Kids Belts !!!

[Safroot]

If you start karate as a KID (9-10 years old) and you reached may be 5th or 6th kyu by say the age of 16 then when you join the adult class you will start from 6th Kyu or 1st kyu again ??!!

May be it's a weird question but I can blame it to my lack of knowledge and experience with karate

[Canadian77]

At our dojo the kids keep the belts they earn - no need to start over. It does take longer for them to earn the belt though, which makes sense to me.

[Safroot]

At our dojo the kids keep the belts they earn - no need to start over. It does take longer for them to earn the belt though, which makes sense to me.

yes, fair enough

[Zaine]

It depends on the school. I've seen schools that, when a kid moves the the adult class, their next test will be for whatever rank is equivalent to their knowledge. For example, if the kid was a 3rd kyu by the kids class standards, he/she will be tested for 5th kyu by adult standards. I have also seen school where once the student moves into the adult class they are held at the rank they have (again, lets say it's 3rd kyu) until they have the proficiency to test for 2nd kyu by adult standards. I don't know which system is better, but they all seem to work more or less.

[mazzybear]

At our club the kids go through 2 belt systems. In the juniour class they have white belts with their coloured stripe in the middle, white/yellow stripe, white/orange stripe and so on. When they reach 3rd white/brown stripe the can come up to the cadet/senior they start over again with solid colour belts yellow,orange,green and so on. I think it's good they start from the beginning though as in the junior class it's just making sure they have the basic punches, kicks and can remember their Kata straight through. Coming to the cadet/senior class can be a bit of a shock for them because now they have to learn Kihon, Ohyo and Ippon Gumite and their form has to be spot on, whereas the juniors are cut a bit of slack with their form. The instructor likes them to have fun in the class so they are more likely to stick with it, whereas if the were getting roasted for not having perfect kicks they would likely chuck it. Some do chuck it after comig up because they can't handle the change, but generally those who stick with it go on to attain their black belt. The majority of our Dan grades actually started as juniors, so our intructor is definately doing it the right way. IMHO anyway.

M.

[Nidan Melbourne]

we have the same belts for both juniors and seniors.

But we don't change their grade if they move up into the seniors class. But when they do transition into the class it will take longer for them to grade because of the different syllabus requirements for juniors and seniors.

Say a green belt junior moves up into the senior class he will still remain a green belt, but he will take close to an extra 18 (or more) classes to catch up on everything they need to know. For juniors our green belts only need to know up to Taikyoku Mawashi Ichi, but our adults need to know up to Gekesai Dai Ichi (and Ni). But if they (as juniors) excelled and learned those kata already and all the adults syllabus required for that rank they will grade faster.

[Safroot]

I think it's good they start from the beginning though as in the junior class it's just making sure they have the basic punches, kicks and can remember their Kata straight through. Coming to the cadet/senior class can be a bit of a shock for them because now they have to learn Kihon, Ohyo and Ippon Gumite and their form has to be spot on, whereas the juniors are cut a bit of slack with their form.

I totally agree with that !

[Safroot]

Say a green belt junior moves up into the senior class he will still remain a green belt, but he will take close to an extra 18 (or more) classes to catch up on everything they need to know. For juniors our green belts only need to know up to Taikyoku Mawashi Ichi, but our adults need to know up to Gekesai Dai Ichi (and Ni). But if they (as juniors) excelled and learned those kata already and all the adults syllabus required for that rank they will grade faster.

That's exactly what I needed to know

[Nidan Melbourne]

Say a green belt junior moves up into the senior class he will still remain a green belt, but he will take close to an extra 18 (or more) classes to catch up on everything they need to know. For juniors our green belts only need to know up to Taikyoku Mawashi Ichi, but our adults need to know up to Gekesai Dai Ichi (and Ni). But if they (as juniors) excelled and learned those kata already and all the adults syllabus required for that rank they will grade faster.

That's exactly what I needed to know

Most welcome safroot. We have this happen a lot due to many of our students 'aging out' From juniors to adults.

Glad this info helped out

[sensei8]

If a student ages out, they keep said rank. Nothing should change, imho.

In our style, the difference is that said student will only reach the junior BB level, and will stay at that level until they turn 18 years old, which is when they'll test for Shodan.