Innovative rank systems?

[masterphoenix]

I was wondering if anyone can provide ideas for innovative ranking or encouragement. I don't want to go so far as to condition my students to having something handed to them every week and being seen as a McDojo, but it does seem that the majority of effective teachers I've seen today have expanded their ranking systems in some way.

I see schools that have nineteen belt changes before black. I don't want that, it means they are changing belts at a rate of every month (at least in the time it takes to get black there.) I might want to expand the forms of recognition a student receives to make it a little more frequent for encouragement, but I don't want anyone's ego to be inflated, or anyone to train on the basis of being handed something all the time either. I recognize that the rank system has a job to do in bringing someone to black belt and hopefully helping them to become a lifetime martial artist. In that recognition, it is my opinion that the colored belts only matter so much. What makes them legit or not is whether or not they have helped to create a quality martial artist and black belt. I am willing to make some changes if I see benefit to adding a few more forms of recognition. I'm not necessarily stuck on the idea of more belts, but more of something might be helpful, based on what I'm currently seeing from bigger schools who are producing quality black belts.

In my main system, currently we have only five belt tests before black. The only other achievements marked on the uniform are leadership team, assistant instructor or instructor - a single recognition based on where are in terms of leadership training. All in all, I realize this may be an old school method that isn't working as well as it could.

So the question is, what do you do? What have you seen? What works for you? What can you suggest for reasonable reward and status without facilitating weakness and arrogance?

[Lupin1]

I've seen a lot of schools that do seperate tape stripes for different achievements within each belt rank. For instance, once you have your kata for that belt down you get a red stripe, once you show you've improved in kumite to the point expected for your belt you get a green stripe, once you've learned your kihon you get a black stripe, once you've met the time requirement (if there is one) you get a brown stripe, etc. It breaks each belt down into smaller goals, allows the instructors to instantly see what each student still needs work on just by looking at their belt, and it gets rid of the old "am I ready to test yet" question because the student knows they wont be ready to test until they have all their stripes for that belt.

[isshinryu5toforever]

I was going to say the exact same thing, but maybe the old-school system is the way to go. I like the old system. Fewer belts, but it makes them more worth getting.

Here's an idea, I don't know if you do this already, but you could do what they do in a lot of schools in Japan, and even Korea. They have all the ranks on a wall, and all the student's names listed under. Like so:

10th kyu 9th kyu 8th kyu 7th kyu etc.

Student1 Student2 Student 3 Student 4

In the places I've seen this done well, it's an honor to be on the wall, and instructors and outstanding competitors are marked as such. It could be a tool for encouragement if executed in the right way.

[masterphoenix]

I was going to say the exact same thing, but maybe the old-school system is the way to go. I like the old system. Fewer belts, but it makes them more worth getting.

Here's an idea, I don't know if you do this already, but you could do what they do in a lot of schools in Japan, and even Korea. They have all the ranks on a wall, and all the student's names listed under. Like so:

10th kyu 9th kyu 8th kyu 7th kyu etc.

Student1 Student2 Student 3 Student 4

In the places I've seen this done well, it's an honor to be on the wall, and instructors and outstanding competitors are marked as such. It could be a tool for encouragement if executed in the right way.

At this time, all of our affiliated classes are held in fitness centers, churches and public schools, so unfortunately, the wall thing won't work for us, but it was a good idea. Thanks for taking the time to suggest it.

[sensei8]

WHITE and BLACK; the rest are blah, blah, blah! Would that belt system work today? Not today, maybe tomorrow, wherever tomorrow is.

[Calibrex]

WHITE and BLACK; the rest are blah, blah, blah! Would that belt system work today? Not today, maybe tomorrow, wherever tomorrow is.

It certainly does. In south florida at an all age TKD school, they have a belt system of white, yellow, orange, blue, purple, brown, red, and then black --- there are 2 milestones per belt one much reach (represented with a black duck tape stripe on the end of the belt).

Also, for certain achievements, like the split club or know certain specials forms, or even winning some kind of in-school tournys, you can award stars or stripes for the gi or pant leg.

[isshinryu5toforever]

No offense, but I despise the doboks and do-gis with stripes or stars or patches all over them. BJJ guys are the exception, because it's usually for their tournament sponsors. Competitions get expensive. If you're just doing it for a ranking system though, I'm not really big on it.

[sensei8]

WHITE and BLACK; the rest are blah, blah, blah! Would that belt system work today? Not today, maybe tomorrow, wherever tomorrow is.

It certainly does. In south florida at an all age TKD school, they have a belt system of white, yellow, orange, blue, purple, brown, red, and then black --- there are 2 milestones per belt one much reach (represented with a black duck tape stripe on the end of the belt).

Also, for certain achievements, like the split club or know certain specials forms, or even winning some kind of in-school tournys, you can award stars or stripes for the gi or pant leg.

But again, this school has all of the rainbow, but, I'm referring to a rank system of White AND Black ONLY; two belts, and no more!! I don't think that this, White AND Black ONLY, would go over well in the mainstream of commercial martial arts schools today. Why? M-O-N-E-Y!!

[Capt Jakk]

Does it have to be something on the belt or Gi? A certificate given out in front of the class also gives recognition but isn't something a person could easily show off on a regular basis.

[ninjanurse]

Here is what out system does presently. It is designed to take a student at age 3 to Black Belt-each grouping takes 3 years to complete so a 3 year old would be minimum 12 years old to be eligible for jr. Black belt.

Ages 3,4,5

white

orange/white (stripe)

yellow/white

green/white

purple/white

blue/white

brown/white

red/white

red/white-orange tab (tests into white/orange)

Ages 6,7,8

white

white/orange (stripe)

white/yellow

white/green

white/purple

white/blue

white/brown

white/red

white/red-yellow tab (tests into yellow)

Ages 9+

white

orange

yellow

green

purple

blue

brown

red

red-black tab

probationary black

Novice Black Belt