My long awaited 6th kyu

[evergrey]

OSU,

I was meant to test for my 6th kyu last summer, but unfortunately I snapped my ACL. It has been a long, long road to recovery, and finally they have decided that I am well enough to go up for it!

Of course someone brought their sick kid to class on Thursday, so I am now ill and cannot go to ranking... there's a "don't come to class sick" policy here, of course!

I love my instructors though- the head instructor at my school is going to test me the following week after rank! Yay!

I'm wondering about kumite.

On the one hand, my instructors know best! Should they choose to simply hand me my new rank, it is because they already know where I am at. But still, it wouldn't feel right to test for my green belt without the required kumite, and with my knee all messed up still, I'm not sure whether or not they will let me. I guess I'll just have to see!

Anyone here experienced non-standard ranking?

[Kuma]

My last belt promotion happened after a five year period where I stayed the same rank the whole time. We could only test out of state and due to my work and military schedule I either could never make it to testing or had to be away for the weekend. Add in a deployment to Iraq and it was a long time coming.

I ended up coming to class one day, they put me through the wringer, I did some light sparring with my Shihan, and the next thing I knew they promoted me. At the time I was actually pleased as heck because I thought they double promoted me, but later I found it was a triple promotion.

Your instructors know best and will reward your hard work accordingly. I don't think you need to worry about too much.

[sensei8]

Let the rank take care of itself, and it will!! It's [the rank] not up to you, so focus on training and not on rankings.

Is it frustrating? Sure it is, but there are far more greater things to be frustrated over than rank.

Hang in there!!