 Hello everyone, this is Sensei Rokas and today I'd like to talk to you about the importance and at the same time the questioning of Aikido exams and everything related to them. So exams and martial arts is common, in my understanding it's a way of gamification, we can talk more about what that means in other videos but just to make it short to putting elements of game design or game elements into various activities not related to games which make the person strive for more achievements since they are rewarded so it's kind of a reward system you know the color belts or the exams itself the black belt but we can talk about it more in another video but the exams themselves first of all I'd like to say they are important there's more and more I keep hearing various instructors or senses or just people questioning whether exams are necessary and some of the people or some of the senses they actually want to remove exams entirely but for me I experience them that they're beneficial that they're that they give that they have an important point during my career of Aikido including learning and teaching I've met various people who would refuse to take exams they would just resist and not do it and I would later on I would discover that it's a big mistake if you would ask me why because those people who refuse to take exams they do not progress up to after a certain level because when you take an exam you are in a good way forced to to digest and categorize your new knowledge your experience you have to learn the names you have to systemize them in your mind you have to memorize the beginning the end and make a whole connection of these points so if we don't do this those students who didn't take exams in my experience they would never end up learning really well the names they would never really end up systemizing the whole material the whole techniques because they would simply they would simply just keep on coming they would train train train but they would they wouldn't have that extra step that extra mile that would summarize it all they would never have to put that extra effort and they wouldn't do it and when a person takes an exam he's encouraged and he does because of the stress that the exam gives and we'll talk about that too the person makes sure that he knows his stuff and that kind of finalizes the kind of sums up the experience you already had and then that gives a jumping step to the next step then you feel okay you're not perfect at these things but you're aware of what they mean you can share it with others and and so there's a sense that you're progressing if you don't take exams there's just too much space to get stuck in this gray zone which doesn't really end up summer specific at the same time I'd have to say there is a light side and the dark side of exams and the light side is that but the dark side is exams how the exams are presented how they are seen by the dojo by the community and by the mainly by the instructor who leads them so the dark side for me of the exams is when an exam is almost an experience of torture on one side of it it can be a commercial step a smart commercial step so you know you make a very difficult exam and I heard about this happening more than once you make a very hard exam and you put a big price on it and then when the person takes it even if he fails he still has to pay for the exam so that's one way to support the dojo or just in general you know you do a lot of exams and you allow people to easily go through the exams you don't care about it but you make a big price for it so you would get your money which is dark this this is called a Mac dojo so dark dark side of exams another dark side is when there is a super amount of pressure for the exams so that when there's that big distance between the senseis and the student and understand that that does give a sense of importance to the students he becomes very he tries to become very perfectionist about the exam not to fail the instructor but when there's that big distance you know there's rock faced senseis free of them sitting and just writing down the mistakes and shouting at the student and saying you know you're wrong and you suck and go sit down that kind of gives that all that feeling of tension and stress which in my experience I always try to ask what do we want to bring back from the dojo to our home and if we if we get used to being very very much in stress being very much about criticism criticizing being being criticized we started criticizing others we started to expect that from others and we started to encourage that kind of stressful situation which I think is not really healthy because then the student seems that he learns not really to learn but he he learns to satisfy the instructor he learns to to show it that one time so that so that nobody would you know kick his ass and but then the tendency is that after the exam the student doesn't really memorize it so well it was more a one time thing to to kind of pass through that difficult experience and so in the end the exams become this scary thing that you need to become mentally ready for and you know you're going to go through a certain torture and you're not looking forward for it and as I said there's pluses and minuses here but but I would consider this to be on the dark side of Aikido now on the bright side of Aikido which also has minuses but on the bright side of Aikido an exam is a celebration which is much more rare to see that there is a there is a danger that if it's a celebration it can be too easy but you make it but if you make it hard enough a lot of times the student himself the the sense it doesn't really need to put so much pressure on the student already the fact the student knows already the fact that there are other students are going to look at him and if he respects the sense he he wants to to show something he knows he wants to show good stuff and and a lot of times they put that pressure on themselves because the person is not doing that you can always just add a bit of spice to him you don't have to always make it you know always cook them on on a high fire but when it's a celebration what I mean by that is that the student celebrates his achievements it's not to prove someone that it's not to prove whether you're good enough or not bad enough but if he's passing the exam that most likely means that he's ready for it the sense he allows him to to pass that means he's pretty much past it now he just needs to share and say everyone look I learned this because of your help thank you very much everyone this is a communal sharing experience where we can all be happy about it and say wow look you know this guy really learned his stuff he's so much better than he was he changed so much and then there's a sense of happiness and the person himself can also get reassured about his knowledge and he can feel a sense of achievement he can feel better about himself and as I said again he can share with others and say thanks everyone because of you I am here so it's kind of a celebration when you put it out that way exams is a wonderful wonderful thing it does give that sense of stress so which is important for martial arts to be able to act in a stressful situation and exams it's one way to put a person into that stressful situation but it doesn't need to be a torture it can be it can be a place a moment of growth of appreciation of sharing and when it's that way as I said it's something everyone looks forward it's something everyone celebrates afterwards and and it's noticeably easier than for the student not to also bring back that mentality home you know not to be so hard on your kids anymore not to be so hard on yourself anymore not to be so hard on others but to still not not become lazy either to still learn to still develop to still share to still feel a responsibility for your for your growth and your in your role in whatever you do so having exams as a bright side of Aikido does not kill it so what I so it's what I want to say in the end exams are important I'm all up for exams and there's a dark side and a bright side to exams and I think it's important to ask yourself what do you want to get out of exams when you teach them or when you go to them and how you want to present them what what what why you want to create and bring back home and the third one is it's still important to question the exams themselves it's I'm always up for not taking everything for granted and not saying saying okay if sensei says so that means it's true but actually asking as sensei's and as students asking okay why is this the best way isn't there a better way to do this isn't there a way to improve this so this is my take on Aikido exams there's more we could talk about and we will talk about a lot of different things there so ready a few different videos out there you can check them in the links in the description as always I'm happy to talk to you I'm looking forward for your comments let me know what's your experience I'm definitely gonna write back and all in all this sensei orcas and I'm looking forward to see you in the next video so one thing we oftentimes like to forget is a very simple fact that we are all connected and as you know as you know I'm an Aikido instructor and as most of you know and sometimes when people look into Aikido and people think about Aikido they they have a hard time to understand the whole essence of I could say the life protecting sword