What are your promotion tests like?

[aurik]

We have failed more than we've passed in our Testing Cycles, especially at the Hombu. It's not an ego thing at all, it's just a fact. The Testing Candidates somehow and someway fall apart from the pressure of the Testing Cycle. I can't remember just how many Testing Cycles that I've failed myself.

I have actually only seen one student fail at our dojo at a testing cycle. I think this is mainly because students aren't allowed to test until the instructor is reasonably sure they will pass. I've seen students wash out of a test prep cycle though. Mainly because they didn't complete some of the requirements, or because our CI didn't think they would pass.

Failing a test isn't a horrible thing -- I mean, they can just test again at the next testing cycle (which for colored belts is each month). However, most kids don't see it that way, and most of our students are kids.

[Sailor Sindbad]

Hi Sailor Sinbad

Wow !!

compared to my Dojo in Japan it isn nothing like that!

running 5 miles and 500 push ups, really>?

sounds like they might be shooting themselves in the foot as most people wouldnt want such a hard training and burden. especially the older people who work full time unless your dojo is going after the people who want more of an overall work out mixed with some karate?

My apologies for taking so long to respond, but here's my update:

Trying my best to not dox myself or the dojo, but I'm retired military and someone old enough to my parent - and a parent to hypothetically significantly older siblings - made Shodan not too long ago. But because certain parts of the test were waived due it not being physically possible for him to complete them, his black belt has certain markings/designs on it to indicate that.

May I ask in your regular sessions do you have to run and do push ups everytime and how long are your usual training sessions.

For the run, not every class. They're sprints up and jogs up and down the mat, but not a long distance run. We're advised to run on our own time.

For pushups? Yes. Every single class. Minimum of 25 during at the start of class, but odds are that there's more throughout the rest of the class as well. And that's just part of the calisthenic workout. There's also situps, flutter kicks, creative variations of those, among other things.

If you feel it is too much I would also recommend trying some other doJos out as well to make sure its really for you?

And that's EXACTLY what I finally decided to do. It was a tough decision for me, as I was more than half-way up the kyu ranks (6th out of 13), but something happened back in January that happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back for me:

The dojo was open on the MLK holiday, so students showed up. The most senior instructor present at the time (#2 behind the kancho) was upset that we showed up. Apparently, we ruined those hopes of being home and relaxing that day. The punishment? A whole class of nothing but push up (and variant) exercise. Fortunately, I suppose the instructor got bored with that after a half hour, and we did some actual training.

I haven't showed up since then. I felt like that instructor's emotional punching bag or some kind of tool for personal amusement. Despite the fact that I'm the one paying them, not the other way around.

The cool thing? I found a Shotokan dojo, and I'm signing up tomorrow. I've already signed my oldest daughter up there a month ago. I spoke with the kancho there when I was signing my daughter up, and told him that I'd be following soon. He asked me about prior martial arts background, which explained to him, i.e., style, kyu rank, the katas I know, etc. He said that I'd be able to keep my rank (which, I'm not sure what that means, because there are only 9 kyu ranks in ISKF and the corresponding katas are learned at different ranks - but I'm grateful, regardless, as I had no expectations of starting higher than white belt).

But sounds like one hell of a great military style workout

Maybe for Rangers or SEALs or something, but not the conventional troops. I'm retired military myself, and I had never experienced anything like I did on that test before. Thankfully, I'm never doing it again.

The other cool thing about the Shotokan dojo that I'm going to? There doesn't appear to be a kobudo requirement to advance in karate there.

At the Shorin-ryu dojo I was at, you have to be a brown belt in kobudo in order get a black belt in karate. And that's additional separate class one day a week after a normal karate class.

Truth be told, I don't hate kobudo, it's having to stay an hour later when I just want to go home. And at the rate at which I was skipping kobudo classes, I wouldn't have been a brown belt in it by the time I would have otherwise been eligible for a black belt in karate anyway. I'd have been WAY behind.

Based on my readings, Chosin Chibana himself never practiced kobudo. So anyone else in Shorin-ryu having to makes no sense. If kobudo was part of regular karate class and was included in the karate belt curriculum, I'd have absolutely zero gripes.

And speaking of curriculums: in comparing it to the Shotokan curriculum, the Shorin-ryu curriculum is pretty huge. Two wire-bound books for 13th through 1st kyu. Whereas for ISKF, 9th kyu through 1st dan, it's only a four-page pdf file.

