Opening scene
This isn't an exam. It's an inventory.
The difference matters.
An exam produces a grade. An inventory produces a to-do list.
And that's exactly what this check's output is: every item that comes up missing in the inventory is a candidate main skill for the next twelve weeks.
There's something else, too.
This course's output isn't a repertoire of poses.
Over seventy-seven lessons I gave you about ten tools and tried to build the habit of using them. The number of poses is secondary; the poses were where the tools got applied.
That's why the check doesn't ask whether you remember a definition. It asks whether the tool is in your hands.
Today we do that check.
What this lesson covers
First you'll see how the check works; there are three kinds of items. Then we'll move to the check itself; six groups and twenty items. After that we'll set up how you'll read the result; the groups have a priority order. Then I'll tell you what to do with the missing items. At the very end I'll honestly count off what this check can't tell you. We'll work through sixteen examples. By the end of the lesson, you'll have an inventory and a to-do list in hand.
Starting point
In Y1.62 we defined the missing component: a component that isn't present in a practice, so that practice never does that job at all. Here it's the same logic at the scale of the course.
Mechanism
Three kinds of item
Every item in the check is one of three kinds.
The first kind is a capability item. Can you do a thing? The answer is yes or no, and it can be tried right now.
The second kind is a number item. Do you have a number in hand? You look at your log and check whether it's written down.
The third kind is a decision item. Do you know what to do in a situation? The answer is a rule or a protocol.
All three kinds are checked differently. You try the capability item, you look up the number item, you state the decision item.
And notice: none of them is "do you remember this." Remembering isn't an output.
First group: measurement and the log
This group comes from B1 and forms the course's foundation.
First item, number: do I have a baseline record? The first measurements you took at the start of the course; Y1.01 and Y1.05.
Second item, decision: can I do today's check-in and decide which version to work with? Y1.04.
Third item, capability: can I break down a pose? Which joints, which actions, which one is the load-bearing action. Y1.14. Try this right now; pick a pose you've never seen and break it down.
Second group: breath
Two items from B3.
Fourth item, capability: do I notice when my breath stops in a pose? Y1.18. This is the course's most repeated indicator.
Fifth item, decision: do I know what to do in dizziness or air hunger? Y1.22.
Third group: five criterion tools
This group is the course's most concrete output. I gave you five criterion tools, and all five produce a number or an indicator.
Sixth item: reading sole pressure. Y1.23. Can I read where my weight is on my feet while standing, and use it as an early signal in balance poses?
Seventh item: the stick test and the tipping point. Y1.30. Do I know where my hinge ends, and which contact separates first?
Eighth item: the hands-lift test. Y1.55. Can I tell whether I'm doing a pose with my arms or with my back?
Ninth item: the leak point. Y1.42. Can I catch the moment the torso line gives way in a hold, and am I measuring hold time up to that point?
Tenth item: the four-point pass. Y1.59. Can I find residual clenching in the jaw, hands, feet, and the area around the eyes?
Five tools. And each one is both a capability item and a number item; also check whether that number is in your log.
Fourth group: adaptation and dose
Eleventh item, capability: can I adjust a pose in two directions using one of twelve variables? Y1.65 and Y1.66. Try this now; pick a pose, pick a variable, increase it and decrease it.
Twelfth item, decision: can I tell whether a lightening is a dose reduction or a pose loss? Y1.66. The criterion is a single question: is the load-bearing action still there?
Thirteenth item, capability: can I derive preparation from a main skill? The five steps from Y1.63. Try this too right now; pick a pose you've never used and write its preparation.
Fifth group: plan
Fourteenth item, capability: can I derive a template for a duration that has no template? Y1.70. What would you do if you had twenty-five minutes?
Fifteenth item, number: are my weekly distribution and my frequency per main skill written down? Y1.71 and Y1.74.
Sixteenth item, number: am I keeping my recovery table? Y1.73. Do I have four lines for the last four weeks?
Seventeenth item, decision: is my lapse protocol written down? The three situations from Y1.75.
Sixth group: source literacy
This group is this academy's signature, and I think it's the course's most lasting output.
Eighteenth item, decision: can I ask about an instruction's scope? Y1.38. When you hear an instruction, can you ask "in what context does this apply"?
Nineteenth item, decision: can I tell what kind of claim something is? Traditional model, modern anatomy, clinical evidence, or pedagogical choice. Y1.35 and Y1.48.
Twentieth item, decision: can I tell whether a symptom is a dose question or a professional question?
This last item is the most important item in the course, and I'm writing it out again.
How you'll read the result
Twenty items, and you wrote yes or no next to each one.
Now the groups have a priority order.
If there's a gap in the first, second, or sixth group: these get completed first.
Why? Because without a measurement foundation, a breath indicator, and source literacy, the other tools can't be used safely or meaningfully. A criterion tool produces a number for someone who has no measurement record, but that number can't be compared.
