Pop up requirements

[Montana]

To me that screams McDojo.

A black belt should not be centered around a fee. If the money is the only thing holding someone from a test that instructor better get his/her head on straight and get that person tested. A black belt means much more than the ability to pay the fee.

Agreed on all counts.

[sensei8]

There have been many times in the past that I've NOT CHARGED a student for the Yudansha testing fee because a student couldn't afford it. Not because my testing fees are high, because there not, it's just that some students can barely afford the monthly, and again, my monthly fees aren't high. Shoot, when I took over the Shindokan Hombu, I lowered ALL of the prices because I felt it was the thing to do, especially in our current economic situation. As a matter of fact, the Hombu doesn't charge any testing fees...Kyu/Dan!

What's more important to a martial artist....Knowledge or the belt? KNOWLEDGE!

[KarateGeorge]

Yeah, that definitely sounds shady to me as well.

A martial arts school is a business, so I would certainly expect there to be costs involved with training. However, in my opinion, it's something that should be understood up front. If a school isn't being up front about their fees, then I would just go somewhere else. There are plenty of other schools out there where you can know what to expect for your costs to train.

[Ichi_Geki]

I host three camps...and they are all free...to my students and to others.

Dansha - Its a summer camp that only has Dan level holders participating

Kangeiko - A winter camp in November where we train outside in the snow.

And

Hatsu Geiko - New yrs training this is a week long camp and its open to all styles, we have training seminars from my school and others and at the end of this new yrs training we have a tournament.

For dan testing...I have my students donate what they can to the school for new equipment if they can afford to. If not...the test requires no cash...for my kyu levels same difference.

[WireFrame]

As important as a degree!? I understand that the people dedicated enough to train for black belt see it as very important, but it's probably not going to help you get a job unless you go professional instructor or something. You know your priorities better than they do.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Sounds extremely shady to me.

The grading fees at my dojo are included into the training prices.

And we have no grading requirements outside of the dojo. We don't get told we have to attend any camps or anything like that.

so we don't have to worry about like your describing. Although we do have people coming from schools that we have close ties with, and we do charge them for the grading.

The only reason we charge them is for insurance purposes and also for a grading fee. So it usually works out to be about $AU50-100. But will be more for a higher ranking grading and less for the lower rank grading.

We don't refuse to tell them how much it will cost.

[tallgeese]

Just out of curiosity, had you ever heard of this kind of thing before during your 4 year association with them? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that just starts to occur for no reason.

Regardless, moving on seems to be a good idea as others have said.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Just out of curiosity, had you ever heard of this kind of thing before during your 4 year association with them? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that just starts to occur for no reason.

Regardless, moving on seems to be a good idea as others have said.

If it started randomly i would be really concerned about it.

Although i do know my dojo (it turned 5 this year) started doing camps this year and but not as a pre-req for any grading. We started doing them as a way for our students to cover all their syllabus and extra.

Also we do a lot of testing of our students to help them improve.

We have 4 schools that take part in this camp now. and have about 10-15 instructors that help out.

I am one of the instructors and was (not surprisingly) in charge of fitness testing. And before the camp every participant had to fill out a medical questionnaire so i can evaluate if they need medical supervision. the funniest thing i found was that the adults loved the 20m shuttle run (aka the beep test) and the juniors loved a test called the YMCA Submaximal Cycle Test

[Nidan Melbourne]

Oh and in terms of costing we hire a camp site that has huts that has bunks for those attending.

So no student has to live in a hotel or anything.

The most any student has to pay is $200 (maximum) and it is a 5 day camp. But if anyone can't stay for the entire time it is a much smaller cost for them to attend. So if they could only make 2 days they are charged $80. As it is worked out to be $40 per day

The site of the camp provides the food (which is most of the daily fee at the camp).

Each school puts in for each participant, which would save money for everyone. Instead of charging each person $400-500 it was $200.

And was non-compulsory to attend so it was up to you.