Skipping Belts

[evergrey]

OSU,

In my dojo, if someone has a rank in KYOKUSHIN already, regardless of the organization, they are allowed to keep it.

If they have high rank in another style, they have to work their way up like anyone else, but if they are really advanced then they may be double tested, or even triple tested... but they have to do everything that is required to test for all three ranks if so. I think it's a fair solution.

OSU

[ineluki]

Is skipping belts right? Does anyone support this?

Why not?

If they have the abilities for their new rank, why should they be held back at a lower rank?

While it's still a rather subjective view, if you didn't know about the skipped belt, would you think "what a crappy orange belt"?

[bushido_man96]

There are these two people who are skipping belts. In TSD, it goes white - yellow - orange. This person had went from white to orange. I heard from their parents that the person is a black belt in kung fu. Also, in a belt test, another person also skipped from white to orange. However, I have no idea if they took a form prior to TSD. Is skipping belts right? Does anyone support this? I for one have no opinion on this. But I must say that I think that people should go in order of belts because it's a whole new form. I understand that there are some similarities though. Your thoughts?

This will vary from school to school and instructor to instructor. When I started over in my new TKD school, I skipped several ranks in the beginning, at a couple of testings. But I already knew the techniques, so it was just a matter of me learning new forms and one-steps, and adjusting a few things with technique here and there. So, basically, it was more or less memorization of new materials for me than learning new techniques. The instructor saw fit to bump me up more as I went along. As I got to the higher ranks before black, I went rank for rank then.

My feeling on the matter is that if someone really demonstrates that they pick up the material fast, and have sound technique beyond their current level, then I see no reason not to skip them. I don't think its fair if they outclass others in their rank to hold them there; it isn't fair to them, nor to the others in that rank, really. But, its something that needs to be looked at on a case by case basis.

[bushido_man96]

OSU,

In my dojo, if someone has a rank in KYOKUSHIN already, regardless of the organization, they are allowed to keep it.

If they have high rank in another style, they have to work their way up like anyone else, but if they are really advanced then they may be double tested, or even triple tested... but they have to do everything that is required to test for all three ranks if so. I think it's a fair solution.

OSU

This is what I had to do in my new TKD style. I thought it fair, and when it got to the point that I thought I was going to be overwhelmed with too much material, I asked to back off, or take more time between testings.

[shimizu]

I completely disagree with the idea of skipping belts. I got my black belt in Karate and I went on to Tae Kwon-Do, but I would never skip a belt as it is a different martial art thus a completely different form - no matter how similar the moves you must learn them and advance at the set rate instead of skipping simply because of your martial arts history.

[DoctorQui]

I completely disagree with the idea of skipping belts. I got my black belt in Karate and I went on to Tae Kwon-Do, but I would never skip a belt as it is a different martial art thus a completely different form - no matter how similar the moves you must learn them and advance at the set rate instead of skipping simply because of your martial arts history.

Ultimately the decision is with the chief Sensei. I agree that Karate and TKD are completely different but when moving between styles in Karate, many, if not all, of the moves can be more than simply similar, some can have only very subtle differences and need only a minor tweak. Shotokan and Wado Ryu are an example of this. It would be a complete waste of both the instructors and the students time to start at the beginning. Particularly in situatitons where there is little or no break in training. In my situation I moved to an area where my original style was not available.

[darksoul]

I am a black belt in Shaolin Kempo and went to a Shotokan Dojo, mostly out of curiousity, and I was told that, due to my current rank in Kempo, I would start at brown belt in Shotokan.

The way I see it is this, the early ranks in martial arts are to ingrain the basic skills into you - strikes, kicks, slapping out, rolling, etc... and tend to be fairly similar throughout martial arts as a whole. When you already know how to throw a thrust punch, or a shuto strike, or a roundhouse kick, there's no point to re-learn it.

Skipping belts without previous training on the other hand, I don't feel that is right.

[bushido_man96]

I completely disagree with the idea of skipping belts. I got my black belt in Karate and I went on to Tae Kwon-Do, but I would never skip a belt as it is a different martial art thus a completely different form - no matter how similar the moves you must learn them and advance at the set rate instead of skipping simply because of your martial arts history.

So should someone with this much skill go to a tournament in his new style and be allowed to trounce the colored belts he is competing with? Who is that fair to? This is just one example of when skipping belts can be beneficial to all involved.

Also, it has to do with an instructor's ability to recognize the skill level of the students he has. If you have a white belt doing black belt level technique, then that white belt probably isn't learning a whole lot from hovering needlessly in that rank, unless the material is so radically different that it affects his ability to learn it properly.

And again, this is on a case by case basis, depending on the evaluation of the student. Not everyone will skip ranks. Some may be capable of skipping more than others. And some schools and instructors won't allow it at all, and that's fine. I think it can be a bit of a narrow-minded approach at times, but its a personal decision for each to make.

[FangPwnsAll7]

Why not?

If they have the abilities for their new rank, why should they be held back at a lower rank?

While it's still a rather subjective view, if you didn't know about the skipped belt, would you think "what a crappy orange belt"?

Of course not. These are 2 of the best orange belts I've seen. I've watched one of them test, and they did nothing wrong during the forms or breaks.

[ineluki]

- no matter how similar the moves you must learn them and advance at the set rate instead of skipping simply because of your martial arts history.

I think nobody wanted to skip the "be able to do the moves"-part.

However, in most arts the "set rate" is meant for real beginners*, applying it to someone who already has experience in other arts is IMHO following the letter, rather than the spirit of a grading system.

*perhaps my beginners are just that inept, but for a large part they are busy sorting out basic stuff like balance, left/right, front/back, turning etc