How tough was your black belt test?

[gmattson]

Hi,

I have a question for the Open Forum column in Martial Arts
Professional magazine:

How difficult is your test for first degree black belt?

Should the applicant be pushed to the point of near collapse, or is
the test only a formality?

Please include your city and state.

Thanks for your participation. I will assume that it is okay to
print your response.

Sincerely,

Arnold Howard
Associate Editor
Martial Arts Professional

[Bruce Hirabayashi]

How difficult is your test for first degree black belt?

Sincerely,

Arnold Howard
Associate Editor
Martial Arts Professional

I find the formulation of this question to be amusing. To a certain extent it's like the classic question:

"When did you stop beating your wife?" ... you lose if you choose to answer it.

In this case, if you say your Shodan test was too easy, it devalues your rank, disparages the test board and your association. Not wise.

If you say it was too difficult, it makes you seem like a whiner.

If you say "just right", I guess you're baby bear ...

Cheers,

Bruce

[gmattson]

Some of his questions get quite a few responses. On the other hand, I could come up with a number of variations of this question that might be more interesting. How about you?

[Bill Glasheen]

How difficult is your test for first degree black belt?

First, that depends on your definition of "tough." If tough means standards are fairly high, then I would say yes for my people. If "tough" means the person goes through a major physical ordeal, well then I would say "It depends." It depends on how well prepared the student is, and how tough the other test candidates are. Much of this comes out in the wash when the two rounds of sparring are done.

Should the applicant be pushed to the point of near collapse, or is
the test only a formality?

It depends and no.

If I were a teacher in the MCMAP (If I may, Rich, and the men from "the few and the proud"), well then I would say yes. Why? Well a soldier may need to march 20 miles before engaging in major hand-to-hand combat where one mistake means a loss of life for the combattant and perhaps other soldiers in the company. In that scenario, it makes sense for those conducting the test to put the men and women through several hours of tough work before taking the test.

My first Japanese karate instructor used to do this.

Is this necessary for the average karateka in civilian life? Perhaps not. Anyone that would march for 2 hours before engaging in hand-to-hand combat is likely to end up in prison for premeditated assault. Self defense in civilian life is a very, very different paradigm than preparing someone for battle in the armed forces. It's all about anaerobic effort.

Should the test be just a formality? No. An extremely formal test complete with dignitaries, and audience, and an opportunity to mess up in front of God and the world is a unique upportunity to see how someone performs under stress. And when it comes to self defense, training for law enforcement, or training for battle, that's what it's all about.

Bill Glasheen
Richmond, VA

[Karateka]

My shodan was a typical JKA style grading which lasted about 1 hour after normal training. My nidan was done with a different independent dojo and it lasted 4 hours. A very difficult grading but I'm glad I switch sensei.

OSU!

[Bruce Hirabayashi]

Some of his questions get quite a few responses. On the other hand, I could come up with a number of variations of this question that might be more interesting. How about you?

Hi George,

As you know, designing good test and survey questions is very difficult. Many consider it to be as much of an art as it is a science. Even folks who receive advanced degrees in question design screw up questions and end up with data (e.g., answers) that don't provide them with the information they are seeking.

One of the reasons this is so difficult is that different people have different backgrounds, and thus make different assumptions. Think how that question will be perceived / answered differently

a) by a senior instructor who serves on test boards
b) by a student evaluating the difficulty of his/her personal Shodan test.

Do you see how even the same person might answer completely differently depending on they perceive the question at the time?

Note as well the answers above. Bill chose to answer the posted question,

"How difficult is your test for first degree black belt?".

Karateka, on the other hand, answered the question posed in your subject line,

"How tough was your black belt test?"

They answered completely different questions.

So could I come up with other questions? Sure. But will any one them provide valid data for a survey? Probably not.

Cheers,

Bruce

[Ted Dinwiddie]

Took me about ten years to get to that point. The test was thorough, hence long, and was quite taxing physically, mentally, and spiritually. A good test, and a true test. I am proud to have reached the first step in the manner I did.

[diegoz_ar]

Hello everybody,

My first degree black belt test, was held in Argentina, I do not remember the year exactly but I think it was some where between 1986 and 1989. I belonged to shito-ryu at that time. The dojo was with no lights, only three candles one in the front under the kamiza, and two more on the sides.

I remember we started with a warmup and then begin with the katas from yelow belt until brown belt. After that came the kobudo kyhon and then the kobudo katas. Then after resting more or less 5 minutes came the 20 kumites with no resting time between them, figthing against other black belts that came for helping during the examination. If no one was injured during the kumites, the breaking test start(boards or brics, etc) I remember breaking a only some boards, because briks were difficult to carry to the train station. And finally we were standing still in kiba-dachi (very low) and perform countless chudan-tsukis; if you stoped the sensei came and hit you with a shinai.

We finished with a lot of bruises, and there was not any teorical questions.

Until Sandan I remember that all tests were like this one, sometimes with more kata added, but the amount of kumites were important too.

Now that I am in Uechi-ryu, thanks to my Sensei, Carlos Ciriza. I understand that there are other ways to test a person in his karate skills, a more inteligent and civilized ways that do not hurt students as in the old times.

Of course I know, that, for people older than my, here in Argentina, the tests were more tough than mine. (I am only 32 years old).

My personal view is that if I have to test a kyu student: I will test his/her understanding of what he is about to perform.

Saludos,
Diego

[JBeaton]

Well mine was Dec 6th 03
Truro Nova Scotia Canada
I think it was tough but not insanly tough.I know i left with a few bruises that day and the next morning my 17 year old body was hurting in certain places.The hardest aspect of the grading for me was not the pounding, I could stand alright, but it was the light pushing and pulling, working the stance,keeping your balance with out pushing back on the sensei.The other hurtle for me was to try to calm my nerves, I was very nervous prior to the grading i was messing up my Sanchin!!!For some reason I would do a block or a strike for no reason!!I was so nervous, I couldn't do Sanchin right!!But I calmed myself down and went through it with no major mistakes.

Leading up to the grading my sensei was testing me.I was already beat on by another black belt..he moved on then out of nowheres my sensei comes up from behind me and slams on my shoulders (the muscle) I was pulling down and tight and everything but when he hit everything went black for a micro second,then after that passed I was dizzy but stood still.

The grading itself was about 3 hours long and I believe there were 8 of us getting graded.It was pretty intense not to the point of collapsing, but still very hard.Once the grading was over I felt so enlighten,relieved and happy.I'll never forget my black belt grading.

[CANDANeh]

Truro..good club
Oct. 27 1991 Glengary Motel Ball Room Truro NS.
The testing board consisted of Van Canna, Art Rebessa, Bob Bethoney, Clarence Wilder, Duncan, Clayton Hickey (after he was tested for Godan) , "Bub" Pelham and Louie Hopper. The day before I broke my big toe sparring in the tournament as I selected a knee for a target with my front kick. I actually think the sore toe distraction helped me relax on the test. Mentally the test was challenging as the standard was set high. Physically your only performing for a short duration on any test.