Shotokan testing...

[granitemiller]

I agree with your assessment, money does talk and if you pay into an organization enough of it, you will be held up to high esteem - sad to say this especially if the group is not up to basic levels.

I also feel that many large organizations (TKD, ISKA, WTA, ITA, etc) also probably suffer from this. I guess it is to be expected.

[seratt]

I remember seeing some pretty ugly crap at some mixed martial arts tournaments I did back in 02 and 03. That's a whole other story.

We're affiliated with SKIF shotokan dojo out of Houston. The Univ. of Houston one. Amazing group of people, I simply just don't know them very well.

I'm in Houston usually every weekend anyways, guess I'll start showing up for Saturday practices. hehe.

I'm a 1st kyu in skif, but just started training again a couple weeks ago after a 2 year hiatus. That 5th dan in Houston is going to eat me alive. lol. I'll have to do some hard training before I make an appearance.

[tallgeese]

Not a shotokan guy, but I hear what you all are saying about organization size.

I come out of a very small regional group. This is great in the fact that I can name all of our black belts. I've been on the board for a few. This allows for very good control of what your final product is. No one slips thru the cracks. Ever.

It also allows for alot of quality variation and growth that is difficult for a large organization to keep track of quality wise as new things and ideas come in. Also, you certainly have more latitude to grow your art concptually since there is little to no bueuracracy to go thru.

On the down side, due to the lack of a serious chain of command, your going to have a harder time organizing events and such (we always joke that we are very much and associtation and not an organization).

These things will generally cost participants less when they finally get around to happening but you'll also be less likely to draw highly recognized talent.

You'll never have any kind of national or international recognition for your rank. This may or may not be important to you.

You can still grow your own skill sets in a small organization, but you'll end up cross training outside it for sure.

Either can be a good experiance and there are times I envy the organizational capabilities of big groups. Personally, I like the small group feel, but it's 6 of one half a dozen of another.

[granitemiller]

You'll never have any kind of national or international recognition for your rank. This may or may not be important to you.

I don't really think it is all that important to get national/international recognition from one organization.

I was at a tournament where there was a guy from a TKD school (and I am not knocking TKD, it was just one individual) who was a 2nd degree and did his Kata and it was horrible. I remember looking at the other black belts and we all had the same look on our face - how did he get a 2nd degree?

So even though he had recognition from a large, international group (TKD), he lost all credibility as soon as he demonstrated his techniques.

My school is under the umbrella of a large group, however, before we joined them we were a small outfit out there on our own. Our former Sensei was trained in an ISKA school in Baltimore, then he left and moved to Pittsburgh and never kept the ISKA membership. He then retired, and we floated by ourselves until we came under another umbrella.

We joined because we liked the organization, they had the same goals and principals as we held, and it gave me the opportunity to advance in rank.

Just some thoughts.

[bushido_man96]

You'll never have any kind of national or international recognition for your rank. This may or may not be important to you.

I don't really think it is all that important to get national/international recognition from one organization.

I was at a tournament where there was a guy from a TKD school (and I am not knocking TKD, it was just one individual) who was a 2nd degree and did his Kata and it was horrible. I remember looking at the other black belts and we all had the same look on our face - how did he get a 2nd degree?

So even though he had recognition from a large, international group (TKD), he lost all credibility as soon as he demonstrated his techniques.

I have seen this at tourneys as well. It just kind of boggles my mind. To top it off, some of the guys that I see like this are pretty fit individuals. They are in much better physical condition than I am. Most of them are not as heavy as I am, and can spar pretty well, and have good amounts of energy. I'm fairly portly, but have much better technique than they do. It just makes me wonder.

[granitemiller]

Maybe it boils down to why someone is doing martial arts. For some, it is a belt race (how fast to achieve their goal is all that matters).

For others, it is more of journey, learning and learning as you go.

[Shotokan-kez]

Our sensei is a 6th dan and does all the kyu grade gradings as well as the black belts. I prefer it that way rather than have to travel for miles to grade.

[granitemiller]

I personally have to travel for my dan testings (fortunately it is only every two years), but we do all testing in house up through 2nd dan.