11/08/2026
Grading Day
What do our gradings entail?
For adults, the grading begins with a mandatory fitness test. If you can’t pass it, you fail.
The fitness test gets progressively harder with each belt. If you aren’t prepared to put in the effort to make sure you’re fit to fight, then there’s little point in learning the techniques. If you’re getting out of breath walking up the stairs, the techniques we teach aren’t going to help you when it really matters.
We do condition you during class, but there are only so many hours you can train in the dojo. You have to maintain your fitness outside the dojo as well as inside it.
Once the fitness test is complete, the next hour and a half consists of back-to-back stress tests.
There’s no standing around demonstrating techniques slowly and steadily. We aren’t looking for a calm, perfect stance. You are going to be attacked — properly. You have to respond under pressure. If you can’t, it’s game over.
It’s not for the faint-hearted.
But if you genuinely believe that your life, or the lives of others, are worth protecting, then you’ll stick at it. You’ll push through the discomfort, harden up, and learn to perform when it actually counts.
That’s what grading is about.