I recently received the honor of promotion to Senior Instructor and given the title of "Ajarn" by Grandmaster Chai, my Muay Thai Instructor, life mentor, and founder and president of the Thai Boxing Association of USA (TBA). Those of you who know GM Chai know that he doesn't hand out promotions freely. I have been with him almost 27 years now and with all of my incredible memories what has been on my mind the most over last several days since my promotion is that he is always testing us! I remember when I was promoted to full instructor in 2004, it was totally unexpected. I had picked him up at the airport for our annual Muay Thai seminar and before we even got out of the airport parking lot he informed me I would be testing at the end of the weekend seminar. The test was performing the wai kru, our ceremonial respects to teachers. I told him with all respect that I had not been practicing it. His response was, "you'll be fine!" Long story shorter, I passed and was awarded full instructor, but was extremely dissappointed in my performance, and felt I had let him down by not consistently practicing. I vowed NEVER to be caught off guard by him again!
In 2008, he begin to "hint" he was going to be looking at promoting some of his full instructors to the senior level, which is the highest honor and rank under him. It was intimated by him that I make every effort to be at our annual camp the following July. I was planning on going anyway and consequently was working on my ceremony regularly and remembering my "experience" of my full instructor test. The camp came and went, no testing for senior level by anyone. At the time, the only Ajarn under him was Guro/Sifu/Ajarn Dan Inosanto! 2009's camp came and Ajarn Greg Nelson was bestowed the honor. When he came to Charlotte for our annual seminar in 2010, I was thinking he could spring the test on me again, and I was ready! Still no test. The Camp of 2010 was to be the 20th year anniversary and he intimated once again that he really wanted his top and oldest instructors there. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there. When several of my peers were promoted to Ajarn, I new I had better be ready when he arrived in Charlotte one month later. Again, 15 minutes after stepping off the airplane he brought up me testing again. This time I was ready as I had been practicing the wai kru almost daily for months. Still no test! It was then that I began to realize the "method of his madness" so to speak. He liked to create this perpetual testing atmosphere virtually all the time; had been doing it all the years I knew him really. He wanted us to always be challenging ourselves, stretching ourselves beyond what we thought we could do. He's a master of this; grace under pressure you could say. When I arrived at this year's camp last week, he announced the second day what would be the testing procedure for all the different levels of instructors who were eligible. He also announced the new ajarns, of which I was one of them. Knowing that he had told me since 2008 I would be testing for it, and performing my wai kru, I assumed that would again be the case. The next morning we had 30 minutes to practice before the testing began. There we were, out on the huge field, a beautiful chilly, dewy morning, all dressed in our customary thai shorts, men shirtless. It was finally my time! As he descended the hill down to where we were to test, he blew his ever-present whistle and we all snapped to attention. He called my name in his strong, booming voice, "Dickie Harrell!" He paused, as if to create one last bit of tension, one last test, and said "why are you down here with the others Sir? You are an Ajarn now, and Ajarn's don't have to test. I think you know the ceremony by now!"
All I could think about was that he's always testing us, always guiding us to get the best out of us!
What an experience; what a journey!