Black belt Grading Standards

[Smokey]

This is what is needed for Blackbelt in my particular MA.

 

The grading lasts 8hrs

 

You need to perform all of the kata's etc at least 15 times each. ( there are 20 kata's including kick kata's )

 

Usually around 4 -6 people would be going for black belt on any single day

 

All kata's \ sparring are performed in front of at least 200 students ( lower and higher grades ) .

 

You are required to perform all the kata's in front of the 200 students alone ( spotlight ) in the Hall/Dojo many times.

 

100 pressups and 150 situps

 

This as well as plenty of sparring and other accociated routines.

 

If you perform any kata wrong you fail.

 

Well thats the kind of thing I have to do, I wondered what you had to do ?

[Luckykboxer]

I think there is a similar thread elsewhere..

 

I am surprised that you test in front of all the other students.

 

I can imagine that would be very distracting

 

My style... American Kenpo we do all our tests behind closed doors with the only participants being the people testing and the testing board.

 

I know for our test its over two days with day 1 being a physical fitness poriton, including running several miles under a specific time, pull ups to failure, pushups and situps to failure.... all three under a specific time.

 

and then hundreds of kicks and punchs on bags, all followed up by several full out sprints.

 

everything is done and checked for improvement on a pretest that we take a couple months before the real test.

 

day two involves all our curriculum and basics.

 

we drill over the basics and i would estimate we throw several hundred kicks and punches if not over a thousand.

 

all the sets forms and self defense techniques.

 

our own curriculum and then we fight at all distances and types including... full karate.... boxing,... kickboxing... grappling.... everything goes.. for special cases like myself they brought in other professional fighters to give me a hard time.

 

i have to say looking back at my test, and then looking at the test i sat on the biggest thing wasnt the physical and the curriculum it was the mental aspect and making sure that everyone had that attitude and ability to hang in and past the point of exhaustion and truely have what it takes to excell in a hard situation

[Pricyber]

Our 1st dan test is very dependent on endurance.

 

You complete all techniques, katas, drills, one-steps and self-defense 2-3 times to make sure you know the technique properly.

 

This takes about an hour and half.

 

Then you do lots of floor work with doing combinations of punches and kicks for about 15-20 minutes.

 

Afterwards, you return to do each kata in 8 different directions.

 

Once that is done, you do sparring.

 

Sparring works like this:

 

Fight one on one

 

Fight one on one (again)

 

Fight one on two

 

Fight one on three

 

Fight one on four

 

Fight one on five

 

Each round lasts 1 minute, so 6 minutes of fighting. You fight against all black belts in full contact. Their goal is to beat you down as if you were jumped by gang members. If you survive the fight without quitting, you pretty much are home free.

 

When you are done, you immediately return to doing all katas at least once more. You will be wasted from the sparring but its to see how well you can concentrate with your balance, power and form.

 

Afterwards, you have to break two boards doing flying front kicks and two boards doing flying side kicks.

 

Then you break two bricks.

 

The last part is the oral examination. It's about 15 minutes of questions about our system, shihans and the school. Also are technical questions about our techniques, stances, etc.

 

Once that is done, it will be about 3 hours and you get your black belt.

[Law072]

in my system of martial arts the black belt test can be called " a day when all the schools black belts try to make a brown belt quit." the test is open for the students to watch, and all the old black belts and sensies come to grade the test. the test includes every technique you have learned since white belt; many rounds of sparring;the use of the kali escrima weapon system; grappling; and self defense. after all this the brown belt does alot of stamina and waits for his reasults.

[Rich67]

I had to go through an 8 hour test also, but most of it was watching the others run through katas and sparring. The first segment was devoted to katas. We only had to run through each kata once, and usually we were in front of the other testers (15-20) and their friends/ family. We then had to conduct board breaking demos, breaking boards using kicks, bottom fists, punches, and then a freestyle break using any routine you devised. Then we had to spar (usually against 2 others) full contact. There was a final interview process which consisted of the panel asking various questions to determine our attitudes and general knowledge of particular subjects martial-arts related. This was done one-on-one as all the observers and other participants left the area. Each tester would then critique our performance. It was pretty neat, especially since Chuck Norris sat on the panel when I did my test. He provided me with the final evaluation and told me I passed (I had failed the first time I went through); I was pretty darn happy. I really thought the final Q and A session is particularly important, since a lot of times this area is overlooked. Although some people may accel at katas and sparring, their egotistical attitudes need to be taken down a notch, especially if they teach students to be humble.

[Master Jules]

My 1st Master test...4th Dan....was 7 days long......about 4 hrs of hard training and working out each day, going over every technique from day #1.....then.....when serious fatigue has set in,....katas, application, weapons, 2 man drills, 45 minutes in sheiko dachi with people intermittently standing on my legs.....followed by my master breaking a concrete cinder slab over each thigh.....a 40 minute no pad, full contact, non stop round of fighting all out on the first day, a 30 minute grappling round wherein I was blindfolded on the 3rd day, and another 40 minute round on the last day, followed by breaking of boards and cinder slabs with various techniques......my third dan was pretty much the same, but I had to fight 15 , 3 minute rounds instead of the 40 minutes non stop......same 15 rounds for 2nd and 1st dan as well.......during Sanchin....I had the pleasure of my master cracking an escrima stick on my ribs, of which he cracked two.....lotsa fun.....lol......but we do it for the love and deep respect we have for those who have come before us, so we can continue to pass on the knowledge that our masters have so generously passed on to us.

