Paul,
My apologies for not noticing the date this thread was first posted.
I was just reading through the threads without noticing.
My apologies for whining too. Honestly, this just mad me sad.
most karate schools probably would say no to this questions, there are probably some that would do it. usualy though when you get high up in the black belt ranks people are preferred to be older. theres a lot of reasons but one of the big ones is wisdom and experience(often through age)