Tips on Karate Gradings. Part 2. The Grading itself.
Advice for karate students for the day of the grading exam.
Mindset.
Typically, you get a huge boost from knowing you have laid the groundwork and really prepared for the grading. You have to build up to the occasion, it’s not something you can blithely drift into with a devil may care attitude.
There are multiple ways of turbo-charging your performance, one is that you can almost ritualise the preparation, if it gives you the boost you need it doesn’t matter how you do it.
In the world of pro-boxing there was a myth circling round relating to abstinence and creating a real hairshirt mentality. It was said that in the days leading up a fight boxers would refrain from anything carnal, ergo, no sex on the run up to the main event. One famous boxer said that this was rubbish, adding that sex before a fight is not an issue, as long as it’s not DURING the fight; then it would be a problem.
It's just a light-hearted example; I am not in any way making it a solid suggestion.
That aside, I suspect that a lot of this illustrates the power of the ritual, like having a lucky talisman. Really, there is nothing wrong with rituals if they don’t take over your life or become an excuse for failure – ‘I failed my grading because I didn’t have my lucky rabbit’s foot in my kit bag’.
Building up to the occasion and getting into the right headspace has to be taken seriously, but people do strange and illogical things – for example, I have never understood why anyone would go out on the town on a drinking binge the night before a grading, but believe me, it has happened, with the inevitable disastrous result.
The actual day of the grading.
Everybody is different, there is no one way of doing this, but you have to do things that are going to put you in the best mental state and the best physical shape. I am reminded of something Winston Churchill did prior to giving a speech in Parliament. If he wanted to be concise and hammer his point home in the most economical way possible, he would make sure that before he got up to speak he had a full bladder, this brand of urgency was just his way of controlling the focus of his mind. For a karateka approaching a grading that would be somewhat counter-productive. But you get my point.
Managing nerves.
There are all kinds of strategies for dealing with the stress associated with such an occasion. Anything that helps you focus on the job and eliminate those negative voices in your head has to be a good thing.
For some people breathing exercises or mindfulness works really well. But, I always think it’s useful to refocus, look at the situation that you have found yourself in through the wrong end of the telescope, so as not to get overwhelmed, and understand it for what it is. Some people say, ‘just treat it like it’s another training session’, an easy statement to make, not so easy to do.
Others find it useful to invoke the spirits of their particular heroes for inspiration and extra courage – it can help, but it is a very individual and highly personal thing.
One comfort you can take is that being nervous is entirely normal; the panel of examiners know that and are inclined to offer a little leeway for that fact.
It is often said that you should aim for 120% performance, because, on the day, everyone drops by 20%. This is not universally accurate because, in my observations, some people can really pull it out of the bag because of the pressure.
Remember the stress/performance curve.
Other things you might do.
It’s always good practice to be dressed for the occasion. Sloppy Keikogi – sloppy performance (for goodness’ sake, run an iron over it).
In many cases you may be asked to do some partner work, paired kata etc. If you haven’t done it before hand, scope out a suitable partner. In an ideal world you would have practiced with them before, even if it’s just a single run-through on the day; it’s definitely worth it.
If you have no prearranged partner this can be a bit of a lottery. Through about three of my kyu gradings I had the same partner. I can see the advantage; an established grading partner means you can really sharpen your performance; you have no unwelcome surprises for each other.
If you have to dip into the lottery pool and deal with an untried partner, the one single positive action you can take, the thing that may make or break your grading is to ask… nay INSIST… that your partner when taking Uke really, really attacks you, right distance, right timing. If he gets that wrong it’s you that ends up looking the chump.
What to do if things go wrong.
Just about everybody suffers a minor hitch in their grading at some time – it’s not the end of the world, as long as you handle it intelligently. However, it is not a great sign if your performance is peppered with ‘minor hitches’; it either means you are letting nerves get the better of you or you are just not ready for the grading. Examiners will be moderately forgiving, but only up to a point.
Kata errors.
