Black Belt Testing

[yellowsnow]

Hello. I am new to the site and would like to say hello

 

My question is this. I recently watched my first black belt test. One of the assistant instructors at my club. And I am wondering what your routines/testing was like and what you had to do. This test had some things like this:

 

1 hour long

 

board breaking

 

1 weapons kata

 

1 belt kata

 

100 pushups

 

300 situps

 

10 1 arm pushups (each arm)

 

50 jumping spin kicks

 

30 jumping spin kicks (other leg)

 

Did a little bit of drills made up on the spot calling out what to do

 

And maybe a couple other things I cannot remember.

 

I am still a ways away from getting my black, but I am curious to know what others were made to do on there black belt test.

 

Thanks!

[Pacificshore]

Hi Yellowsnow and welcome to the board

 

Well from what I can remember of my test, it was actually done outdoors in the Eastern Sierras. It was during the winter months, so it was cold and snowing. I remember being wakened at 0400am. We were driven up into the mountains, where we ran through mostly all of our system's criteria again. All the basics, drill, katas. We ran all around the area, did the standard push-up, sit-up routines. Got barefooted for more katas in the snow, rappelled(sp) down the side of a 40ft. drop. After doing all that until the sun dropped..........if it ever came out , we ended up at the natural hot springs to sooth the aching frozen body.

 

That was many, many years ago, and I don't think I'd be crazy about barefoot training in the snow When you reach your black belt test, hope it is as memorable as mine was

[yellowsnow]

Thanks for your reply Pacific!

 

19 views and not 1 other reply?!?!

 

Come on everyone, share

 

YS

[taebot]

One day my instructor put a black belt on me and told me to go teach...

 

I never saw him much after that.

 

 

Sensei LW fights and knocks out all of his brown belts as part of their testing!

 

I've been to many white belt testings where they've had board-breaking.

 

Countless ways to be tested.

 

You can climb into the ring as an orange belt, win a few fights, earn a title and get as much, if not more, than most "tested" black belts.

 

[G95champ]

Without going into great detal our Dan tests are like this.

 

All Basic moves in a bunch of combos. Not hard combos just common ones.

 

Your testing kata a kata of your choice and a kata of our choice.

 

Sparring out blackbelts. Usually 3 about 15 mins each.

 

Before all of this takes place you are given the chance to teach some classes. Because we feel being a blackbelt means you should be able to teach. Only by teaching a move shows us that you really understand it. So way before you test even starts we are watching to see if you can teach and work with people.

 

There is also some basic knowledge questions nothing hard.

 

Hope that helps.

[SBN Doug]

Standard stuff:

 

All kicks (at least 5 times each leg)

 

All hand strikes (at least 5 times each hand)

 

ki breathing

 

All forms (kata) at least twice (1 form/belt level)

 

All grappling techniques /w takedowns and finishing move (usually called out of order and sometimes out of set)

 

All falling and acrobatics

 

Breaking (usually multiple boards and multiple strikes)

 

Tests would usually average around 3-4 hrs, depending on how many were testing.

[monkeygirl]

Here's what I can remember of my test (even though it was in September 2002, most of it got beaten out of my memory ) :

 

The test was a week long, three-part test. There were 7 hopefuls: 4 for 1st degree and 3 for 2nd.

 

Monday: Forms/Artistic portion. On this night, we had to do every single block, kick & punch from white belt to brown about 10 repetitions at least.

 

The "mega-kata" -- Every kata from yellow to brown, nonstop with no break in between...the last move from one kata immediately transfers to the first move of the next kata, so that it flows as if it were one.

 

That night I think we did One-Steps, too...kinda like artistic self-defense. It's pretty much about 20 different defenses for a single stepping punch (from both sides).

 

That was Monday.

 

On Wednesday night, we did all the running/fighting/realistic stuff.

 

We ran 3 miles, then came inside and our instructor gave us a pep talk. Which only freaked us out more.

 

Then we moved straight into self-defense. There were several stages of this:

 

1. With a partner, doing random attacks--all 7 of us are working at once, so there's no spotlight yet.

 

2. In a circle--one person in the middle, the other 6 joining hands in the circle. Person in the middle doesn't know who's coming or how they're attacking.

 

3. Knife & Gun defense-- Attacker has knife/gun, defender has nothing.

 

4. Marker defense-- Testing people wore a white t-shirt...attacker had a red marker and tried to "stab" us while defender tried to disarm them. If you had a red "stab" mark on a vital area, you died.

 

Then we had fighting: there were about 6 people (all upper black belts) on the outside of the circle, I believe. The person in the middle had to fight each one in order for about a minute or two...felt like forever.

 

Let me put it this way: some of us were literally knocked to the ground and beaten into walls.

 

Monday & Wednesday determined whether or not we qualified for Saturday. On Saturday, people testing for 2nd degree had to run up a local mountiain and perform various physical trials. Then, everyone came back to the dojo and did everything all over again! Blocks/Kicks, Katas, self-defense, one-steps, and a little fighting.

 

However, the purpose of Saturday was to be a showcase, for family and friends to see. It wasn't supposed to be a bloodbath (although we got a bit of that anyway).

 

Then, that evening we had a banquet where we were all presented with our belts (everyone passed), except for one guy--for entertainment we had a MA demonstration done by the demo team (5 out of 7 of the testers were on this team), and during one of the skits, I kicked him and he hit his head on the wall--he was in the hospital getting a staple. He's okay; we laugh about it now but it was pretty scary then.

 

Anyway that's my long blab about my test. Believe it or not, in hindsight it was actually pretty fun. (I say hindsight, because at the time I was scared out of my mind)

[G95champ]

Just a question.

 

Your tests sound more like physical fitness tests. What style of MA do you do?

 

Also I don't know many schools who allow lower ranks to view black belt tests.

 

Both just seemed a bit odd to me.

[yellowsnow]

G95champ - I train in kickboxing and starting next week, ju-jitsu. I am not too familiar how things works at other schools with viewing black belt testing. And to tell you the truth, he held the black belt testing at our Christmas party, lol. Which had a huge crowd lol. That probably seems really weird to you.

 

Also, next month is our schools 3 year anniversary party, and our head instructor is flying his Master out here so he can test for his 3rd degree and assistant master. Which he will be testing in front of the whole school, friends and family.

 

As for calling it a fitness test, I guess you could. I probably left out a bunch of stuff he did. Like in the morning, he was woken up at 6 by our head instructor and made to go to a long long run. Also, just demonstrating techniques with kicks and punches.

 

I believe he was also made to do a pre-test with his advanced class and other BBs. I guess the 'test' we all got to watch, was pretty much just a show. Still, it was interesting.

 

And thanks to everyone else for your response!

 

YS

[G95champ]

Yeah I did not want to question you style. If I did I am sorry it just sounded like a lot of exercises and not much input on techinque. Thanks for clearing that up.