How old can a child be to take a belt test in Karate?

Question

I know that most of us agree that there should be no such thing as a child black belt...I teach Martial arts, my daughter is a very mature 6 year old, she'll be 7 in a week. She has just passed her yellow belt test. In my program we test about once a year...Yet my question is what age is too young to test? I have not had any tiny tot students, so what is your opinion?

Answer 1

to recieve the next belt higher then a white belt, a student must learn the yellow belt techniques and form.  The movements are quite basic and few of them at that.  I've seen students test at age 6 for their yellow.  It really depends on whether you as a parent / or them as instructors work with the student on understanding principle strikes with blocks.  They wont really care about foot movement at that age...too much.

Answer 2

If kids are old enough to take lessons they are old enough to test.  All kids need encouragement and motivation.  Also my opinion is that I would test more than once a year.  That is a long time to wait.

Answer 3

Age is less important than the student really knowing and being able to do the techniques and material in the test.