Old way vs. New way

[zuluking]

Old way: You learn 1-2 katas a year, you receive 1-2 belts per year.

 

New way: You learn 1 kata every belt, you receive a new belt every 3-6 months.

 

Which is better? Discuss.

[gojuchad]

i think that grading and instruction should be on a personal level, different people learn different ways. I am from a very traditional school so of course I lean toward the old ways. When goju first started Miyagi would teach his students only one kata thats right you would only learn one kata. So there is enough in just one kata to keep you busy learning for years.

[gojuchad]

also i forgot to mention promotions, I think that it should be when you are ready not just every two months or whatever. I know if you are trying to run the dojo as a business this is hard to do and retain your customers but they should at least be quallified for their rank.

[zuluking]

if you are trying to run the dojo as a business this is hard to do and retain your customers

 

That is the obvious reason ranks are given out so fast in this day and age IMHO.

[gojuchad]

yeah it really is to bad that people cannont be content with improvement in their ability and let the rank happen. By the way what does IMHO mean.

[Chirath]

In My Honest Opinion. Personally I find the old way a bit too slow. Especially now most karate dojo's offer the new way. Although the old way does have some advantages.

[BJJShotoshe]

Personally, I believe that it should depend on how hard the person trains. For me, I did the training all year for one belt and that belt didn't really mean anything to me because I felt that most of my classes were lazy classes and I began to expect my belt. With this "new style" my belts mean so much to me. I know I have worked so hard for the belt over the last 3-10 months. I have really striven to the top and am better off because of it.

[Shorin Ryuu]

Well...in the "old way", they didn't have belts, and they would probably spend several years learning one kata. If you truly master only several kata, or even just one, you have all that you need to serve you in a street fight.

[jedimc]

maybe older styles of kata were much longer and todays are very short and remember todays styles dont have as much attacks as some of thier older ones because the instructer have picked the most effective ones , dpeneds on wat style you do.

[Shorin Ryuu]

I would have to disagree with you. It isn't that some kata were longer than others. It has more to do with the depth that a student would take their kata. Furthermore, I don't think there are any less amount of techniques in "traditional" kata today then there were a hundred and fifty years ago. There are only less techniques (or not) if you focus on the technique itself rather than the concept behind it.