Do you pay for promotions at your school?

no, my instructor doesn't believe in belt tests because he pays attention to his students.
 
I ignored everything after the OP, but no, we don't pay for promotions at my school...

However, I wouldn't mind if I was at a school that charged a small fee for a belt test, as long as their monthly rates were reasonable.

Now it becomes a problem when they charge you for stripes, because it goes from 4 promotions to 16 promotions....and paying for every one of those is bullshit.
 
blanko said:
no, my instructor doesn't believe in belt tests because he pays attention to his students.
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Depends upon what you're trying to do. In the senior judo class (age 15 and above) we generally do it that way - ie we just promote people when we figure they're ready.

But in the kids class we make them go through the gradings (no charge of course for either test or promotion in either kids or senior class) even though we know they're going to pass - we don't ask them to take the test unless we know they're ready. Mainly we do it because we think its a good exercise to take the kids through ... they're going to be tested on things the rest of their lives (school, job interviews etc), so getting them used to it in a fairly easy going, relatively unimportant environment is part of the education. This includes the idea of preparing for tests/interviews etc. The review also is useful with kids - we make a big deal of preparing the throws and holds etc.

Parents seem to like the testing process a lot :D, though I suspect the kids would prefer to just have the belts handed out. As usual, parents win out (possibly because all the teachers in the kids class have our own kids in the program and we're ultimately more worried about their overall upbringing than their judo ... typical Y judo club, we don't get paid, we teach because we want our kids to take judo and if we don't do it no one will - though actually it's kind of fun, if only because our kids actually listen to us on the mats :icon_chee.

If nothing else, testing makes the sense of accomplishment bigger for kids (we downplay the importance of belts for adults, but for kids a sense of progress is important).

With the adults we figure they're getting tested enough in the real world, so there's no need to do it, except for black belt, and there its not our decision, Judo Canada sets the requirements and the provincial grading board does the testing.
 
Jim J said:
When you pay for formal testing, is there additional time spent out of the ordinary class time? I guess it would make sense to pay something if the instructor is having to spend extra time with you. Our instructor just promotes you when he wants to.
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i would assume that any fee would be towards the instructor time, somewhat like a private lesson. I do agree that they should just surprise you during class, i think whippings are reasonable. For the price of most schools they "should" supply you with the belt, but i don't think its a big deal to have to buy your own.
 
School owners are people too, give 'em a break. The stripes they put on your belt cost them money, the belts cost them money, and above all else, their time is worth money.

Do you work for free? OR do you, like any school owner, like getting paid for the work that you do?
 
mvisit1 said:
School owners are people too, give 'em a break. The stripes they put on your belt cost them money, the belts cost them money, and above all else, their time is worth money.

Do you work for free? OR do you, like any school owner, like getting paid for the work that you do?
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Why not surprise and promote someone at the beginning or end of class, use another student's belt just for the symbolism of giving you a new belt, and so people can take pictures. then you go buy your own belt from where ever you want?


That doesn't use any extra of the instructors time, and it doesn't cost him anything. Hell you're already paying him monthly..that should be enough.
 
At my Club - there are regular grading days.

You pay a pre-registration administration fee to book in for the "Belt Test" of
 
I have to pay to get the certificate that certifies my rank. you only pay it when you are promoted.
 
No tests.
No promotion fee.
Usually a spare belt to promote (from what I've seen).
After that I'm not sure whether or not you need to get your own belt.
 
I am strongly against paying for promotions. One of the few exceptions is if you are training with a Brown or Purple belt and you have to pay for the black belt seminar. I am still not a fan of this, but I can see why it is necessary if there is no black belts near by and you have to pay for him to visit. But paying more then 10$ for a belt and ANYTHING for a strip should be a warning sign.
 
my school used to never charge for promotions.

but now my school is charging around $60 for a belt test not to mention 15 - 20 bucks on 6 colored bullshit mcdojo candy ass stripes.
 
I train Hakko ryu jiu jitsu, and we do have fees for belt promotions, which cover the cost of the belt, certificates, etc. When someone is promoted from ik kyu(1st brown) to shodan, they also pay for the photographer, video taping, flowers, chairs, and their hakama. The fees are generally fair, as we also pay low monthly fees to train.
 
we pay i believe its 25 bucks at my place. you get the belt and a certificate for that price so all in all not bad at all considering belt alone is 20 bucks if you bought it.
 
In our association, only black belts can award rank - even stripes. We have none in house. So that means the only time anyone is promoted is during the black belt seminars which cost $150 for two days.

The seminars themselves are worth it. But it seems a little much. Especially when the promotions that do happen are based partially on the advice of the junior instructors from within the club. There is no formal test.

I know two guys who have been no-stripe white belts for well over a year. One of them just cannot afford it. The other misses the seminars because he's in the air force.
 
I really have no idea. My instructor is a blue belt, and my school is an offshoot of another school that has a few black belts I think, so when I get good enough for my blue will the parent school guy give me the belt even though I don't pay him any fees? hmmmm, I need to ask.
 
What is all this belt testing BS? I got my belt while sparring at the end of class after getting my ass beat with it
 
No fees for anything...and our "belt test" consists of 15 min (for Blue) of getting your ass handed to you by all the colored belts present that day (new person rotating in every 1.5 min).

Following the beatdown, you crawl through the gauntlet and get whipped by everyone.

Btw, my gym is the "headquarters" of Gameness, so we have more than a few new belts lying around and no one ever has to pay for the new belt they receive.
 
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