Internal Struggle: Why Do Schools Group Test? And Why We Don't at WTD!

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ: As many of you know, I don't do a lot of group testing at White Tiger Dojo.

Sometimes serendipity and camaraderie intervene, but testing a student is ultimately about them triumphing over themselves, not others.

Every Student Progresses Differently

Occasionally, a child or parent will compare someone else's time, rank or progress to themselves or their child.

But comparison can undermine the very student we're trying to encourage.

Everyone is different.

Students learn differently. They struggle with different things. They improve at different rates.

That's why I try to offer each student individual feedback as best I can, even within a group class.

The standard still matters.

The journey toward meeting that standard, however, belongs to the individual student.

Self-Mastery Is Personal

The struggle of self-mastery is personal, even though we often enlist others as our sharpening stone.

I would never judge one student against another.

But I will absolutely encourage students to bring out the best in each other.

That's an important distinction.

Your training partner isn't necessarily your opponent.

Sometimes they're the person helping you discover what you're capable of.

We Still Need Each Other to Improve

Life is, above all, about relationships.

Self-mastery may be personal, but that doesn't mean we achieve it alone.

Teachers challenge us.

Training partners test us.

Friends encourage us.

Sometimes the person standing across from us exposes a weakness we didn't know we had.

Sometimes they help us recognize a strength we didn't know we possessed.

After all, one cannot improve oneself entirely by one's lonesome.

The Real Competition Is With Yesterday

So instead of asking:

“Am I better than the person standing next to me?”

perhaps the better question is:

“Am I a better version of myself today than I was yesterday?”

May the struggle to better ourselves never end.