Testing Requirments

[Kusotare]

Oh - and there is no written test either!

I think this is something us westerners have made up.

K.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Oh - and there is no written test either!

I think this is something us westerners have made up.

K.

so you never test your students for general knowledge of terminology and the like?

[armanox]

These are all awesome (and interesting) points which leads me to some thoughts.

Some of us in the adult class are a bit older, and have old sports injuries (myself included) which makes some of the strength training a bit difficult. Why I returned to Karate, as opposed to joining a basketball or soccer league, is because you can truly do it for a lifetime if done properly. A few of my fellow karateka have really bad knees and I have a bad back and ankle so the pushups and sit ups are incredibly tricky and sometimes painful for some of us. Though I could do them just fine at age 16, ages 30, 40 and 50 are quite different. In short, I appreciate the interpretation that really the karate skills are being tested, not the strength/athleticism.

Though, I am obviously not going to change our requirements, as its not my place, this is definitely a point that I think needs to be mulled over. I know the other girls I am promoting with in September are very hesitant to do so because of the physical demands required to promote and their existing aches and pains, which I can totally relate to. Yet, these requirements were put in place a very long time ago now, and sports/sports medicine has come a long way indicating that we should not be doing certain things we've done for a lifetime (e.g. where exactly the knee falls in a kiba dachi in relation to foot position can destroy your joints). You've all give me a lot to think about here.

There are no such physical / strength training exercises as part of the JKF (Japan Karate Federation) grading syllabus in Japan.

In fact, the requirements are quite sparse - you just have to do them very well.

They comprise of:

Kihon

Kata

Yakusoku Kumite and

Jiyu Kumite

And thats it up to Hachidan - as they don't grade above that.

K.

We are in a similar boat - though not JKA, we are a part of the Okinawa Shorin Ryu Karatedo Association, formerly headed by Katsuya Miyahira. And Seikichi Iha, who is also a part of that organization but has his own 'sub' organization here in the states (the "Beikoku Shido-kan Karate-do Association") grades on similar concepts:

Kihon (technique execution, stances, etc)

Kata

Bunkai

My main group in Baltimore is mostly older (I'm the youngest student by far, next youngest is probably in his mid to late 40s, and we have up to early 60s in class) would be quite different if we had running and such as part of the class, like some places do.

Also, unlike Iha's group, our group doesn't do formal testing (as Takeshi Miyagi never did formal testing for our instructors), you are graded on your performance in class.

[armanox]

Oh - and there is no written test either!

I think this is something us westerners have made up.

K.

so you never test your students for general knowledge of terminology and the like?

We are simply expected to know it as a part of class. By the time you reach your first promotion (green belt) you should have a basic knowledge of terminology as it gets used in class (and it's a while before you get to green belt....)

I never was a fan of the idea of a written test as part of promotion, but I understand that some schools want the students to have an in-depth understanding of the schools history (my friend's Hapkido school has a verbal history test as part of the black belt testing).

[devil dog]

Ours is similar;

Terminology both in Japanese and English

History

Kihon

Kata

Kumite

Tuite

Tegumi

Bunkai

Kyusho -Jutsu

Of course these very depending on the grade. Also we have a written essay for Yudansha ranks to display their knowledge of the art and oral questions for the Mudansha ranks.