I was working with a recently promoted black belt who's roughly 16 years old yesterday and I found that she could not do most techniques from a basic grab because she couldn't move (i.e. move around or break the grab). It made me wonder about the validity of such young black belts.

And before you start yelling McDojo, she's the only <18 year old student anywhere near that rank and has studied for > 5 years. On one hand she is very smooth and flowing. Her maai is solid and her balance is there. And she has certainly studied long enough and earned the right to test. However because she studied in the kids class the whole time where the kids don't grab very hard and because of her very small stature she just can't really seem to do techniques on adults without a lot of cooperation. I really wonder how valid her black belt is in terms of applying aikido.

I'm just curious what other opinions on this are.

Her technique here is probably poor I'm not sure I'd have to say. However I've been training since I was 15 and therea are no kids classes here. I've always trained with adults who are serious about doing techniques that work. i've never encountered this problem.

Does it matter?

Just train.

Well, I guess it does matter to me because I begin to wonder about the validity of my own rank. I begin to wonder what things I have been able to slide by with. I also wonder how much it hurts the image of the dojo to promote people whose techniques, for whatever reason, may not be up to par. I also wonder if it's fair to them to promote them.

It's not something that got me really worked up; I'm just being a little philosophical about it. And I do just train. Just food for thought.

If you question your technique find someone who will give you full resistance in practice. Realize you could get hurt doing this or you could hurt them but if you seriously want to have valid technique you have to practice it validly. Thats the only way. I have 2 brothers so finding full resisting partners is no problem for me.

The only person you should be comparing with is the person you were yesterday, the person you are today, and the person you want to be tomorrow. You are your own benchmark. Not some 15 year old black belt.

As for the dojo's image, that's the sensei's problem, not yours.

Of course you should compare yourself with others. How else would you ever judge your progress. If 15 year old girl can't cut, she shouldn't be a black belt. Promotions based soley on time in the dojo,or political reasons are b.s. and dangerous to the student. This young women has it in her head that she is a black belt, if God forbid she is attacked she will may try to fight where maybe she should just run. I am a Police Officer and I have seen many young TKD black belts injured because of the mindset b.s. ranks install.

All the more reason you should not compare yourself to anyone else.

Comparative benchmarks are unrealistic. Everyone is different. How can you compare yourself with a 15 year old (or an 8 year old)? Unless of course, you consider yourself to be in the same league....

Hey thats cute, I think you missed the entire point

And the point being...?