What Are Belt Tests Like?
More straightforward than you’d probably think. The student proceeds through the categories of techniques and performs them with an uke. The hardest part is that there is no prompting, and no notes allowed. The student is expected to know (and execute) all the techniques required for that belt-level from memory. Tests are also comprehensive (i.e., everything from your belt-level and below, not just the new stuff) so consequently the higher the belt-level the longer the test. After the techniques there is also sparring and grappling. See Belt-Test Preparation for specifics on how to prepare for a test. For the upper belts, Jim likes to throw in a few surprises, but that’s only at the upper-belt level. For lower belts (e.g., yellow to green) the focus is more on the number of techniques, such as 5 bearhugs for yellow and 10 for green, etc. For the upper-belts (purple and up) the difference is less about the number of new techniques and more about the smoothness of execution, and the abil
