How does your school's grading go?

DWx · KF Sensei

We hold gradings every 3 months for coloured belt and depending on your grade you have to average 2 lessons a week (1 lesson for absolute beginners, typically 3 lessons for higher grades). We have a 10 belt system up to black but if you study hard and have good ability it is possible to double grade at the lower kups. You are usually required to spend between 6 months and a year at 1st kup before taking the blackbelt exam.

All grades get tested on:
- your pattern to your grade + the examiners' choice of 2 others
- Sparring (1 step, 2 step, 3 step and free),
- some self defense (grabs & releases, takedowns, defense against knife, senarios etc.)depending on the level you are at
- Breaking. At the lower grades you don't actually break but are expected to at least "measure" for your technique and show appropriate distancing and positioning. Around greenbelt level (halfway) you have to start demonstrating power.
- Theory. Anything from history to terminology to physics.
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"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

unknownstyle · Green Belt

our shodan test is all 14 kata, 3 self defense that must contain block strike and takedown in that order with no locks, 2 3 min rounds full contact sparring face body and legs along with sweeps/takedowns and groundfighting and one round of bare knuckles fighting no head contact with hands and no groundfighting[similar to kyokushin style fighting]
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" to learn how to fight without fighting, is like learning how to swim on sand."
Miyamoto Musashi

blackbelt · Yellow Belt

Ours go:

pahl kup-white
chil kup-yellow
Yuk kup-green
oh kup-blue
sah kup-purple
Sahm kup- brown
instructor committee
Ee kup-red
8 degrees of blackbelt

Promotions are held monthly for those that are ready and have enough points. We use a point system that basically requires students to come a minimal amount of days before even being considered promotion, but when they get promoted dependes on their ability and knowledge of techniques in the areas of:
1) forms
2)Kicks
3)Defense
4) Knowledge
5) breaking
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Give it your best.

tallgeese · Brown Belt

While
Yellow
Orange
Green
Purple
Brown (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
Black

Testing kind of happens when we have someone ready to be promoted. It's a subjective test due largely to the fact we don't actually test until the student is working at the next belt level reguarly in class. Figure that it's around 5 years from walking through the door to black belt, no prior experiance.

Test's for everything up to purple are done in house at the school and may or may not have a testing board. Brown and Black have a testing board present.

Personally, I don't even have my guys wear a gi. So the guys working through the system may test for a belt without ever wearing it. Although I make certain to give my guys brown and black belts at the ceremony after those tests.

Compared to some others on this thread, it's pretty laid back. However, I'm out of a very small orgaization so it's easy to keep track of such things. I can definatly see how groups with several hundred students and a multitude of schools and instructiors would have to be much more regimented it their approach to testing.

Ozpunker · White Belt

white
yellow
orange
purple
blue
green
brown
black
1st dan
2nd dan etc.

Grading usually occurs every 6 months (sometimes every 3 for the lower ranks). I think Black belts and degrees only grade once each year.

Merciless · White Belt

For us, it's 3-4+ months, depending on attendance. The sensei and assistants watch everyone during practice, then they'll select whoever they feel is ready and we do a pre-test. Depending on that, we do the actual test. The sensei tells us what area(s) we may have messed up on during the pre-test. We then practice longer until we can go for another pre-test.

fleasome · Yellow Belt

OK, just showing the below image for reference but first let me say a little other information.

In the old days, when the style was still under the name of Ryukyu Kempo, we used the below chart for belt rankings. At some point, before Taika renamed the art Ryu Te, he began pushing the non baggy hakama's. At any rate, all students at seminars and such would wear these hakama's which had the belt built in. If you were a white belt, you wore a black hakama which had a built in black belt. If you were a green belt, you did the same. If you were an uber high level black belt, you did the same. Taika wanted everyone to treat each other the same. We'd go to a seminar, conference, or whatever training session and everyone looked the same. Well, most people were not as ugly as me, but we all dressed the same. At any rate, Taika believes we should all treat each other the same and getting away from all the colors and stripes helped to humble us all.

But originally, we were all on the below color scheme. I think most schools in the system now allow students to wear a standard uniform with their belts. If they own a hakama they wear that. Our school lets you wear a belt or not. You can wear a pink tutu if that is what is comfortable for you. A color or stripe of material makes not a good karateka.

_________________
Lee Richards
Kenshukai
A Ryu Te(R) Ren Mei School

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