Some Do's and Don'ts from the Experts By Susan Wolk Susan Wolk, 5th Dan, Shidoin, is General Secretary United States Aikido Federation, and Chief Instructor of Northampton Aikikai.
Testing is almost always a life crisis.
The student sweats bullets and practices before and after class for months before the test date, feeding his or her anxiety and can become something of a menace during regular class. He just wiped up the mat with me, throwing me as if I knew how to breakfall and weighed 300 pounds. Of course, the answer was testing. Everyone feels the pressure of testing in some way, even, I suspect, those rare few who love to perform. What follows is some advice from Yamada Sensei and Kanai Sensei, and me as well.