VIDEO TESTING -vs.- IN PERSON TESTING

To begin with, in the early days under Mr. Parker, even before his formation of the IKKA, there was no such thing as testing. Why would there be? In those days, Mr. Parker taught all the classes himself, so in essence testing was an ongoing affair. He saw each student in every class, he knew what you were capable of, he noted your progress, he knew your strengths and shortcomings, so there was absolutely no necessity for testing. When he felt you were ready, you were ready. Also there were no colored belts in those days.

In the very beginning there were only two half inch brown stripes on your white belt before you went to brown belt. Later it became four brown stripes before brown belt. It took approximately two years of study at two classes per week to achieve brown belt and another two years as a brown belt to achieve your black belt. At that time there were no levels in brown belt and I had never heard of degrees in black belt before Mr. Parker went to Hawaii, in the very early sixties, to see Prof. Chow concerning that subject. To the best of my recollection he came back a third degree from that trip. I remember asking my contemporaries, "Why are there degrees in black belt, I thought that's as high as it went". They had no answer, nor do I, even after all these years. If you'd like to know how the colored belts for the lower ranks in Ed Parker's Kenpo came about, let me know. It's another story and doesn't necessarily belong within this one. It's not tremendously important but it is interesting how the intended point was missed completely.

As Mr. Parker expanded his empire and could no longer teach all the classes personally, he at least made the effort to visit and teach at each of his schools often enough to keep an eye on the higher level students, so as to know them and their abilities and be able to render an opinion as to their promotions. I can proudly say, I never put a student up for promotion that Mr. Parker didn't approve immediately. I couldn't even have considered insulting him with a student who might possibly not make the grade. More often than not his comment would be, "It's about time".

As more time elapsed and the system gained in popularity, Mr. Parker could no longer possibly visit and teach at each of the schools under his name but it was still necessary to see what the far-flung schools were up to. If they were keeping the standards of excellence Mr. Parker had established. That required traveling and testing.

Unfortunately, by then Mr. Parker had so many irons in the proverbial fire he didn't have the time to create a standardized test that all people in all the schools would take for rank. Or perhaps the teaching was so diversified in the more distant schools as to make that impossible so he just left it up to each individual head instructor. It isn't a subject we ever discussed. Because I never had to take a test for rank I personally didn't see the need within the school Ed Parker and I were partners in and neither did he. We did it the old way even up to 1981 when he awarded me my seventh degree black. He knew every person I put up for rank and needless to say my philosophy never changed about not wanting to offend him with a weak student.

One question I always had but never got around to asking is why the tests are given in mass. Can you think of another subject where all the people are tested at the same time?

This system of testing actually brings up other interesting questions.

Question: If there are twelve or more people taking a test at the same time how does each board member evaluate each movement of each student throughout the entire test?

Answer: They don't!

Question: If a student makes a serious error how does the board deal with letting him or her know so that they can correct it.

Answer: They can't!

Question: Could this kind of testing be done for financial reasons?

Answer: If you think about it, only one test has to be given for which as many as twenty test fees can be collected, for the same investment of time.

Question: Is it possibly more discreet to test in mass than individually?

Answer: Nobody likes seeing one of their students fail. Perhaps, it's easier not to fail people by generalizing when using the performance of the entire group as an average, instead of individual evaluation where their deficiencies are much more evident.

The last test Board I sat on for the IKKA with Mr. Parker at the head was at his West L.A, school not long before he passed away. I must say, the students testing that evening were of significant quality but there were still things I saw that needed to be addressed. Not all of those being tested did everything correctly but at the end, when they all passed, no one could remember what corrections should have been made, therefore none were made.

There are other questions about testing that come to mind that have nothing to do with any particular style or system. Things like, how come some schools charge more as the belt level gets higher? Is it more work to test a person for brown or black belt than it is, for say, purple? Does the belt cost more? Does it take more time? The fact that I have heard of charges of up to a thousand dollars for a black belt test is something that has always mystified me. I'd love to know how they justify that.

The intention of this article was to compare video testing with mass testing done in a studio but, there is no comparison so there's very little left to say.

We would like to thank one of our Texas video students for a recent letter. In it he says that he was disappointed and angry with his test results. He said we were picky on all the details and he was offended and insulted by the treatment. Then, after a cooling off period he went back and reviewed his test tape, at the end of which is the private lesson. He decided to watch it as well. This time, having just witnessed his own test performance, he saw how all the corrections were not only warranted but necessary. He said, and I quote, "My anger turned to shame and then to sincere gratitude". Then he told us, he was back on track and we could expect his next test shortly. It took a lot of guts to write that letter and we certainly appreciate it. Picking out errors and picking on a student are two decidedly different things. You're only getting one lesson per belt level (unless you fail) so we feel obligated to tell you all the things you need to know in order to progress and not let those errors compound into something that will take a lot more time and work to eradicate. We fully realize how a lot of corrections can seem like you're being picked on and try as we may not to have anyone feel that way, we also know it is our duty to you, to tell it like it is. Look at it this way, in class everybody hears it. On video only you hear it and in class if you don't correct it immediately, you'll hear it again and again. With your video private lesson you can work on it as long as it takes before we see it again and say, "Good job, I knew you could do it".

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