I was just curious, how long does it usually take each person in their own respective style that they are learning, to get from rank to rank? Is it every month or ever X amount of months per rank or is it at the person's own learning capabilities? At the place I train at, the instructors test the student(s) when the student(s) is/are ready.
Depends on how long it takes you to get ready. There are gradings every three months at my school, but you only get to grade if you know all your stuff. You aren't required to grade or anything like that.
I'm sure I coudl get the exact dates if i wanted, but I know it took about 2 months for my first grade (which is really simple in lau gar) 3.5yrs in total to get to purple (56h grade) and then a further 7years to get to brown (7th grade) but that's only cos i took a break for about 5 years in the middle!!
not a clue here i am sorry to say, not been graded in the year i have been there ;-) happy to say we don't have a belt system it works more on your skill perception and putting what you learn into practise, or so that's what i believe when i take my first one i shall post up on it.
In WHKD, we test people when they are ready. For my students (since I am slow at testing them), it usually takes 3 months between white and yellow, and yellow and orange, and 6-9 months per belt for the rest (purple, blue, green, brown). Between brown and black I usually have them wait a year, although 6 months is possible if they are very good. People with prior martial arts experience tend to test faster. The tests themselves are a 3 hour exam for white-->yellow, 3.5 hours for orange, 4 hours for purple, 5 hours for blue, 6 hours for green, 7 hours for brown, and 8+ hours for black.
The harder it gets the longer it take usually as a rule of thumb we use 1st is instructors choice, then 2 months then adding a month or so per grade from the first one so your 3rd sash take 4months then 6 then 7 etc. Brown to black is min a yr!
No rankings at my current club. They just instituted gradings, though you're not required to take them. No sashes either. People just gradually learn the stuff and are encouraged to continue coming at a regular basis.
every style, every school has their own thing---my kung fu he tested everyone every six months you could opt out if you wanted. the school i'm in now they test you whenever other schools i've been in they have a montly testing--you may not get to test then and it wasn't formal but it happened every month.
We have gradings every six months but not everyone does at each grading. The first couple of grades are pretty str8 forward but the higher ones pften take people longer to get ready for. After about four gradings it often takes a year or so to prepare for the next one, or even longer. Its pretty casual really, theres no grading hirarchy.
Holy crap that's long! Why so long for white->yellow? What are you expected to learn in 3 months that you could test on for 3 hours?
Well, they usually have 30 minutes for a written exam (until the test for green sash), and then a 2.5 hour physical exam. The physical exam includes the curriculum for the belt (some basic strikes, blocks, kicks, stances, wrestling, judo and a few combos/counters), their form, sparring, a variety of "creative challenges" such as coming up with your own counter to a punch, etc, and a calisthetics/cardio test. Just going through the curriculum would take ~1 hour at a cardio-worthy pace. The sparring + other new scenarios is another 45 minutes, and the cardio is ~30 minutes. Add 15 minutes in of transition time, randomness, etc and you have 2.5 hours of physical exam.
Good stuff! 8 hours aint to bad for a black grade, I was getting told the other day back in the 70's grades went on for as long as 3 days! In fact im sure some still do! But thee are mass grades! Not just 3 of 4 people at a tmie!
you're certainly right there, more like long grading because of the amount of people. my club has 3-4 gradings a year, and you're only meant to do 3 at most a year.
We've had a couple multi-day tests in the past, but the problem tends to be people can't really function after the first day (cracked ribs, etc), so we tend to have to do it in one day, while there is still adrenaline in the person's body, and before biology shuts them now. As for mass tests, not with us; in the ~40 years of WHKD, there are only ~60 black belts under the founder. There are some 2nd generations of course, but I don't have those statistics to cite. Typically, people test for black in pairs, often along with lower belts who stop way earlier and then help with the test.
That is a definite problem we try to avoid. We counter this by having a board of instructors for bigger tests, and lots of people around to use as dummies; that way, everyone has to work the entire test.
Ah right... yeah thought it must have involved a cardio test of some description for that amount of time. What kind of stuff is required for the written test? If you wanna keep this a secret/personal, no problems.
Nothing secret about it. We ask them history questions about the art, general martial arts history, terminology (like what does Sifu mean), information about their instructors and things like what is ying-yang theory, and to be able to explain the symbols on our crest. At higher levels, we ask basic anatomy, like the # of bones or muscles in the body. We also have them write out techniques they are supposed to know, to make sure they can pass on the art in a written manner. It's nothing too scary, as it's all fill in the blank, matching, or or short answer. At higher belts (typically green and beyond), essays of at least 2000 words replace the written tests. For up-and-coming black belts who want to open their own schools/clubs it tends to be a business plan, but all types of topics are covered, from history to philosophy, to the integration of WHKD into another art they have studied.
Cool cool... sounds like you run a tight ship. And gradings like that must be good for weeding out the pretenders... you'd only do a written test if you really wanted to be there.
