10 year old black belt

[Woody]

Jimmy Shiner earns black belt in karate at 10 years old (http://www.newsmirror.net/articles/2006/08/17/sports/02sports.txt) :eek:

[Kenpo5th]

Maybe it's just a "Junior" Black Belt. News people tend not to know the difference, as when they did the same story on me 20 years ago. I was NOT a Black belt, I was a "Junior" Black belt, big difference!

[Woody]

Maybe it's just a "Junior" Black Belt.
Never heard of it. What is a "Junior" Black Belt?

[cxt]

Woody

In some systems kids can test for "junior" rank--usually in schools where they have age requirements for certain ranks.

They take the "junior" test, then when they get older they re-test for the rank as an adult.

"Junior" test are usually tilted to what is generally acceptable for a given age.

The dojo where I first trained set the min age for Shodan at 18--some do higher, some do lower---just a function of where a given school or org sets the bar.

Not really any "set" criteria that applies across the board--outside of specfic orgs that is. :)

[powerof0ne]

I know of legit schools where kids can test upwards of junior sandan and when they are 16 they retest for Shodan.
18, huh? A lot of schools I know have 16 for the minimum age for Shodan. This is kind of besides the point but in Brazilian jiu jitsu you have to be at least 16 for blue belt.

[Kenpo5th]

precisely. I have students who have the entire required curiculuum, can perform it well and be an inspiration to other children in the school, but of course, being still a child, may or may not be able to handle themselves against an adult opponent of equal "rank". Therefore, until age 16, we only present "Junior" Black Belts. In my style, a Junior Shodan is a Black Belt with a solid white stripe down the middle, letting everyone know that this child has all the material of a black belt, a minimum of 4 years in training, but are still to young to test for adult rank. At age 16, they are required to re-test for adult rank. :)

[Shitoryu Dude]

Our dojo uses a cutoff of 16 for adult black belts. We've had a good selection of kids under that age test for junior black belt - their belts have a white strip down the middle to indicate status.

[sanningake]

Our Aikido association will only grade juniors to a junior brown belt, but we allow them to accumulate black stripes so it is conceivable if the junior is young enough then they can cover their brown belt completely, although I have never seen this happen. Besides they start to grade as adults from around 14 years of age anyway and are unlikely to be graded to shodan much before 18 years of age.

Regards

[clarky]

I cannot see the problem here.
if someone has demonstraited that they are sutable and can honer the grade they have been give the age should not be a problem.

but look at the japanese old systems, in my style th eold grandmaster was given full mastership at 13! (that's mastership not just blackbelt!)

Born in 1887 into a family of samurai lineage, he was taught by his uncle, Masamitsu Toda, a phenomenal warrior, from whom Takamatsu Sensei inherited the martial art systems of Shinden Fudo Ryu, Gyokko Ryu, Togakure Ryu, and Koto Ryu.

When he was only 13 years old, Takamatsu was given Menkyo Kaiden (full mastership) of Shinden Fudo Ryu.

[MikeWilliams]

Our dojo uses a cutoff of 16 for adult black belts. We've had a good selection of kids under that age test for junior black belt - their belts have a white strip down the middle to indicate status.

That's the system used by the WJJF (British jujutsu org that I used to belong to). I've seen them take flak for awarding 10-yr olds "black belts", when in fact they are doing nothing of the sort. The Junior Black Belt syllabus is drastically cut down from the adult syllabus, and you have to retest for shodan once you're 16.

BJJ uses entirely different coloured belts for Juniors. As Brian said, no blue belt until you're sixteen.

Any art that has joint locks or chokes in its curriculum should *not* be teaching these to kids, IMO.

[dilligaf]

Just about nothing makes me sadder then little kids with blackbelts. I just wish I had kids so I could seek them on those blackbelt children.

[Kenpo5th]

Tong Zi Gong - Shaolin Virgin Kung Fu, practiced ONLY by children under 12... usually...