MaryKaye

The way my dojo does them, it's a test of form and balance, but also of calmness and concentration. An example would be the very simple ki test for correct standing posture. At the lower levels, tester stands beside testee and gently pushes them back at the shoulder. This tests where their weight is falling (you can't pass this with your weight on your heels), whether their back is straight and shoulders open, and so forth. But fairly soon the tester also asks for this to be done without testee pushing back against the test, which is harder and requires some mental stuff as well.

The black-belt level of this test involves tester approaching confidently from the front and visualizing moving their hand *through* testee's shoulder. Even if the same amount of force is used as before, this is quite difficult. Kashiwaya sensei says the test is essentially over before tester even touches testee--you can see by their stance if they are flinching or bracing, and if they do either one they will fail. When I saw him demonstrate this seemed to be entirely true, and the testees also knew that they would not pass the test before he even touched them. He could do a test that the kyu-ranks could pass, and one that they could not, with no visible difference to a watcher; the kyu-ranks swore up and down that the force was the same, too.

I think it's hard to explicitly test ki extension in a dynamic movement, because the student is tempted to substitute speed and momentum. By testing in a static position you rule this out. We pretty often do ki tests during hitori waza (one-person exercises) so that the testee has been trying to move fluidly, and must end that movement in a stable, calm position for the test. There are some throws where partner can test in motion, though.

(Occasionally one of my teachers tries to apply this theory to happo undo, the eight-directions exercise--this always cracks me up because it ends up with her running round us in circles trying to find the appropriate position. This may be one ki test that just doesn't work.)

We spend one class a week (out of seven) explicitly on this sort of thing, and bits of the other classes. When I trained at non-Ki Society dojo I did miss the ki testing--it ends up feeding back into the techniques in a way I find helpful, and I also like the intellectual puzzle of figuring out how to do it.

Mary Kaye