By the way, I'm very thankful for KF, as I was able to start this thread and get the information I needed to do what I had to do. Were it not for you all, I probably would have quit karate all together, as I would have simply believed that all dojos were like that.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Sailor Sindbad

[bushido_man96]

That's quite the journey, Sailor Sinbad. I'm pleased to see that KF has been such a big help for you! That's what makes this community so great!

[DarthPenguin]

Glad to hear it's worked out for you!

Slightly surprised to hear of a rank in a separate discipline being required to attain rank in your main one, but maybe they find that it works for them. I am a big fan of cross training but not sure how it would sit with me if i was told that to pass my karate black belt i had to get a belt X in another style that i don't even want to practice.

[Sailor Sindbad]

Glad to hear it's worked out for you!

Slightly surprised to hear of a rank in a separate discipline being required to attain rank in your main one, but maybe they find that it works for them. I am a big fan of cross training but not sure how it would sit with me if i was told that to pass my karate black belt i had to get a belt X in another style that i don't even want to practice.

In doing my shopping around, I did stumble across a Tang Soo Do dojang in my area that also has BJJ. They require you to get a blue belt in BJJ in order to get a black belt in TSD. To their credit, though, they tell you this up front instead of having you find out after you've invested so much time.

[bushido_man96]

Glad to hear it's worked out for you!

Slightly surprised to hear of a rank in a separate discipline being required to attain rank in your main one, but maybe they find that it works for them. I am a big fan of cross training but not sure how it would sit with me if i was told that to pass my karate black belt i had to get a belt X in another style that i don't even want to practice.

In doing my shopping around, I did stumble across a Tang Soo Do dojang in my area that also has BJJ. They require you to get a blue belt in BJJ in order to get a black belt in TSD. To their credit, though, they tell you this up front instead of having you find out after you've invested so much time.

Boy I'd love to find a school like this. I had recommended the idea of bringing in some basic grappling skills that each rank would need to demonstrate proficiency in, but the idea has not taken hold.

[DarthPenguin]

Glad to hear it's worked out for you!

Slightly surprised to hear of a rank in a separate discipline being required to attain rank in your main one, but maybe they find that it works for them. I am a big fan of cross training but not sure how it would sit with me if i was told that to pass my karate black belt i had to get a belt X in another style that i don't even want to practice.

In doing my shopping around, I did stumble across a Tang Soo Do dojang in my area that also has BJJ. They require you to get a blue belt in BJJ in order to get a black belt in TSD. To their credit, though, they tell you this up front instead of having you find out after you've invested so much time.

Out of curiosity, have they always had that requirement or if not then what did they do with those who already had a black belt prior to instituting the rule?

[DarthPenguin]

Glad to hear it's worked out for you!

Slightly surprised to hear of a rank in a separate discipline being required to attain rank in your main one, but maybe they find that it works for them. I am a big fan of cross training but not sure how it would sit with me if i was told that to pass my karate black belt i had to get a belt X in another style that i don't even want to practice.

In doing my shopping around, I did stumble across a Tang Soo Do dojang in my area that also has BJJ. They require you to get a blue belt in BJJ in order to get a black belt in TSD. To their credit, though, they tell you this up front instead of having you find out after you've invested so much time.

Boy I'd love to find a school like this. I had recommended the idea of bringing in some basic grappling skills that each rank would need to demonstrate proficiency in, but the idea has not taken hold.

Is always an interesting one the idea of adding skills in. Intuitively i am more in favour of adding something in rather than having to attend a new style/school but that can have it's pitfalls.

I remember multiple years ago (when i had been at bjj for about 1-2 years so by no means skilled in any way - not that i am now either!) attending a karate club that added in some grappling. One of the bb's was fighting an mma bout and they asked me to grapple with him to get an idea of how he was. I expected to get thoroughly handled but instead was staggered at how poor his grappling was - to the extent i told them that he should not engage in any groundwork at all in a fight (i did a 5 min round with him and was submitting him every 30seconds or so - someone good would have basically submitted him instantly). This might just be an example of one school where it didn't work out well but it did show the potential pitfalls of adding in things people aren't too skilled in themselves.

[Sailor Sindbad]

Out of curiosity, have they always had that requirement or if not then what did they do with those who already had a black belt prior to instituting the rule?

I wouldn't know. I simply saw that they required this on their website. I believe it's a fairly new place, having only opened up within the past five years or so.

[sensei8]

I'd say, in short, to add to my previous post here, our Testing Cycles are quite arduous, to say the least. I suppose that I'd have it no other way.