Shane's skills looked good during his belt promotion test. He could spar, execute his form, punch, kick, and yell.
Too bad he was a distracted mess. Right before class, I said, "Today's a testing day. Make sure you're on your best behavior."
Well, he wasn't.
Instead, he had to be corrected several times by each instructor for talking, rolling around, sitting and playing with his broken boards when he was supposed to be listening, etc. He started to climb on the mats, but a death glare from me stopped him before either instructor saw.
At the end of the test, Instructor Papa basically said his skills were good but due to his attention, "I'll give you a pass this time since you're a white belt. Do better."
I told Shane that his instructors were nicer than me: I wouldn't have passed him. I'm all about positive feedback, but sometimes you have to bluntly tell it like it is. I told Shane the most important part to me about TKD was his ability to learn and to show respect.
In the end, he still passed. I'm happy his effort paid off, but expect better behavior in the future. Our form practice really paid off on his ability to perform it confidently. There was an oral quiz session about some of the school's philosophy we didn't study at all for I'll know to prep Shane for next time ("Why do we yell?" etc).
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