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Old 10-26-2005, 02:26 AM   #4
Joshua Livingston
 
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Location: QLD Australia
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 34
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Re: Skipping grades?

This is a very touchy subject as some say whatever Sensei says, that's the way it is. However, in the real world intelligent people realize this is not always the case and the title of Sensei is not always as good as gold.

I have personally had over 10 years of martial arts involvement in which I heavily researched various martial arts and participated in arts from Shotokan to Brazilian Capoeira. I have been training in Aikido for 3 years and have done very heavy research into Aikido through books and web-sites such as Aikido Journal. So my point is that I have seen a lot of the good in the martial arts world as well as a lot of the very worst.

Unfortunately the worst part of your average martial arts experience (outside of blatant illegal conduct within Dojo) will be the politics involved. Very few Dojo are able to get away from the politics and no organizations are able to, as that is the nature of the beast.

As such, it is near impossible to say for sure what the reasons behind the skipped rank were. There are a multitude of wrong reasons that could have applied to your situation, but just the same there are an equal number of good reasons that could explain it.

First of all, I would suggest having a talk to your Sensei about it. This should always be the first step when you have problems in the Dojo for any reason. If you trust your Sensei enough to train you, you should trust him enough to be frank with you about such occurrences. Simply explain to him that you have little experience in martial arts and as such you wonder exactly why you were awarded an extra rank. If you are happy with his explanation, then all is well.

However, if he is "old school" and it is a case of "Sensei knows best," then you should start doing your own research into the matter. Start off with your organization. Find out how it is viewed by other organizations. If you are directly associated with an organization founded by an Uchi Deshi (or close student) of O-Sensei, you more than likely won't find much wrong there, as they are all fairly legit. If not, find out who it was that broke away from the organization and why they did so.

If the organization comes out clean, study up on the Sensei in question next. Find out if anyone has anything bad to say about them. If they aren't up to stuff, more than likely someone has a grudge with them and someone might have posted why somewhere on the net. Of course don't take the info you find as gospel, as there are always two sides to the story, but it may shed some insight into why your situation happened.

I know it seems like a lot of work, but this is the process I go through anytime I start at a new school, as I have past experiences where the information would have saved me a lot of grief. Plus even if you don't have your questions answered, you will still learn a lot about your organization and the people in it.

If everything comes out clean then don't worry about it, you probably earned it.

If you wish, you may send me a private message containing your organization name and or the Sensei in question, and I'll have a look around for anything I can find or have found in the past and get back with you.

I wouldn't be too concerned about skipping the very first belt, as it is fairly common for Dojo to award the first belt to students who simply show up every class and prove their dedication. Once you have some experience and you observe a few first belt grading sessions, you realize how crappy they usually look, as long as you know the basic movements of the technique a Sensei will probably pass you.

In most cases, at 4th Kyu you should be showing some basic signs of advancement, such as fairly good posture, flow, and a forward mentality. It is possible that if you are young and flexible (or old and confident) that you may have simply performed the basic 5th Kyu techniques at a 4th Kyu level and the Sensei decided to reflect this. If you do not know the 4th Kyu techniques however, I would get it in gear and start learning them fast, that way you can start familarizing yourself with the 3rd Kyu techniques and be prepared for the next testing time, otherwise you may find that you are double promoted only to have to skip the next testing and double the time that you are 4th Kyu.

There is also the chance that the Sensei mistakenly announced you as 4th Kyu when he should have announced you as 5th Kyu. In the cases of "Sensei is always right" the Sensei may prefer to make a mistake stick rather than admit there was a mistake in the first place. Remember Sensei are people too and we all make mistakes.

Like I said before, I wouldn't worry too much about a first belt skip. However, if you see it happening in the upper belts such as 2nd and 1st Kyu, that "might" be a sign that something isn't quite right. Especially if someone gets a Shodan grade after taking a 1st Kyu test, or someone gets a Nidan grade after taking a Shodan test, or etc, as these ranks should always have a minimum time limit before they are achieved, unless there is some very significant reason that it be waived.

In my style it generally takes 5+ years to achieve Shodan and that's assuming you are training at least 3 times a week and hardly ever miss class.

Other styles have lower or higher grading times, but I personally would be very hesitant to join any school that claimed to award a Shodan in under three years (no matter what art or style), unless it was a living at the Dojo, training every day type of situation, or similar.

When it comes to Dan grades the quickest standard I would personally be comfortable with would be at least 2 extra years for Nidan, 3 years for Sandan (15 all up), 4 years for Yondan, 5 years for Godan, and etc. At that rate if you became a Shodan at 20, you could theoretically achieve Judan at 74 years old, which sounds about right to me, personally. I know the USAF does it by training hours, but I've come to learn that everyone always well exceeds the minimum training hours required before they actually achieve their next rank.

Anyway, have a talk to your Sensei and see what he thinks about it.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by Joshua Livingston : 10-26-2005 at 02:31 AM.

Joshua Livingston
Aikido of Ashland (USAF)
Gold Coast Jujutsu
Capoeira Zambia Congo Group
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