Is this a McDojo quality black belt test?

Posted by: Leonine

Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 04:37 PM

Hi, I've pretty much just joined the forums, and I've been reading up on McDojo's. My school seems to have some qualities of a McDojo (thanks to new ownership *grumble*) which are corrupting the lower belts and making their average quality lower. Anyway, all the tests have been made easier to pass, except the black belt test, so I'm wondering if it's that it will already churn out black belts or if there still has to be some kind of quality. Anyway, here goes:

-Write a book detailing all you've learned, including techniques, revelations, forms, etc. Winds up being about 200 pages.
And then the test:
-30 minutes of meditation
-review of all hand technique
-review of all foot technique
-review of cha ryuk sool (mental focusing power)
-review of all forms
-review of yoga
-review of ho shin sool, go jung sool, and jo ruugi sool
-review of nap bup sool (10 feet across, 5 feet high)
-reivew of self-defense against the knife, cqc, stick and gun
At this point a 2 minute rest is given
(3 matches of each)
-review of kickboxing
-review of throwing
-review of wrestling
-review of sport jujitsu
-2 on 1 fighting
-5 breaks
-review of terminology, including the biography of our founder

I think that's it, it takes about 7 hours. I've never seen any other black belt testing so I don't know how to compare this. Easy, hard, or what?
Posted by: Leo_E_49

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 04:51 PM

That's way tougher than what I did, don't worry.

You do yoga???
Posted by: Leonine

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 04:54 PM

Ah, good. Yep, Yoga is great for wrestling and strengthening your core, which is good for not necessarily kicking high, but being able to torque your midsection into the kicks.
Posted by: hedkikr

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 08:16 PM

Meditation, Yoga, Throwing, Wrestling, Sport Jiujitsu. So why is it called TKD?

Different people have different opinions re: BB tests. Some believe that it should be a gruling event (show what you're made of) while others believe that it's a formality instructor should already know what you're made of). 6 of one, half-dozen of the other.

My only other question is why the 200 pg book & not a simple essay? Is the instructor looking for material for his website or is he writing his own book (needs material)?
Posted by: Christie

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 08:21 PM

What exactly are you training in? That seems like a little bit of everything and mastery of nothing to me.

And the 200 page book.. what is that for? What exactly happens to them? And you can't possibly believe that your instructor sits down and reads through every single one word for word.

I think black belt tests are formalities not a test of how you perform when completely and phyiscally exhausted. The instructor should already know if you are a worthy black belt before you test. That is after all the reason why you were invited to test in the first place.

Not so sure about McDojo and not so sure what you are training in.
Posted by: Kintama

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 08:56 PM

As far as an endurance test, it sounds fantastic. I do have questions: do you have a website link or a dojo name?
Is the test in that order?
I'm trying to imagine what a 30 minute meditation test looks like and how someone might possibly 'fail'. if they scratch their nose or fall asleep or something? The sensei giving the test is going to sit there and watch a person meditate for 30 min?
A 200 pg book? so during regular class do you have writing instruction and this tests that instruction? If the physical test is supossedly all you've learned, why require to write about it? strange. (if even true)

a 7 hour test with a 2 minute break huh? now I know you are exagurating.
"Easy, hard, or what?"
I'd say it's Easy to type, Hard to believe and 'or what'.
Posted by: ale_ryu

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/01/05 09:43 PM

Are you a freakin' shaolin or a Taekwondist?
Congratulations if what you've written is true and you passed the exam, but it's really hard to believe, and I agree with Kintama, what's all that writing for? And how do they test your meditation skills?
Another thing I don't get is why you do Yoga, kick boxing, and jiujitsu in a taekwondo dojo, Taekwondo has it's own grappling techniques and it's own sparring rules, makes no sense to me at all...
I suggest the next time you take a belt test make shure there are no hidden cameras around, who knows, maybe while meditating you're being transmitted to a humor themed webpage or something...
Good Luck and Take it easy!
Posted by: Leonine

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 03:54 AM

I probably should've clarified, but it's not TKD, just our art is derived from TKD with JJ thrown in. The book is for ourselves, a documentation of our martial arts knowledge. It's only really 200 pages because everyone puts pictures in, it's more like 30-50 pages of writing. You can fail meditation by, like you jested, falling asleep. Someone did once, and he failed his black belt testing. I haven't taken it yet, I've only helped out...I take mine in about 6 months. And I'm not exagerating about the break, that is for everyone. While the examination runs, you get chances to rest while others go to perform their techniques, so you get breaks during then.
Posted by: Christie

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 12:32 PM

Quote:

The book is for ourselves, a documentation of our martial arts knowledge. It's only really 200 pages because everyone puts pictures in, it's more like 30-50 pages of writing.




Same concept as a training journal I would supose.

Quote:

You can fail meditation by, like you jested, falling asleep. Someone did once, and he failed his black belt testing.




That would suck but what is the purpose of testings ons meditation skills?

Quote:

I haven't taken it yet, I've only helped out...I take mine in about 6 months.




Good luck when you do

Quote:

And I'm not exagerating about the break, that is for everyone. While the examination runs, you get chances to rest while others go to perform their techniques, so you get breaks during then.




That I can believe because the black belt test at my "school year" dojang runs for about 5 hours and there are also no breaks but you get unofficial ones when others are doing their techniques.
Posted by: Leo_E_49

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 12:53 PM

When I became a BB there was no fuss at all (I graded for poom belt 2 years before). My instructor just said, "Go put this on and start the class". After which I started teaching.
Posted by: Christie

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 01:21 PM

Quote:

When I became a BB there was no fuss at all (I graded for poom belt 2 years before). My instructor just said, "Go put this on and start the class". After which I started teaching.




That there is how it should be. I see tests as formalities, often not really necessary.
Posted by: Leo_E_49

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 02:23 PM

Seeing as it took me 9 years to get a BB, I'm glad there weren't any other formalities.
Posted by: Leonine

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 03:10 PM

That's pretty sweet, did you get your other belts like that or did you test for them?
Posted by: Leo_E_49

Re: Is this a McDojo quality black belt test? - 08/02/05 03:31 PM

No I tested for all my others and I will have to test for my coming belts. By qualifying as a 1st Poom in Singapore, you are given your 1st Dan free. I asked my instructor whether there was any test involved. He said "You can fight me for it if you want". I politely declined.

The tests were fairly simple though. Patterns, sparring and certain kick drills. For my poom I had to do 3 patterns, spar with someone larger than me full contact (no padding, I assume it was full contact because I knocked the guy back pretty far with a side kick, winding him and wasn't disqualified) and then spar with a black belt semi contact followed by a 360 roundhouse to back kick drill. Easy really. Although by then I'd been an assistant instructor for about a year, teaching the class drills and taking warmup and warm down sessions. (Quite a big class too, sometimes I was taking over 50 students at age 12. I decided I didn't want to become a full instructor until I was a little older and that's one of the reasons I'm studying Jujutsu now)

In my opinion, it's all about quality not quantity that matters. It should be very apparent who's ready for a black belt and who isn't.