One of the most common errors in kata is to just forget where you are, lose your place and freeze. There are usually two reasons for this, both avoidable:
1. Autopilot. Never, never, never switch on autopilot during kata. Don’t assume that your body knows what it is doing while your head is away with the fairies (your body may know a number of other kata as well, it’s easy to slip into the wrong kata while your brain is in neutral). The remedy is simple; switch off the autopilot.
2. The lack of a compass. This is partly linked to the above, but also distinct in its own way. When people perform solo kata they have a tendency to take their bearings from outside of themselves. You all know how it works, ‘In my home Dojo I always do my kata facing this way; do three techniques towards the fire escape, another three in the direction of the broom cupboard’. Well, for a grading you may not be in your ‘home Dojo’, so where are you going to orientate yourself from? You are all at sea without a sextant – result = error, then freeze in panic. The antidote for this one is to always get into the habit of taking your bearings from inside yourself, just the same as you would if you were doing it with your eyes shut – besides, aren’t we supposed to be ‘internalising’ the kata anyway?
So, now imagine that the worst has happened (error, then freeze). If you are in a kata competition then it’s over, there’s no second chance. However, in a grading, quite often the examiner will take sympathy on you, realise what’s happened and throw you a lifeline – as long as you can hold your cool.
If it happens, calmly stop, wait for the right moment and then politely ask the examiner for another try. Nine times out of ten they will say ‘yes’. I have seen students do superb kihon with good body mechanics, then completely muff the kata, because of one of the above reasons, but still pass the grading.
Compartmentalisation.
Another useful strategy is to compartmentalise the grading. By that I mean treat each section as a discrete entity, and keep it in its box. When you have finished one part, put it away, don’t hold on to it, that part is over. If you dwell on it, the weight of thought has the potential to overcrowd your brain and in that time and place, that’s the last thing you need. It’s all about managing your bandwidth.
If one of the earlier compartments/boxes contains an error, however small, and you hang on to it, it can sabotage your confidence.
Don’t assume it’s you that’s wrong.
I have seen this happen so many times, it is particular to line work, but it’s a rookie error. It works like this; after a technique has been performed you notice that the person next to you is in the opposite stance to the one you’re in – why do you assume it’s you that’s got it wrong and not him? Then you start frantically switching stance and pretty quickly things get messy.
It is a weird kind mash-up between self-doubt and conformity, very similar to the ‘elevator experiment’.
Sparring/fighting/kumite.
I am basing this on my Wado-specific observations. For other styles it may be different.
Strictly speaking this is usually the only part of the grading that is free-form. You are working with, responding to, a rapidly changing environment. Personally, this was my favourite bit, after all the rigidity, this was a real relief, not that I didn’t take it seriously. But getting this right can really seal the deal.
Let me start with some things that can really muck you up.
· Losing control or becoming overheated. Your level of your skill is demonstrated by how in-control you are, it’s not a badge of honour to go all ‘cave man’, and don’t kid yourself you are showing ‘fighting spirit’, there is such a thing, but it ain’t that.
· Just doing ‘your thing’. Particularly in Wado, if you are not reading and reacting to what the other guy is doing it won’t pass muster. I witnessed the second grandmaster of Wado tearing a strip off Dan candidates for committing this very same error; it’s not high-level stuff to just run at your opponent with a string of combinations like you are on a train track.
You also need to know the criteria you are being judged on. Within our group we advise the higher students not to do Shiai (competition) style sparring. The bout should remain within the accepted rules but nobody should be looking to ‘score a point’, yes, techniques should be decisive and have a clear objective in mind but point scoring is not what it’s about. Techniques of attack and defence, the application of all the things your kihon has taught you, these are what you should be doing, you should not be slipping into a different mode and abandoning all of that stuff just to pursue the objectives of a game.
You need to attempt to encapsulate all of your Wado movement and strategies in solving the problem that is your opponent.
In conclusion.
I could go on but hopefully there is enough for the prospective grading candidate to think about here, and maybe in some small way I can help to dispel fears and reassure students that they are not in this on their own – there’s always a support structure.
And remember, the examiners get immense pleasure out of being part of someone else’s success, and conversely, there is nothing more devastating than delivering the news that a student has not been successful in their grading attempt – you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t feel it for them.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash