Alright Im tired of beating around the bush so I am going to be up front and say what I've got to say and so hopefully after this I won't keep repeating myself. As aggravating as it might be for the people here its aggravating for me too, not being able to make my point, since I am not saying what I should be saying directly but instead more or less talking around it. Anybody who chooses to read this I will say that its going to be quite long, Im telling you now so you can make the choice if you want to sit through the whole thing. So here goes.
Some people here have mentioned that in their dojo, the sensei tells them when they will test and that for a student to be able to sign up for a test without first being told that its not the proper way to do it and in that case its a McDojo. The fact of the matter is, dojos will be run the way the head sensei wants to run it and the head sensei can run it anyway they want within the confines of the law, obviously a sensei cannot do anything illegal in their running of the dojo. So some dojos with some senseis they will require that you be told you can test before you can test and other senseis will leave it up to the student to decide if they want to test when the test rolls around, or at least they will expect the student to ask to test although the sensei might tell them they're not ready but its still up to the student to ask in the first place. So we've established that but that's also beside the point.
The fact of the matter is, some of the people who go to those dojos where you have to wait to be told before you can test, they say they would never ask their sensei when they will test because that's disrespectful. Its disrespectful in that you're questioning the sensei's judgement, that the sensei will tell you when you're ready and until then you're supposed to just shut up and train and not say or ask anything about it. While a sensei certainly has the right to require students to be told before they can test, to not be allowed to even ask or say anything about it that's going a bit too far. I can see how asking a sensei when you will test can be disrespectful but especially if you've been at a certain rank for much longer than it should ordinarily take than you should at least say something about it, if you want to advance. There are some students who might get to a certain rank and then stop pursuing rank and they will be satisfied with the rank they're at. That's fine but if a student does want to advance beyond the rank they're at and its taking longer than it should then there's no reason the student shouldn't use their mouth at that point. At any dojo that uses rank, there is an average length of time it takes most students to go up ranks. If you're taking much longer than average to advance, you want to advance, and you're working hard than saying something shouldn't be a problem. Maybe you shouldn't ask your sensei when you're going to test but instead you could ask them what you need to do to be able to test. Why you're not being told to test and what you need to fix so you can test. That way you will know what to work on. If you're not advancing and you want to advance then there are two reasons why you aren't advancing. Either you're not doing it right or you're not working hard enough. So that would mean if you're working hard and you're still not advancing you should ask your sensei if you're doing it right and if you're not, what you need to correct. Take for instance a brown belt student whose next rank up is black, for the student to say, "Sensei, I want to get a black belt, what do I need to do?" I don't think that's unreasonable. Thats much like a student in academic school who says to their teacher in class, "Teacher, I want to get an A, what do I need to do?" I've never known of any teacher who would consider that disrespectful so I don't see why it would be disrespectful for a brown belt student to ask about the black belt, particularly if they've been a brown belt for long enough. So at some dojos you have to be told before you can test and at some dojos you have to take the initiative and at least ask if you can test but whichever way its done it shouldn't be wrong to ask what you need to do to be able to test and doing so might be the only way that you know you can test. Take for instance a student whose a brown belt and they think they need to be told before they can test for black belt. Enough time has gone by and so they ask their sensei about it. So the dialogue might go something like this.
Student: "Sensei, I want to get a black belt, what do I need to do?"
Sensei: "You need to sign up and take the test and do well enough to pass."
So you see, the student wouldn't even known that they had to take the initiative and sign up to test without being told first. By asking that way the student knows they don't need to be told before they can test but the student will only know that if they use their mouth.
Also, from my experience its always better to ask the head sensei directly rather than asking other students. Information is best when its straight from the horses mouth, or sensei's mouth in this case.
So that's what I've got to say. I can see how some people might say that asking when you're going to test is disrespectful but asking what you need to do to test shouldn't cause problems and sometimes its the only way a student will know what they need to know.
This of course would only apply to students who want to pursue rank or who want to go beyond the rank they're at. If you're not concerned with rank or if you're satisfied with the rank you've got than this would be a non issue.
Anybody who took the time and patience to read through all this I would like to thank you and feedback from anybody of any sort is most welcome. I said what I had to say and any further posts on this topic will just be answers to feedback from other posters.
