Black Belt Grading Fees

[David Craik]

Gen. Choi never wore any such nonsense.

Maybe he wasn't attracted to "the Korean mystique", being Korean and all.

God, what a load of silliness.

[torbjork]

Just to chip in - the fees that I paid;
1st dan TKD $150, including three-day dan seminar and plain BB
1st dan HKD $ 435 *) including name-embroidered BB
2nd dan TKD $ 65 **) Including name-embroidered BB
2nd dan HKD $ 65 plus a very irritating bank fee ($ 30 or somesuch) and some international postage ($20 or so)


*) This was a special case because my HKD instructor negotiated with the awarding grandmaster for us to skip all the colour ranks and associated tests and just take the dan test, as we had been training for some years without formalized rank tests. Said grandmaster at the time would have carried out and charged for these, and that WAS his business and livelihood.

**) See above, these two tests were done on the same day. As part of the deal, I and a couple of others only paid the Kukkiwon cert fee on the TKD side of things.

I haven't promoted anyone to BB yet (and can't, 4th dan is minimum to recommend for 1st-3rd in both of the orgs I belong to), but if or when I do I expect I'll charge the relevant federation fee plus local expenses (I have to pay my bank to transfer the fees internationally among other things). In order for me to make it a revenue source I'd have to charge so exorbitantly it'd just be...silly

[SteyrAUG]

Unfortunately, most if not all testing fees is strictly a means of getting students to cough up more and more money. I have seen many of McDojo/McDojang charge students for these regularly scheduled tests (like every two months or less) and just consider it part of their revenue stream.

It's a shame that martial arts have become about making money rather than making martial artists.

Oh and for the record, I do not charge for testing or promotion, and like Cliff's example, I usually buy the belt for them. The only charges that a student might incur would be if they choose to register their rank with the US Jujutsu Federation, but I leave that up to them until they make Sankyu.

All of the above.

Usually by the time a student is ready for a Yudansha rank he is considered a close friend and there is usually more than one embroidered belt waiting for him as a gift.

[Badjer]

The testing fees that my instructor charged me at his training hall was $35/month. This was regardless of whether it was your white belt or black belt test. Also, we did not get tested after a set amount of time such as every 6 months. As we got further into our training it took longer to get to the next test. Our testing fee did, of course, include the belt and certificate with it. No one has ever had their belts embroidered with us before but I imagine if they did we would keep it as affordable as possible.
Cheers!

[kodanjaclay]

I rarely wear a belt these days. Actually, I rarely wear a unifrom either. I typically wear a honbok. With a t-shirt under so I can take off the jacket. As a Korean martial artist, one thing I was seeing more and more of was flash. Case in point - look at the USCDKA master belt.

When I do wear one, my belt is embroidered but only has my promoting organization and my name in hangul. I don't have bars or anything else. What is the point? I liken it to when I studied Taijiquan - actually that is where I got the idea from I think -

No one wears anything special... and yet you clearly "know" who your seniors are and who the Sifu is. That is the model I try to follow. When I visit another school, my t-shirt is a school t-shirt so that I am in their "uniform".