Maybe turn the question around a little. Instead of asking "How should I test a technique?" Ask: "What kind of Martial Artist am I hoping to train?" "Who am I training?" Answering these questions should help you figure out how to test your students.
Who are you training?
In my opinion, if you are teaching 4-6 year olds... what you teach and what you are expecting them to learn should be different from adults. Therefore, their tests should be different. 9-12 year olds should be trained and tested differently, as should teens, and then adults. This then leads to the first question, of what kind of training are you going for? What are you hoping to teach each of these groups?
What kind of Martial Artist are you training?
If you are training martial artists to go into musical TKD forms contests... then your test should be about the TKD forms, and specifically around the points that bring the high scores in those contests. If you are training TKD point fighting contestants, then your tests should reflect the skills needed to win those fights. If you are teaching full contact, knock down fight contestants... your testing should be different here as well.
Are you teaching hobbyists martial artist? Are you teaching people looking to get into shape? Or someone hoping to fight MMA? I would have different tests for each of these groups... as in they are looking for different things.
You and I frequently collide about how deep we think the TKD forms go and how connected they may be to TKD sparring and real fighting. I tend to think that these forms go very deep, and encompass quite a few things beyond the label. I feel that much of this is for the student to learn and explore, under the teachers guidance. Since I would want students going deep, and exploring for themselves... my tests would reflect that in some way. Have the student show things they have found in the forms. Or have the student apply that part of the form as a punch first, then as a grip escape. You tend to have the view that its all there on the surface, and labelled exactly what it is. If that is the type of martial artists you are hoping to train, then your testing would look very different then my tests, even if they were tests over the same material. (Note: I am not trying to open that argument again... we have plenty of threads on that already... just trying to offer some advice on how to go about constructing your tests, is all)
Once you figure out who you are training, and what type of martial artists you want them to become, you will find a lot of answers about how to go about testing them. Realize that if your school covers a wide range of ages, your tests should be of and equally large range. Just because you want to compete in forms, doesn't mean you won't also compete in sparring. However, knowing how much emphasis you place on form competition verses sparring competition verses MMA competition results, will then modify the amount of time you spend train for each result and will then modify what you want to see in the testing.
Hopefully this helps.
Who are you training?
In my opinion, if you are teaching 4-6 year olds... what you teach and what you are expecting them to learn should be different from adults. Therefore, their tests should be different. 9-12 year olds should be trained and tested differently, as should teens, and then adults. This then leads to the first question, of what kind of training are you going for? What are you hoping to teach each of these groups?
What kind of Martial Artist are you training?
If you are training martial artists to go into musical TKD forms contests... then your test should be about the TKD forms, and specifically around the points that bring the high scores in those contests. If you are training TKD point fighting contestants, then your tests should reflect the skills needed to win those fights. If you are teaching full contact, knock down fight contestants... your testing should be different here as well.
Are you teaching hobbyists martial artist? Are you teaching people looking to get into shape? Or someone hoping to fight MMA? I would have different tests for each of these groups... as in they are looking for different things.
You and I frequently collide about how deep we think the TKD forms go and how connected they may be to TKD sparring and real fighting. I tend to think that these forms go very deep, and encompass quite a few things beyond the label. I feel that much of this is for the student to learn and explore, under the teachers guidance. Since I would want students going deep, and exploring for themselves... my tests would reflect that in some way. Have the student show things they have found in the forms. Or have the student apply that part of the form as a punch first, then as a grip escape. You tend to have the view that its all there on the surface, and labelled exactly what it is. If that is the type of martial artists you are hoping to train, then your testing would look very different then my tests, even if they were tests over the same material. (Note: I am not trying to open that argument again... we have plenty of threads on that already... just trying to offer some advice on how to go about constructing your tests, is all)
Once you figure out who you are training, and what type of martial artists you want them to become, you will find a lot of answers about how to go about testing them. Realize that if your school covers a wide range of ages, your tests should be of and equally large range. Just because you want to compete in forms, doesn't mean you won't also compete in sparring. However, knowing how much emphasis you place on form competition verses sparring competition verses MMA competition results, will then modify the amount of time you spend train for each result and will then modify what you want to see in the testing.
Hopefully this helps.
