Is a physical fitness test part of your testing regimen?

[TNT]

Just out of curiousity,if you are still testing for kyu rank, does your test involve things that you normally don't do in class, such as testing one's physical fitness prior to beginning a test? I need some feedback to find out how other schools test. Thank you.

[cakegirl]

At my karate school, there is no physical fitness test for kyu grades. The grading is like an ordinary class, except that the students try harder because they know Shihan is watching

The black belt grading, though, has a 5km run with a time limit (which varies, depending on the applicant's age and gender), followed by a 2 minute rest, then 100 pushups, 100 situps, and 100 squat kicks that must be completed in that order, and within 10 minutes.

[TNT]

Hi, Cakegirl!
Thanks for responding. I guess I'll know what to expect for a black belt test now.

[cakegirl]

Well, all schools are different, but those are the fitness requirements for my karate school. The grading itself goes for about 2 days, and the fitness test is the first thing on the first day.

There are then many more requirements that have to be met, with regard to knowing and understanding the syllabus, being able to perform certain tasks, sparring against a number of partners, as well as "challenges", which are non-karate, but are designed to test candidates' physical and mental abilities.

These might be some sort of relay race against people who are already black belts (relaying cups of water through an obstacle course to fill up a bucket, or carrying partners from one side of a pool to the other without letting them get wet, etc), or communication tasks, or riddles, ropes courses, etc.

[osopardo]

I believe physical fitness tests are more common for blackbelt ranks, but usually we sneak in a more grueling, fatiguing "warm-up" during test days, just before the test, so that you're already dripping sweat and exhausted and breathing hard when you're asked to perform the physical parts of the test, such as board breaking and sparring and doing forms. It becomes more of a challenge to be energetic and mobile and powerful and coordinated when you just want to flop down on the floor with a bottle of water...