Goin for 3rd Dan

[ria_platt]

Do you have to be a certain age to grade for your 3rd Dan?

[kancho]

Yes and No. No because you can take your third dan at any age if you have fulfiled the criteria. However internationaly your grade would not be recognised as the rules state that a sudent has to be an adult of at least 19years old to be awared a third dan. Therefor we would have to ask you to resit your third dan at 19yrs, plus some aspects of the third dan grading are in physically inapropriate for juniors, eg, levels of contact and impact in the sparring and pad work sections. You are more than welcome to take your third dans at your current age and i think that there is real worth in doing this, do not think that your grade will be treated like a juniour grade as it will carry as much weight as the adult one. Just so long as you understand that it will need ratifying.

[ria_platt]

Thankyou for that infromation because i am 16 but i got told i had to wait untill i was 18 or something to take it.

[kancho]

hope to see you at the next dan grading then, if you need any help or more information about what is expected of you then please do not hesitate to ask, thats what Soke and myself are here for.

[neilcarroll2]

This is and interesting reply, my grandsons has trained with Seiken Ryu for the last 8 years, I must say the standard of coaching has been absolutely first class and it's given me tremendous pride and enjoyment to watch him progress through the grades, he is currently 15 and has been a 2nd Dan for more than 3 years.
He had resigned himself to the fact he would have to wait another 4 years before he could grade again
I'm on the outside looking in and I see him becoming frustrated that there are so many aspects of martial arts he would like to get into which his age prohibits , he's not a boy any more but he's not quite a man.
Picking up on Koncho's comments, if he did grade next year (after his GCSE's) and pass, would he be recognised as a 3rd Dan even though he has not reached the required age.
I guess the question I'm asking (rather badly) is, would you recommend that he grades next year or should he just wait??

[neilcarroll2]

I apologise profusely for spelling 'Kancho' incorrectly, no disrespect intended, I'm not very good with keyboards.

[ria_platt]

On the webiste it says that i need to have a level 2 coaching and a level 2 referee and i dont have any of them but can i still grade for 3rd dan??