CHILDREN
When starting out, a student is required to take 20 classes at minimum before becoming eligible to test. For students under 6 years of age, the belt/kyu/grade they’ll first test for is either advanced white belt (for students between their 4th and 5th birthdays) or orange belt (for students between their 5th and 6th birthdays); for students 6 years of age or older, they’ll first test for blue belt.
Testing fees are $30 for blue belt; $35 for yellow and senior yellow; $40 for green and senior green; $45 for brown and senior brown. Testing for Junior Black Belt (younger than 18 years of age) is at the discretion of Junshihan Ted and Kaicho Nakamura. The test fee is payable to the parent honbu dojo in NYC.
After the first test/grading/promotion, attendance and retention of instructional material form the basis of subsequent testing. At least 25 classes are required between gradings to test for yellow and senior yellow belt, sometimes more depending upon consistency of attendance and/or retention of material. While gradings can offer motivation to students, they’re not automatically offered after 25 classes at this level. For more advanced grades/kyu, the length of time spent at each grade increases.
ADULT
When starting out, a student is required to do 20 classes at minimum before becoming eligible to test for 8th kyu, the blue belt. After that, testing is offered at the discretion of Junshihan Ted, with consistent attendance, proper interaction with others (rei) and improved skills (waza) being the primary benchmarks for advancement.
Test fees for blue – senior brown belt is are identical to the children’s program fees. Testing for adult black belt (Shodan) requires traveling to New York City to test under the inspection of Kaicho and Nidaime Nakamura at the honbu dojo in NYC. The fees are determined by Kaicho and Nidaime.