Belt Testing advice

[Gerry Seymour]

Exactly. Personally I've never been bothered by rank but if I'm told I'm not testing I want To know why mainly so I know what to work on. Instructors should have no issue answering it and if they do then questions need to be asked.

It happened to me once I was told I couldn't test so I said "okay that's fine but can I ask why please" and the instructor looked surprised and stuttered and stammered a few things out then said he'd explain properly next time. When next time came after class he told me now I can test...funny that

Yeah, that almost sounds like an instructor who knows he shouldn't just test everyone (should have standards), but doesn't know what that should look like. So he picks someone without a good reason.

 

[Headhunter]

Yeah, that almost sounds like an instructor who knows he shouldn't just test everyone (should have standards), but doesn't know what that should look like. So he picks someone without a good reason.

Yeah he's one who liked to say you're never guaranteed to pass and granted yes he didn't pass every single person I saw him fail guys but he also did stop people as well and I didn't say this to him but I wasn't any worse than any guy he was letting test and that next lesson I made sure to show him exactly what I could do to make sure he knew where my highest level was.

My old man used to train with me as well...this is going back about 30 years now but similar thing happened to him he didn't have a great test for his last belt but just passed it and based on that the instructor said at the next time there was a test he was to wait but by then my old man was a billion times better than he was then as he trained his butt off and some of the instructors knew it to and spoke to the main guy and so he said he could turn up and pre test so they could evaluate him at least and turned out he got his belt from that test. The instructor knew he was wrong about my old man but didn't want to admit it

 

[PhotonGuy]

Exactly. Personally I've never been bothered by rank but if I'm told I'm not testing I want To know why mainly so I know what to work on. Instructors should have no issue answering it and if they do then questions need to be asked.

It happened to me once I was told I couldn't test so I said "okay that's fine but can I ask why please" and the instructor looked surprised and stuttered and stammered a few things out then said he'd explain properly next time. When next time came after class he told me now I can test...funny that

That does make sense, where you want to know why you're not testing so you know what to work on. Now what you asked your instructor in my opinion that's a good thing to ask and a good choice of words however, I believe with an instructor such as the one Buka trained or trains under supposedly that would get you a six month suspension in rank advancement. As for when your instructor couldn't come up with an answer as to why you weren't testing and then told you could test after the next class, that does sound weird.