Double Grading!

First off, I'd just like to say that I had my first grading last Tuesday, which went better than I anticipated. I was initially to be graded for 6th Kyu and was both surprised and delighted to be awarded 5th Kyu at the end of my exam!!
Despite becoming a little overwhelmed at the start during the tai sabaki movements.

I have a little background in Karate from years ago which probably helped me pick up basic movements during my time training, I was only training for 3 months before I graded, so jumping from nothing to 5th never crossed my mind once during my time training. I know in Aikido it's "not about the belt" so to speak and I realise that double grading isn't uncommon, especially during the lower/beginner rankings.

At the same I was wondering have people experienced this in general, for themselves or where they train?
It would be interesting to see other people's perspective on the matter, especially those who have more experience under their belt(s) than me (pun not intended)

Congratulations, Katrina!

-- Jun

I haven't seen a double grading at my dojo, and I'm guessing we probably won't ever have one, but I have no idea if that's typical. We start at 5th rather than 6th, and it's rare for a beginner to test as early as three months, even with pretty intensive training (I can only remember one), and of course the time between gradings gets longer as you go along.

Another big factor is that we're a fairly small dojo, so it's not uncommon to train for quite some time after you've met the requirements, just because there's no one else who's ready to test. And then every time Sensei starts thinking about testing people, there's always the problem of finding a date that works, which tends to push things off further. So, even within one dojo, I'd say there's a lot of variability. We've had people (well, at least one person) who tested for fifth after one month, we've had many more who trained for over a year before the tested.

In our dojo, ranking starts at 6th kyu, but I've only seen people going from unranked to 5th kyu, skipping 6th. Typically they had been training for about a year when they had their first test. I think 5th kyu is considered equivalent to yellow belt in our dojo.

Anyway, congratulations!

Moving from unranked to 6th kyu isn't uncommon in our dojo and many do. Our first kyu ranking at 7th kyu isn't overwhelming and combining the 7th and 6th kyu requirements in one grading is doable for most people. I can tell you that those promoted to 6th kyu have earned it as I am sure you have. Congratulations on your successful test, your promotion and your training!

Hi, The dojos I've attended have had 'unranked', 5th kyu (first grading) and so on.
I went into one grading test as a 5th kyu, came out of it a third kyu. I think the judo shodan background may have influenced that. It's unusual for double gradings. (but, oddly enough, I was also double graded from 5th kyu to third kyu in Judo, many years earlier, with the admonition that I'd better prove I deserved the extra promotion)

Mary Malmros wrote: We've had people (well, at least one person) who tested for fifth after one month, we've had many more who trained for over a year before the tested.

Just reread my own post..meant to say, THREE months. I don't expect to ever see someone test after one month.