Leniency on younger students?

[Wa-No-Michi]

Blimey , in the most part the tough love seems to be coming from the girlies here.

Mind you, although I spent best part of twenty years squaring up to some of the meanest looking blokes (in my comp years), they pailed into insignificance when it came to a telling off from my little Irish mum.

Jees she'd put the fear of god into any man.

[Tiger1962]

Blimey , in the most part the tough love seems to be coming from the girlies here.

Mind you, although I spent best part of twenty years squaring up to some of the meanest looking blokes (in my comp years), they pailed into insignificance when it came to a telling off from my little Irish mum.

Jees she'd put the fear of god into any man.

LOL

[Kruczek]

A good person puts his students first, which means making sure you don't make a 9 year old cry.

A good teacher has to put the karate first and try his best to make the 9 year old understand he is improving, but still needs work.

I think this is where putting stripes of electrical tape on the tips of the belt to show progress should be used. If you see the child improving in kicking for example, but not punching you can give him a stripe to show that he is progressing towards his next belt, but not destroy rank structure. So for example if you test a child and he knows the sequence to kata but can't do it at an adequate speed or his moves are sloppy, you could give him two stripes (with a maximum of 3) to show he is almost there. He feels better because he is promoted, no one else feels like the belts are meaningless because you are giving them to kids who aren't up to par.

A child old enough to think "o the stripes are just to humor me" doesn't need to be given them anyway.

A junior blackbelt should NEVER be given leeway on a test. If he/she does not know it to the same degree as an adult blackbelt how could they ever be expected to show someone else the correct way? If they are not to teach until they are an adult anyway then that is one more reason they should remain a brown belt until they ARE ready to show others.

Just my 2 cents and my apologizes if I repeated myself, it is late.

[ninjanurse]

Had an interesting comment from and adult student whose son is a junior student. "You must agonize sometimes over promoting or not promoting a young student whose technique is not as good". Of course this opened the door to a whole conversation on standards, A/B/C students, etc., but it reminded me of the perspective and expectations parents have for their kids and how important it is to emphasize the personal aspects of martial arts to them so that they feel you are doing the right thing for their kid when you are tough on them or cut them some slack.