r/judo • u/rtsuya Nidan | Hollywood Judo | Tatami Talk Podcast • Jul 01 '25

Judo News British Judo Association Unveils Modernised Dan Grade Pathway

https://www.britishjudo.org.uk/british-judo-unveils-modernised-dan-grade-pathway/
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u/disposablehippo shodan Jul 01 '25

It's good to see the IJF pushing for a more standardized grading around the world. As a non-british person I always found it odd to have a number of ippons as a mandatory requirement for a black belt. Gatekeeping the grade from non-competitive people.

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u/Apart_Studio_7504 ikkyu Jul 02 '25

That requirement is still there. They've made the requirements for the further Dan grades even more points and technical Dan grades need to hold the grade for longer and demonstrate more kata knowledge.

Countries that allow random Dan grades to award Shodan normally have low technical standards nationally. I've had Shodan-Sandan visitors from Hong Kong and Korea who have been equivalent to British blue/brown belts.

The majority of British players want to earn their black belt through competition, I graded a long time ago and I think we started fighting for grades after orange.

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u/disposablehippo shodan Jul 02 '25

Germany has only technical Dan grades. But competitors can get it a year younger because of tournament points. Theres also one optional part of grading exam where you can use your competition results instead of showing additional Kata for example.

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u/AshiWazaSuzukiBrudda ⬛️ shodan -81kg (and BJJ 🟦) Jul 02 '25

Interesting!