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Post by malk103 on Aug 18, 2015 20:39:41 GMT
Thinking of the old old days before we had lots of coloured belts and Kyu/Dan grades then I get the impression there was just three belt colours and no formal gradings. Sensei would decide when you could move on and just hand you a new belt.
I think there are some MA styles that don't have gradings - do you know any Karate clubs like this?
I'm in the position of now running my own club, I've linked in with a few good local clubs and pick and choose where I train and what aspects I like - I may copy a certain way if I prefer it. I have done 4 gradings of my own - I get in other Black belts to help or to grade my 1st Kyu's as I don't think it should be me and I'm only 2nd Dan - I find each grading has had it's own problems with people not being ready, people being ready long before the next grading, telling students they aren't ready, parents comparing other students etc.
Have a strict rule that nobody should ask when they can grade, they all know what is expected as my syllabus is on my website. When someone has done enough time, training hours AND reached a good enough standard then I would inform them. When I think it's time I just award a new belt. We may have to agree for them to pay a small fee to cover costs - I'm not into making a profit so don't charge much for grading anyway.
My hope is that everyone would focus on their training and reaching a good standard, I may lose a few that are more focused on the next belt than working for it.
What do you think to changing to having no formal grading?
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Post by gazrichards on Aug 18, 2015 21:44:24 GMT
I suppose I do something similar. I grade the students when I feel they are ready to progress, rather than at set intervals. For 25 years I was in clubs that did 3 or 4 gradients a year and it caused a lot of problems. The standard of student varied massively and some students were put through a grading even though they were not good enough in the hope that they would "catch up" for next time, they rarely did and were generally just crap all the way up till they quit! All I do now is hand a letter out to the student saying they are ready to progress and they will grade the following week the latter also tells them to bring in their grading record book and the fee (which I am able to make far more reasonable due to lower overheads involved in doing gratings in this manner) It works for me as I am not having to plan extra sessions for grading system and it works for the students as they do not have to commit to extra days for grading system sessions (this was always another issue with grading system before, kids spend the weekend at granny's or playing football or whatever and other commitments have to be moved for karate gradings). If a student is good I would grade them once a month if necessary, this is pretty much unsustainable though and most students level out after a year or so and fit into the normal patterns. Occasionally with the kids I make a few wait a week or two before grading them just so I am not doing gradings every week. I make some wait until others are good enough to grade with them. It only makes the good ones better in the long run. The gradings I just do in everyone's normal session time, the higher grades just see it as practice of lower kata etc and the lower grades I can easily make do their own kata or make them try the higher level stuff for a lesson. Often if I look at my students grading records the good ones are grading on average every 3 months, the less good maybe every nine months so it certainly isn't a money making excercise. For brown belt and above I grade twice a year which is the only predetermined grading dates I do. Personally this was the best change I made when I set up my own dojos and if I tell the students how it used to be done they look flabbergasted!
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Post by malk103 on Aug 19, 2015 8:37:31 GMT
That's exactly what I mean Gaz, thanks for replying. You've detailed all of the problems I have found so far, the last grading was not a nice event at all as there were a few who didn't put in the final effort that I was hoping for - they knew 4 weeks before and we concentrated on syllabus stuff but there were some disappointing grades.
At the moment I have moved the next grading to be done in 6 months from now and only plan to have 2 next year - this then holds back the few that are working well and there may be pressure to grade someone rather than them wait another 6 months. Another club nearby does them every 3 months but selects who is ready, this means more gradings and more rent etc. I would rather run some fun training on the odd weekend than put everyone through a grading.
Formal grades are what everyone else does but I think that some things should be open to change, Karate in general is not in fashion and it can be hard to attract new students, I am always up front with people when they enquire about starting and ask about costs, I think if someone told me that I would have to pay to join, pay to train and then pay for the Instructor to tell me that I can move up a level... sounds almost as bad as signing up to a direct debit and a years "fast-track" contract!
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Post by gazrichards on Aug 19, 2015 14:22:08 GMT
As I said, it has worked really well for me in the past 5 years or so. A few of the other positives are that the younger kids are no longer nervous about going into a grading as the venues are much smaller and there are far less people around than when we used to do gradings with multiple clubs attending at once. Also I find I am spending less time repeating the syllabus over and over as I used to in the 5 or 6 weeks up to the gradings. Peoples non karate lives interfere less with the way I want to run my club too. If I tell someone they are ready to grade and they then say they are on holiday for a fortnight I tell them I will reassess their progress when they get back to the dojo. Another thing I have found is that all the students of similar grade tend to get ready to move up about the same time as I have probably been working on a particular kata or drill for a few weeks. I have seen no drop in standard, in fact probably the opposite. There have been no complaints about the change of grading system from those that knew the old way and no one complains about having to pay to grade. In the grading fee they get certificates and belts which all costs money and things like dance and music exams are run on a similar method anyway. I feel that old way of grading only really suited a "chief instructor" type that could waltz around and grade multiple students at once without ever getting to know any of them and could grade in a few areas over the space of a weekend and walk away with sack full of cash!
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Post by fighterandfitness on Oct 28, 2020 9:46:07 GMT
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Post by johnnewman on Nov 3, 2020 14:18:03 GMT
As your journey through the Grading system is a personal one, there is no definitive answer for how long it takes a student to reach his or her Black belt. The average time however would be around 5 years.
Considering there are 10 Kyu grades up to Black belt, this means a student who grades to Black belt in 5 years is grading every 6 months on average. Having said that, gradings occur more frequently as a beginner and the time between gradings increases as you progress.
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