After receiving suggestions from our membership and updates from various committees, we are excited to be releasing the new “United States Judo Association Judo Rank Promotion System – Judo Manual, 11th Edition”.
To continue to be the leading Judo association in the United States and remain competitive with the other judo organizations, we are making a few major changes to our promotion process. We believe our black belts are more than qualified to evaluate and promote the students within their clubs. Therefore, we have eliminated the CRE program as of October 2020 and all certified USJA blackbelts will have the authority to promote any active Junior or Senior Kyu USJA member, up to one rank below their own. Example: Shodan can evaluate and promote any active Junior or Senior Kyu USJA member up to the rank of Ikkyu. We also believe that our certified USJA blackbelts are qualified to evaluate and recommend for promotion any Shodan – Godan, up to one rank below theirs.We are excited to announce thatUSJA will also be eliminating the promotion fees for all Junior and Senior Rokkyu-Ikkyu promotions.
SUMMARY OF CHANGES
1. All references to the USJA Certified Rank Examiner Program were removed effective 21 October 2020.
2. The Regional Coordinator was added as a point of contact if a USJA member had any questions concerning the required paperwork and documentation for promotions. The Regional Coordinators are a separate committee under the USJA (see https://www.usja.net/committee/regional).
3. The number of signatures and grades of the examiners required for Judo promotions were changed as shown in the Proper Rank and Number Required to Sign-Off Table.
4. For those USJA members seeking promotions to 6th – 8th Dan, the levels of activities required were changed as shown in the Level of Activities Table.
5. The required rank and number of examiners for USJA Judo Rank Validation changed and with the elimination of the CRE program, no CRE is required.
6. USJA will also be eliminating the promotion fees for all Junior promotions and Senior Rokkyu-Ikkyu promotions.
7. Tables 4 & 5 were changed, combining various sections.
8. The Dan TIG/Points were revised to be consistently reducing points required as “Time In Grade” increases.
9. All required forms have been revised to reflect the above changes.