 

So......to all Masters and students of the arts......whatever your tests consist of.....OSU

 

Master Julian Hoenig

 

Traditional Okinawan GoJu Ryu

[Kicks]

Outline and photos of my 4th Dan test can be seen at http://www.livaudaisnet.com/mafit/test/mafit4dan.htm

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Oh, you guys are going to love this one!

 

My Shodan test was back in June of 1978 in front of Master Yuichi Kuda, 7th Dan head of the Shorinryu Matsumura Seito system at the time. He was on his first visit to the USA and worked with us for 3 weeks in Montana. On the last week of his visit, he had all of us (about 8 people) line up along the wall of the dojo according to rank (I was third behind my sensei and the senior student).

 

Sensei Kuda started at the top with my sensei and asked us in turn to perform certain kata. It's all a blur now (I'm getting old you know), but I believe that we each had to do 3 different kata each, and went through them 3 times each. After each persons turn, they would sit down and the next person was called and told what Sensei Kuda would like to see him/her do.

 

I was nervous when it was my turn, but not that badly because I'd been working with Sensei Kuda for the past 2 weeks now and was used to him. He was (now deceased) a wonderfully gentle man, and very skilled in his art. After my turn , I sat back down in my place and my sensei, Dennis Miller, reached over and offered his hand to me and I shook it. He said "You did good! Congratulations SHODAN!"

 

I said "What? Shodan?" he said "Yep, you were just tested and passed." ACK! Now, I was nervous!!!

 

Sensei Miller moved about a year later and as far as I know, retired from the arts. I took over teaching his class at that point, as his next senior student quit also because he was best friends with Sensei Miller.

 

My Nidan test was 9 years later in front of Sensei Greg Ohl, 6th Dan from Minnesota. I had never met Sensei Ohl prior to this, but had talked to him many times over the phone and wanted to train with him. Testing had not entered into our conversations, as I've never really been interested in rank very much. To me, knowledge is more important. Anyway, Sensei Ohl and I worked together for 4 days, and on the 3rd day, he told me he would promote me to my Nidan. There was no actual formal testing.

 

My Sandan was again in front of Sensei Kuda (now a 9th Dan) in Seattle back in 1990 during a seminar hosted by James Knoblett, (4th Dan). Sensei Kuda basically did the same thing he had done during my first test. He asked me to show him various things, asked some questions about bunkai, applications and techniques, and promoted me to my Sandan without fanfare.

 

I have tested a few of my own students to black belt level, and I don't make a real big deal of it...just like the sensei that tested me didn't. To me (us), the black belt is just another progression from one belt to another, and no real emphasis or mystical "whatever" is placed upon it. Sure, it's a major step for a person to get it, but testing-wise, we don't put any more emphasis on it than any other belt.

 

My students know they are tested each and every class, not just on "test day". That is important and they know it. The actual test is a formality, and more often than not, I will just award them their next belt when I feel they are at that level without a formal testing. It's not a big deal to us, as the knowledge that the student has is more important than how many pushups they can do, miles that they can run, or endurance that they have.

 

OK, go ahead and tear me apart. It is the way that Sensei Kuda tested, and also the way that other ranking sensei that I have worked with in our system test. It's good enough for them, and it's good enough for me. I have no problems with how anybody else tests their students, but it's not the way that we do it.

 

Edited August 11, 2004 by Shorinryu Sensei

[Kicks]

My students know they are tested each and every class, not just on "test day". That is important and they know it. The actual test is a formality,

 

That's pretty much the way it is at the school I attend, but with one exception. If you really foul up at the test, you fail. You have to be able to at least handle the pressure of performing in front of your peers and audiance. It's all in the "Do".

[Shorin Ryuu]

In many cases in the states, especially, it is harder to get your black belt outside of the Orient. I think a lot of that has to do with the American mindset that "something monumental" has to be achieved in order for it to be meaningful. My style is no exception. No one is ever asked to test that is not prepared, but belt tests range from an afternoon to several days (my shodan was over two days) and include pretty much a "technique section" and a "haze section". The technique section is kata, drills, sparring, grappling, groundwork, that sort of thing. The haze section is exercises (ranging from pushups to fun with cinderblocks, etc.).

 

I've spoken to several teachers in different styles and a lot of say that over in Okinawa, for example, a lot of belt tests are very simple, saying that you just do a few kata here and there, maybe some drills and whatnot and you get your belt (different from say, Kyokushinkai tests in Japan!).

 

I'm not sure I feel such a regimen is necessary anymore (of course I have feelings on the whole belt system in general), but a lot of people "get a lot out of it". For one who has gone through basic training and stuff like that (both as a trainer and the trained), getting hazed during a belt test isn't as big of a deal, I suppose. And of course, back in the "old days", which realistically, didn't end until relatively recently, the whole belt system didn't exist...