First off, you have to realize that people are not perfect and as soon as you involve people, you will have issues. A key is to figure out why you are doing what you are doing. Then decide if its worth it or not. Is it worth it to you, to have to deal with people? You can go to another organization... but it will also have people... so you don't gain much.
For my jujitsu organization, to test for shodan, you need to to compete in at least one kata competition. When I was getting ready to test, I found a kata contest and got a partner. (in jujitsu kata, there are two people doing the kata, you compete as teams...) We trained the kata for 3-4 months. We learned a ton more about the kata, the techniques, the details... all kinds of stuff. We peaked during the contest... our best ever run through the 8 kata and the combative sequence, happened during the contest and was the run that got scored. The people watching, cheered, we could hear them saying that was it, no way to top that. Even when the other teams went, you could hear people talking about how they did not come close to ours, some people thought we should be judged against the black belts, as it wasn't fair to judge the other brown belts against us. When the results came out, we got 3rd. The crowd gasped. The 2nd and 1st place teams apologized because they thought we had won. We had a ton of people come up and tell us that we should have won. Two of the people that came up and told us that, were two of the three judges, that had scored the brown belt contest. I asked the second one "well, then why did we get 3rd? You of all people could have changed it, if you thought we should have won." His answer was: "You went first, so we had to give you a middle score, so people could possibly score higher as the competitors went through." At that moment, I was ticked. First, there is no requirement to score the first competitor as medium and second, even if you do, you don't score people higher if they didn't do as well. My partner reminded me that we came to compete and satisfy a requirement to test... not to win. Additionally, we did our best, when it counted. It took me a while to accept that. But, I did learn from it. (even though the judges were not trying to teach me anything)
In my current situation, I am still shodan after 15 years of constant training, as a shodan. In order to test for nidan, I have to attend a certain number of the organizations events and compete in an organization competition, for 2 consecutive years. The nearest dojo to me in our organization is 600 miles away. I don't have the time or money, to fly or drive all over the US chasing these events, in order to meet requirements to test. The organization asked me to start my school to expand their organization into a new area for them to grow. Most other dojos are close enough to other dojos, that students take a hour and a half drive, do their event and go home. That nearest dojo to me, 600 miles away, has 5-6 instructors and the head instructor is a board member of the organization. When his students need events or competitions... they pick 3 instructors to judge, give the class 20 minutes to practice their kata and then hold their own competition and retro actively add it to the organizations calendar. My school is too small, with only one black belt (me), so their is no way I could hold a sanctioned event, unless I can convince 4 other black belts to make at least a 600 mile one way trip, which they are not willing to do.
My solution? I am happy with shodan. There is no reason to stop training and in fact no reason to stop progressing in my own art. The color of your belt has little to do with the progress in your art. When I do get out to organization events, and meet high ranking people (4, 5, 6+ ranked people) out on the mat, they assume I am sandan or at least a nidan getting ready for the sandan test. When I train in other arts, close to home... those people think I am sandan or yodan. They are very surprised to find out I am shodan. I put on a seminar on hip throws and invited the Aikido school we rent the dojo from. They invited their sister schools, a bunch of Judo guys from a local Judo school showed up, some Daito Ryu students showed, as did Karate and Kendo students... all showed up because their instructors had seen me doing demos, heard about the seminar and sent their students and many showed up themselves. I am not trying to toot my own horn here... but trying to illustrate that you can progress without needing rank... and people will recognize it when they see it. (to be fair, I also attend as many of their events as I can as well... I have to learn somewhere)
The thing is, I have found my reason for training. And I have found my way to progress. For me, it takes a lot of time and a lot of study... as I don't have a teacher on the mat to tell me how to fix it or if this is right or wrong. Would I be able to progress faster if I were closer to other dojos and could make events more easily? Well... I could get the ranks and the belts certainly... but, I am not so sure about the real progress. It may be, that having to find my own way, in the long run, is helping me learn faster... or not. Either way, I am learning and training... thats all I need. You will have to reach your own conclusions about your training... but you can't escape people... they will always be there. Thats why it is important to have your own reasons, your own goals and to be happy with those... because people are going to ruin it, its what we do.
