Post by malk103 on Apr 2, 2015 13:51:45 GMT
I really enjoy and hate grading time, it's a ritual that students go through to prove themselves as worthy to move up to another belt. For most students it's an unnecessary worry and event as they are normally ready to grade and move on. Some clubs see this as a way of making loads of money and end up giving away belts so long as they pay, others devise methods of fast-tracking students who are good and are willing to pay more. Another set of students realise it's not going to happen due to a lack of effort or engagement and they have fallen short of the standard.
It seems that a grading is a requirement to keep students interested, those that aren't fussed about grading seem to be the ones who will make it, those that fuss about not being able to grade are the ones who will eventually give up. Some clubs have introduced intermediate belts and tags to further prolong the process and sometimes make even more money.
I've read in a few places how belts were managed years ago before Funakoshi copied Kano's coloured belt Kyu/Dan system, from what I gather some just had a 3 belt system and there would be no test or ceremony involved, Sensei would just hand the student their next belt when they thought they were ready. Can't even remember where I read this although some of it may have been in Funakoshi's books.
Do you think the average Western student could cope with this method, at the end of every month call out a student and say "here's your new belt" Rei.
Sometimes I think we need to go through a test phase so we can mentally move on, a few struggle after Shodan as there are no clear short term goals set and they can't envisage 2 years minimum to Nidan, some of these just wanted the trophy so would have stopped anyway.
The reason behind this is that I have lost 2 students this month, one was because of repetition as we are approaching a grading and the other because they were not good enough to grade (due to poor effort and not listening). My old club just handed them out like sweets but we ended up with several Brown belts who couldn't go any further due to rubbish standards, the ones that did were an embarrassment as a Shodan.
As a new club owner I have done 2 gradings and gradually improved the standard of the students, this time I've set the bar higher so am only allowing 2/3's of students to grade. I also have close links to a few other clubs of a good standard who I train with, I have invited some to form a grading panel as I have a 1st Kyu grading. Raising standards has caused problems but a lot of people have said they prefer it.
It seems that a grading is a requirement to keep students interested, those that aren't fussed about grading seem to be the ones who will make it, those that fuss about not being able to grade are the ones who will eventually give up. Some clubs have introduced intermediate belts and tags to further prolong the process and sometimes make even more money.
I've read in a few places how belts were managed years ago before Funakoshi copied Kano's coloured belt Kyu/Dan system, from what I gather some just had a 3 belt system and there would be no test or ceremony involved, Sensei would just hand the student their next belt when they thought they were ready. Can't even remember where I read this although some of it may have been in Funakoshi's books.
Do you think the average Western student could cope with this method, at the end of every month call out a student and say "here's your new belt" Rei.
Sometimes I think we need to go through a test phase so we can mentally move on, a few struggle after Shodan as there are no clear short term goals set and they can't envisage 2 years minimum to Nidan, some of these just wanted the trophy so would have stopped anyway.
The reason behind this is that I have lost 2 students this month, one was because of repetition as we are approaching a grading and the other because they were not good enough to grade (due to poor effort and not listening). My old club just handed them out like sweets but we ended up with several Brown belts who couldn't go any further due to rubbish standards, the ones that did were an embarrassment as a Shodan.
As a new club owner I have done 2 gradings and gradually improved the standard of the students, this time I've set the bar higher so am only allowing 2/3's of students to grade. I also have close links to a few other clubs of a good standard who I train with, I have invited some to form a grading panel as I have a 1st Kyu grading. Raising standards has caused problems but a lot of people have said they prefer it.