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Bill Balmer · 06-29-2004, 09:51 AM

I took a little Aikido a couple of years ago, but for the last year my 9 year old son and I have been taking Shotokan Karate. He just got his orange belt (+ 1 stripe) last week.

It's interesting for me to see how different clubs and disciplines handle the ranking and testing. Maybe it's just because I'm personally involved in it, but this particular club seems to make advancement much more difficult than clubs my neices and nephews have been involved with. My 12 year old nephew got his black belt in TKD last year and his 10 year old sister is one test away from hers. They achieved that level in about 5 years of training. The way our Karate club is organized, it would be literally impossible to get to black belt level in less than 7 years unless they gave you some double belt advances (which isn't going to happen), and more than 10 years is probably more typical.

For those of you who study a martial art, I'd like some information on testing procedures. You see, our club is very well known, having 5 or 6 members on the US Team, but also very large. In my opinion, they need to decentralize their testing procedures. Currently they test each level twice a year at a central location which is an hour from my house, on a weekend day. They give you a testing schedule based on your rank, age, and place in the alphabet (for example, white belts 7-10 years old in the first half of the alphabet), and there are still usually about 200 people testing at a time. Most people I know who study a martial art get tested in their own dojo during regular class time.

This arrangement has made it impossible for me to attend either of my first two scheduled tests (one last December, one this month) since I'm a musician and I often have gigs on the weekends. Because of this, I have recently quit training because I was getting very frustrated, not having the opportunity to advance and learn new things.

So for those of you who study a martial art, is the testing convenient for you? At your home dojo? At your regular class time?

06-29-2004, 09:51 AM	#9 (permalink)
Bill Balmer Registered User Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: On the Edge Posts: 767	I took a little Aikido a couple of years ago, but for the last year my 9 year old son and I have been taking Shotokan Karate. He just got his orange belt (+ 1 stripe) last week. It's interesting for me to see how different clubs and disciplines handle the ranking and testing. Maybe it's just because I'm personally involved in it, but this particular club seems to make advancement much more difficult than clubs my neices and nephews have been involved with. My 12 year old nephew got his black belt in TKD last year and his 10 year old sister is one test away from hers. They achieved that level in about 5 years of training. The way our Karate club is organized, it would be literally impossible to get to black belt level in less than 7 years unless they gave you some double belt advances (which isn't going to happen), and more than 10 years is probably more typical. For those of you who study a martial art, I'd like some information on testing procedures. You see, our club is very well known, having 5 or 6 members on the US Team, but also very large. In my opinion, they need to decentralize their testing procedures. Currently they test each level twice a year at a central location which is an hour from my house, on a weekend day. They give you a testing schedule based on your rank, age, and place in the alphabet (for example, white belts 7-10 years old in the first half of the alphabet), and there are still usually about 200 people testing at a time. Most people I know who study a martial art get tested in their own dojo during regular class time. This arrangement has made it impossible for me to attend either of my first two scheduled tests (one last December, one this month) since I'm a musician and I often have gigs on the weekends. Because of this, I have recently quit training because I was getting very frustrated, not having the opportunity to advance and learn new things. So for those of you who study a martial art, is the testing convenient for you? At your home dojo? At your regular class time? __________________ '03 Silver Pilot EX '93 Mercedes Benz 500E