Difference between Combat Hapkido and Regular Hapkido?

yeah, they charge 30.00 here too. I just feel like it's kind of stupid.

 

why would charging a fee for testing be stupid?
who pays for the belt, the time of the people who test you, your certificate, the rent of the building, etc. etc. ???

I believe $30 is a very reasonable fee.

 

i agree^. if you know the costs ahead of time, what's the problem? you would pay an examination fee for many types of certification exams in general.

 

It is reasonable. You don't know what kind of expenses your instructor has to contend with in order to train and test you.

 

A lot of it depends on whether you feel it's worth it.

I just figure in all of my costs for a year and budget accordingly -to me the training is important to me and the costs are within my budget (so I figure in estimates for testing fees, membership fees, uniforms and gear replacement, gas, etc.)

I also believe schools have a "right" to make money - whether it it "just" to cover costs or whether it is for a profit. As a school, we don't make a profit - all money earned goes into overhead costs (rent, insurance, equipment, belts, etc) and if we make more money than that, it goes into our account and gets used during the slow season (summer and holidays for us). Right now we charge $5/class and $30 for testing (+ membership fee yearly to the federation) - that keeps us pretty much afloat. None of the instructors make any money off the school (except the master... and sometimes he makes a buck and sometimes he pays in!). We all work day jobs!

Now we could advertise "free testing" and just bury the cost in the tuition (increase the tuition to cover it). This is a good model too, but our issue that we'd rather see people pay separately for testing when it's their time instead of everyone paying all of the time for testing whether they are eligible or not.

If the costs are too high, you should speak to your instructor and see if something can be worked out.

 

I don't get a certificate for an orange belt lol it's only the second one up... the testing takes me about 10 minutes or less since I know all of the moves pretty much right off and they are there to watch and correct anyway. I don't have an issue with them making money or anything of the sort... it's more of paying 30.00 to say i'm an orange belt lol. I thought that when one would pay for the month, that would be for everything. At the rate i'm going right now i've gotten one belt per month.

 

In my school we don't charge for geup tests (ie. colored belts). A few years ago we added one extra euro (usd 1.40) to the monthly fee and tests are paid from that. Testing takes place about once every six months. People who train hard can skip a colored belt. From red (our last colored belt) to black belt 1st dan takes longer than six months, usually about a year or year and a half.
A test usually takes between 60 and 90 minutes. A certificated is issued with every colored belt. Usually at least one extra instructor will be present to sit on the judging panel as well.

Testing every month seems a bit to fast for me.

 

Part of it depends on the school - a large school might have students who come up "ready" and can hold a small testing monthly. We used to be part of a large Taekwondo group (several schools across the area) and they held testing every two months for those who were ready - it doesn't mean every one tests every time there is a test. Now that we are smaller, we generally schedule them as we need them.

In Combat Hapkido, there recommended time-in-grade for color belts is actually staggered. If I recall correctly, the first few ranks (like yellow and orange) have a minimum TIG of a month or two, green purple and blue are longer (4 months each maybe), then brown, red, black/white, and red/black are around 6 months each. Overall, it takes about 3 to 5 years to reach first dan (depending if you are ready for each test and pass each test).

The requirements for the lower belts are pretty small - a few techniques but they also include the basic strikes/kicks/breakfalls and footwork of the art that needs to be refined over and over. The actual"test" for orange or yellow may take only a few minutes where a brown belt test may be over an hour. Often I will keep the junior belts there to throw in as "partners" for the more seniors guys to throw around in their tests. When students don't pass, I don't charge for a re-test either.

And yes, we probably could figure out a staggered test fee structure where the higher up you go, the more expensive it is (like the dan ranks), but to me that seems too complicated - we charge the same for all color belt tests. Sure the newer guys pay more for possibly less testing time but that also means the longer you stick around, you get more "bang" for your buck.

As I've said before, for me it comes down to what it is worth to me. I value the training and I value the rank, so I will pay my membership, tuition, fees, uniform costs, equipment costs, gas, upkeep on my car, etc because I am there to train and I value what I am getting.

 

Yeah, with the orange belt, there aren't many moves to remember (as you probably remember). I have the luxury of working with 2 other guys who are both my instructors, so it's one on one work. The kids classes are bigger and they test differently and less often from what i've seen. The green belt which I believe is next has a longer, more complex list, which is fine.

 

Well I went ahead and tested tonight without any issues. I will start tomorrow working toward my green belt (which will likely take a bit longer.