we prepare for testing is not.

One of the best lessons taekwondo teaches us is to have a long term vision. For young students, two months is a very long time. For our older students who are black belts, they are waiting as long as a year before they are eligible to test for their next rank. We have to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to become complacent. Just because our goal won't happen for a long time doesn't mean we should stop working towards it every day.

By making an effort to reach our goal, we minimize the factors that could damage our chances of success. When you bow in to your testing, it's perfectly okay to be nervous. But you should also feel confident in your preparation. If you've come to class, practiced at home, and put your best effort into your training you are going to be ready to test. If you do no-change, it will be for something small that you can fix next time. Your goal in training is to be so prepared for your testing that you could pass it on your worst day!

Testing is an exciting day. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed. But that pressure and drive to succeed really matters on the weeks and months before you test. Good luck to all of our students testing this weekend! We know you'll crush it.