Dan grades

[Kenpo5th]

or like calling shodan ichidan?

[cathal]

So is there any rules....say in my style (shotokan) that you have to be a certain dan to grade students?

When we grade black belt students, we have to have 2 judges that are at least 2 ranks about the grade the student is testing for (if that isn't too confusing!). So, two 3rd dans to test for 1st dan, etc.

For us this is usually done with a presiding master who is in charge of the grading. S/he is usually attended by the person who is in charge of the province, and perhaps one other senior instructor.

[Shui Tora]

Shotokan-kez wrote:

So is there any rules....say in my style (shotokan) that you have to be a certain dan to grade students?

Within our Dojo, we would have the Sensei, then the two highest grades within the Dojo (me being one of them! )

[Holland]

Actually I have seen Shichi-dan used almost as much as Nana-dan. Not quite...but close enough.

[P.A.L]

in most cases you can grade up to two grade below yourself, so the minimum for promoting to shodan is Sandan, I read somewhere the Steven Segal's father in law promoted him quickly to sandan which enabled him to open a dojo in japan( from what i have seen of him , i guess he was well deserved)

[Jiffy]

In ours, you can grade to one grade below yourself.

[Zorbasan]

does that mean i can grade a 7th kyu?

[Shotokan-kez]

Very interesting guys cheers for the input

[aefibird]

In my Karate organisation it is the chief instructor who does the gradings.

He's Rokudan but the highest I've ever known him grade someone else is to Sandan. However, ours is a relatively "young" organisation (about 20 years old), so people with the required training time for grading beyond Sandan aren't there yet, unless they trained before the organisation was formed (of which there aren't many people in the org like that).

I'm not sure what he will do if he ever needs to grade anyone to Godan or Rokudan; perhaps he will invite a guest instructor in to test them.

My own Sensei is Godan but recieved his grade with a different organisation the one we are with now. He's not interested in progressing further, so the chief instructor of our organisation has never had to encounter the problem of what to do if my instructor wanted to grade to Rokudan (the CI's current grade).

[legkicker]

in most cases you can grade up to two grade below yourself, so the minimum for promoting to shodan is Sandan, I read somewhere the Steven Segal's father in law promoted him quickly to sandan which enabled him to open a dojo in japan( from what i have seen of him , i guess he was well deserved)

From what I understand Seagal went from Shodan to Godan rather quickly and took over his father in law's dojo. I don't think his father in law was the one that graded him, though. This might be the case but is peculiar to me if so. Seagal's first wife, Miyako Fujitani, has been quoted saying something along the lines as: "The person that graded Seagal was drunk and asleep during his test". I have no idea if what she says is true or not because I'm sure she has ill feelings towards Seagal.

I don't think Seagal was ever a sandan is what I'm saying. Grading is a tricky thing. In Some associations you can grade one rank below yourself and in others I even know of you having to be at least a yondan/4th dan to grade someone to shodan. Anything higher than shodan in some associations has to be done in front of a board of other high ranking instructors.