Handing out belts...

[Samurai Shotokan]

Yeah I hate this you know why? well thats been said but It Grinds my Gears when i hear some six years old got his black in less than a year.That sort of stuff gets on my nerves.I wish i could find and post the pic of a sensei giving a kid a black belt with words overlayed saying "congratulations,Your moms check just cleared!"

[street fighter]

Hey they pay money and the belt come flowing like water. It is the americanization or whoreing of MA. These so called instructors are producing future victims. Bruce Lee wanna be's. Hey I feel sorry for the poor souls who think they are safer when in fact they are now more than likley just willing to be more stupid because they think they know something.

[BLueDevil]

i totally agree, but its just their loss. They are only cheating themselves when they dont dedicate themselves to becoming proficient at there techniques.

[lgm]

In a traditional karate organization where the average time for reaching blackbelt level from white belt is about 4 years at regular training of 2 to 3 sessions per week (2 hrs. per session), the number of blackbelts probably would not exceed 20% of total members. If this number is exceeded, either standards have been greatly downgraded and grading requirements relaxed or the organization itself is dying such that the rate of incoming members has dangerously has been reduced and attrition is now greater than retention.

[kivikala]

In a traditional karate organization where the average time for reaching blackbelt level from white belt is about 4 years at regular training of 2 to 3 sessions per week (2 hrs. per session), the number of blackbelts probably would not exceed 20% of total members. ...

Good stats, this agrees with my rule of thumb of a minimum 1200 class hours before you are considered for black belt. Your 20% ratio, I've never thought about but looking at my lists we have never been more than 5% at any given time.

[Zaine]

Yeah take say 20 white belts. Now atleast 10 of those are going to make it to 7th kyu before quiting. 5 of those are going to make it 3rd before quiting. and 2 of those are going to make it to black belt. So if people hand out belts, its just losing them money in the first place if you think about it.

[CTTKDKing]

Well yeah that is a sign of a school that hands out belts, when there are too many black belt, but there is also schools like Tong Il Lo that have a lot of student that are blackbelts, and believe me they deserve it so you cant really judge if they hand out belts by the number of blackbelts in the class what i would do is just take the class untill i got my first belt, if i get it really fast id research on how long it would take a good school to promote a student, then i would determine if i were to stay or not,

Taking the class till you get your first belt wont always work either though. In my school, it usually takes about 1 month to go from white belt to yellow. However in the end it takes about 4 years to achieve BB. Our school has 16 belts from white to black, so in the beginning it feels like you're prgressing very fast because you test every month or 2. Our school has been there for 4.5 years and we are just getting ready to have our first couple people test for BB. They have all those belts so the younger ones see results faster to keep them interested. I know the other TKD school in our town has a hard time keeping children interested because they don't feel like they are progressing because they only have 6 belts. It takes 6-8 months to go from white belt to yellow. I'm not sure which way I'd prefer, but I know the suggested BB's in our school are very very good and will have earned their BB's and deserve it.

[Sensei Rick]

. They have all those belts so the younger ones see results faster to keep them interested. I know the other TKD school in our town has a hard time keeping children interested because they don't feel like they are progressing because they only have 6 belts. .

I have studied this thoroughly and co,pletely agree. And in doing so i have a completely different belting system for my adults than I do for children. The children in my school have 27 belts between white and black. Adults ony have nine. It's the same belt, It just has a stripe down the middle for the kids, three stripes at each belt for the kids hence 3 X 9 =27. Getting a new stripe for the kids means a lot and I can do it for them so they feel better about themselves and slow them down on the way to BB. None of the kids know that I grade the adults differently, I don't know how I've managed to keep the secret.

[Jiffy]

While you all have some very valid points that I agree with, there is something that no-one has mentioned yet..... you may not know it all.

Sometimes, a student may appear to have been given the grade, but as a student, you don't know the whole story, there may be something just between the student and the instructor.

Having said that, if it is happening with multiple students, then the grades are probably just being given out for alterior motive.

[Zaine]

While you all have some very valid points that I agree with, there is something that no-one has mentioned yet..... you may not know it all.

Sometimes, a student may appear to have been given the grade, but as a student, you don't know the whole story, there may be something just between the student and the instructor.

Having said that, if it is happening with multiple students, then the grades are probably just being given out for alterior motive.

Even then, if a teacher just gives a belt to a student because of a agreement that still would be handing out belts. Although there are systems that if you fail the test you still get the belt you just get a piece of tape around it showing that you havent passed it all the way and that you cant do the things full belts are doing.