If there's a gap in the third group: you go back to that tool's lesson and run a measurement session. This is work you can do in a light session; from Y1.74.
If there's a gap in the fourth or fifth group: these are candidate main skills for the next twelve weeks. They get written into the plan in Y1.76.
What to do with the missing items
Three rules.
First rule: don't try to complete them all at once. The same thing I said about components in Y1.62; one item at a time.
Second rule: the groups set the order. First, second, sixth; then third; then fourth and fifth.
Third rule: treat a missing item like a main skill. That is, write it into a block, work on it for four weeks, and measure it. The block structure from Y1.76 applies here too.
And one observation: most missing items usually fall in the fifth and sixth groups. The reason is this: those two groups aren't about poses, and things that aren't about poses get repeated less.
Three things this check can't tell you
Let's be honest.
First thing: it can't tell you whether your poses look right. This course never used appearance as a criterion; since Y1.01 there's been a distinction between the visible criterion and the functional criterion.
Second thing: it can't tell you whether your capacity is sufficient. What does sufficient mean? It's defined against a goal, and you're the one who sets that goal. The outcome, process, and behavior goal distinction from Y1.03.
Third thing: it can't tell you whether you're carrying an injury risk. This is a movement lesson, and that assessment is outside its scope of practice.
The only thing it can tell you: are the tools in your hands?
And that question is far more useful than it sounds. Because once the tools are in your hands, you can measure everything else yourself.
Reading the examples
Master layer
Now let's refine this a little.
First: the twenty items don't cover this whole course, and they aren't meant to. Across nine sections, close to two hundred thirty terms were defined; putting all of them on one check would make it an exam. The twenty items chosen are the ones without which the rest don't work. An inventory's right length is the length it can be applied at and still produce a decision.
Second: the three-kind item distinction keeps the check from turning into a recall test. Remembering a definition isn't an output; finding a number in your log, doing a thing right now, or stating what you'd do in a situation is an output. This distinction is the course's own understanding of measurement applied to itself: a criterion has to be something you can change and something you can show.
Third: it's an expected result that most gaps show up in the plan and source-literacy groups, and the reason is structural. Pose lessons get repeated in every section; the hinge came up six times, sole pressure came up seven times. Plan and source topics, on the other hand, come up in one or two sections. So you can predict which topics a course will leave gaps in from how many times those topics were repeated. That's useful information when you're planning the next term too.
Fourth, and the subtlest: this check gives an answer to the question of what a course's output is. It could have been the number of poses; how many poses did you learn. Or a performance measure; how long can you hold. Both are measurable, and both would have been wrong. Because this course's claim wasn't to give you a repertoire or a performance; it was to give you the skill of building and measuring your own practice. Defining a course's output correctly is the first condition for evaluating that course, and it's usually the thing most often skipped.
Common mistakes and misconceptions
Common mistakeFirst mistake: the course-end check is an exam and produces a grade.
The check is an inventory, and its output is a to-do list; every item that comes up missing is a candidate main skill for the next term. The count of no's isn't a measure of failure, it's a priority list.
Common mistakeSecond mistake: knowing a tool is enough to write yes in the inventory.
There are three kinds of items: capability, number, and decision. Knowing a tool but not keeping its number in your log means that item isn't met.
Common mistakeThird mistake: all missing items carry the same priority.
The measurement foundation, the breath indicator, and source literacy are completed first; without them, the other tools can't be used safely or comparably.
Common mistakeFourth mistake: this check shows that your poses are done correctly and that your capacity is sufficient.
The check only says whether the tools are in hand; appearance isn't a criterion, sufficiency is defined against a person's own goal, and assessing injury risk is outside this lesson's scope of practice.
Practice
Keep in mind
This isn't an exam, it's an inventory; its output isn't a grade, it's a to-do list.
There are three kinds of items: capability is tried, number is looked up in the log, decision is stated; remembering isn't an output.
The twenty items split into six groups, and the groups have a priority order: the measurement foundation, breath, and source literacy are completed first.
Missing items are treated like a main skill: written into a block, worked on for four weeks, and measured; one item at a time.
The check can't tell you whether your poses look right, whether your capacity is sufficient, or whether you're carrying an injury risk; it only tells you whether the tools are in your hands.
Bridge to the next lesson
The inventory is in your hands, and the first item for the next four weeks is clear.
Only the course's last lesson remains, and it will be short.
It will do two things. First: gather once more what we did in this course, but this time looking back. You'll see which few principles were repeated across seventy-eight lessons.
Second: say where to go from here. This course is an introductory course, and five more courses follow it. Which one to move to, under which condition, in which order, and by which criterion.
And it will clarify one more thing: what finishing this course means, and what it doesn't mean.