Testing: Time requirement vs. When the student is ready
- Thread starter Azulx
- Start date
thanson02
Blue Belt
I think that depends on the system. Which one are you referring to?
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- Thread Starter
- #3
I train in Tae Kwon Do, we used time requirements. I am just curious in general.
When the student is ready, why penalize someone for learning faster?
- Thread Starter
- #5
I agree, but what constitutes as ready? At least with a time requirement there is a uniformed system.
thanson02
Blue Belt
Well I know for us, test requirements vary on the tier that the students are participating in. Unlike a lot of other systems where you have the color ranks and the black belt ranks, we have a three-tier system. When a student graduates from one tier to the next, that's when they receive a black belt for that tier. They will receive different degrees of black belt once they're in the highest tier.
As for the testing process, we do it in front of a testing committee, usually their instructors and local Masters, to assess where their progress in comparison to the group. We don't have required time limits for a belt advancements but there are suggestive timelines based on averages that we seen across the board to help maintain belt quality. We also have different testing requirements for little kids vs adults for obvious reasons.
We have a screening processes that the students go through to make sure they're ready for their belt advancements. We assess where they're sitting in their application in their stand up fighting and ground fighting as well as were their core performance pieces are sitting with long forms and basics. When we feel they're ready we're running up to the official screening which is basically a mock test about a week or so prior to the actual test and give them a good seller critique on where they're testing us sitting and what they need to do in order to show their best when test time comes.
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As for the testing process, we do it in front of a testing committee, usually their instructors and local Masters, to assess where their progress in comparison to the group. We don't have required time limits for a belt advancements but there are suggestive timelines based on averages that we seen across the board to help maintain belt quality. We also have different testing requirements for little kids vs adults for obvious reasons.
We have a screening processes that the students go through to make sure they're ready for their belt advancements. We assess where they're sitting in their application in their stand up fighting and ground fighting as well as were their core performance pieces are sitting with long forms and basics. When we feel they're ready we're running up to the official screening which is basically a mock test about a week or so prior to the actual test and give them a good seller critique on where they're testing us sitting and what they need to do in order to show their best when test time comes.
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- Thread Starter
- #7
Interesting, what system is this?
kuniggety
2nd Black Belt
I think time requirements are probably the "worst" way to determine when a person is ready (other than a person just buying the belt). A person training 2x a week for 6 months won't be nearly at the level of someone training 5x a week. Maybe there's a person that "shows up" to class 3x a week but there's someone who only comes 2x but practices a lot outside of class. Saying "I'm ready" just because it's been 6 months since your last belt promotion is absolutely ridiculous.
- Thread Starter
- #9
Are you , or have you been an instructor before?
thanson02
Blue Belt
kuniggety
2nd Black Belt
Martial arts wise: I've taught some submission grappling but not formally in a school.
Military wise: I've taught task and process based skills to dozens of folks over the years.
BJJ is skill/knowledge based. There are people who get their first belt, blue belt, in one year, and there are those it takes 5 years. The same goes for the rest. If you cant' reasonably defend yourself in each of the various positions that you can find yourself in when in a grappling situation, you won't be given your blue belt.
thanson02
Blue Belt
I think there's a misunderstanding on the time requirements that you're presenting here to a certain point. From what I seen with the schools that I have interacted with, it's not once you've trained for 6 months you're automatically ready to test. It's you need to train for a minimum of 6 months and after 6 months then we'll take a look and see where you're at. If you're ready, we will test you. If you're not ready, then we'll keep working with you until you are ready.
Granted, the system I work with doesn't have time requirements for testing either, but that is what I seen from friends of mine, including my brother who is a second degree BB in TKD. I will admit, I have seen some shady elements involving how they choose to work the system involving the time limit requirements, but from what I seen that really varies from school to school and the people I seen it from are frankly not worth their weight in spit as far as I'm concerned.
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When the student is ready is the only rational option.
Testing people who are not ready is simply unfair.
Testing people who are not ready is simply unfair.
I have seen Time requirement as a minimum. When the student is ready was the most common rule (which may be never, but usually was 2-3 time the minimum).
- Thread Starter
- #15
What do you look for to see if your student is ready?
That's fairly simple. Are they consistently performing at the level expected for their next rank?
kuniggety
2nd Black Belt
There are places where time is the only requirement. OP didn't specify which way he was referring.
Those would be pretty much automatically classified as a McDojo to my way of thinking.
kuniggety
2nd Black Belt
Me too.
Both.
They need a specific number of weeks, classes and to have demonstrated the required techniques.
They need a specific number of weeks, classes and to have demonstrated the required techniques.
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