Standards For Promotions

[bushido_man96]

I am curious as to what kind of standards or guidelines others use in regards to knowing if a student is ready to test for the next rank.

Lets start at white belt, for example. What do you want to see before you move someone into testing for the next grade? Front stances formed properly with front knee bent and back leg straight on all of them? Do you look for a certain level of power to be present? Or do you just use the eyeball test to tell you if someone is ready to test or not?

I guess what I am asking is if you use some set markers of improvement that you can see in techniques, or do you use an eyeball type of test that lets you see that someone is ready?

[Nidan Melbourne]

depending on the grade we will usually require them to know the syllabus.

For white belts we require them to be able to know how and show that they know how to perform the basics. Kata by the count and even better if they can do it on their own. Pre-arranged sparring whilst stationary.

For stances they have to be able to show they can move forwards and backwards.

We want them to show the techniques that are strong and to see at least some hip movement.

For all our kyu grades we use a 'tag' system where you have to get 5 'tags' before being eligible to grade. Each 'Tag' represents a different part of the syllabus that they have passed for each belt.

Tag 1 - Basic

Tag 2 - Combinations

Tag 3 - Kata

Tag 4 - Pre-Arranged Sparring

Tag 5 - Kumite

Although for White Belts they have

Tag 1 - Kicks

Tag 2 - Basics

Tag 3 - Combinations

Tag 4 - Kata

Tag 5 - Pre-Arranged Sparring

The main exception to the rule is for our kyu grades are for the 1st Kyu's where they can grade for their Shodan-Ho with 4 tags where they don't have their kumite tag. But the only time that they can grade with 4 is if there is not enough time to get that last tag.

[bushido_man96]

I like the idea of the tags, and years ago in my ATA school, we did that. One tag for the basics required for the rank, one for the form, and one for the one-steps. I think its very helpful for an instructor, allowing him or her to see at a glance who needs work with what.

Here's a very basic example that comes from one of the schools in our association. Before testing for green belt, the students have to do a back stance with the front foot forward on a very regular basis, without being told to correct it. That's three ranks in for us. I think its a good one, to, and easy to gage. I'm sure its not his only criteria, but you can see what I mean with this example.

Nidan Melbourne, thanks for those examples. That's along the lines I was thinking of.

[Rateh]

We do several things, I'll give you an example of a 5-7 year old white belt.

First, they need to earn 8 stripes ("tags"), each a different color, that correspond to different parts of the curriculum.

They also have to earn a behavior stripe and an attendance stripe.

Once they have earned all 10 stripes they are eligible to test at the next test.

Another thing we do is called "Levels of Detail"

For example: we have 4 Levels of Detail for Basic Kicks each including 3 physical areas and one understanding

Level 1) Must have good kihap, effort, and the techniques need to look like what they are (or in other words, if you see them perform a kick you should immediately be able to identify what kick they were throwing). For understanding they must know the technique by name.

Level 2) Must have good focus, balance, and include all of the steps. For understanding they must be beginning to understand the importance of proper technique.

We have Levels of Detail for everything from basic kicks to self-defense.

At each rank in the curriculum it states what Level of Detail students must be able to perform the moves at. This keeps everything consistent.

So for that 5-7 year old white belt to earn their Brown Stripe, they must perform their blocking set and their first two kicks all with Level 1 Detail.

[Lupin1]

The teacher in me wishes we did have more set standards. I hope to someday start a small after school club where I teach and one of my favorite pastimes is imagining and drawing out what I'd do for curriculum and standards.

At my club, though, it's very highly subjective. Our head instructor is of the more traditional mindset that all ranks below Shodan are made up necessary evils to keep kids (and adults) interested. If it wouldn't cause 99% of the kids to drop out, he'd probably go back to just white, maybe brown, and black. As such, he's very loose with kyu standards. Basically, each belt has a kata and once the person can perform the kata reasonably well, they move on to the next rank. Basics, combinations, partner drills, etc are seen more as an ongoing thing that a student will cover and develop eventually with longevity of training. Nothing's really ever taught systematically.

The only test we have is for Shodan and the instructor provides every brown belt with a set list of kata, techniques and knowledge required for that, but, as a current Ikkyu I've found I'm responsible myself for ensuring I know everything on the list. There are several techniques and drills on there I've only glossed over (if I've seen them at all) in my 5+ years of training and I'm finding I need to specifically ask my instructor for instruction and resources on those things, which can be a little nerve wracking.

While our lackadaisical system makes the school teacher in me uncomfortable, it's the way we've always done things and, if a student does make it to black belt (a rare occurrence), they know their stuff by then.

[sensei8]

A noted intent! Not in a passing intent, either!!

[RAM18]

The teacher in me wishes we did have more set standards. I hope to someday start a small after school club where I teach and one of my favorite pastimes is imagining and drawing out what I'd do for curriculum and standards.

At my club, though, it's very highly subjective. Our head instructor is of the more traditional mindset that all ranks below Shodan are made up necessary evils to keep kids (and adults) interested. If it wouldn't cause 99% of the kids to drop out, he'd probably go back to just white, maybe brown, and black. As such, he's very loose with kyu standards. Basically, each belt has a kata and once the person can perform the kata reasonably well, they move on to the next rank. Basics, combinations, partner drills, etc are seen more as an ongoing thing that a student will cover and develop eventually with longevity of training. Nothing's really ever taught systematically.

The only test we have is for Shodan and the instructor provides every brown belt with a set list of kata, techniques and knowledge required for that, but, as a current Ikkyu I've found I'm responsible myself for ensuring I know everything on the list. There are several techniques and drills on there I've only glossed over (if I've seen them at all) in my 5+ years of training and I'm finding I need to specifically ask my instructor for instruction and resources on those things, which can be a little nerve wracking.

While our lackadaisical system makes the school teacher in me uncomfortable, it's the way we've always done things and, if a student does make it to black belt (a rare occurrence), they know their stuff by then.

This is the essence of modern karate. Kyu ranks really just show small development which keeps people interested. In my humble opinion Most of the people on this forum are no doubt extremely dedicated to there art and practice regularly but sadly we do not make up the majority of students in the average karate school. A lot are just trying it to get a bit fitter or see what its all about. These people membership money keeps the clubs going so you have to keep them wanting to come back and feel like they are learning.

I find at my school we up the "small things" at about 3rd Kyu. By this i mean correct hip posture, weight distribution, flexibility, etc. and I tend to find that those with a passing interest who perhaps not quite at the standard they need to be either acknowledge this and leave or up their training and dedication and raise themselves to meet the standard of their peers.

Appreciate that this might not be the case at every school. Especially those on the dangerous edge of McDojo pricing but i guess what i'm trying to say is that standards tend to balance themselves out eventually....but there always will be interpretation due to the nature of the age of the art and of styles that exist in Karate today.

[Wastelander]

We have requirements for each rank, with a total of 9 kyu ranks, and for children we have intermediary "training belts" to keep them interested. We aren't super thrilled about doing the training belts, but it's kind of a necessary evil to keep kids coming in. For your example of a white belt going to the next rank (yellow, for us), they must be training for at least 4 months, or 80 class hours. That's a long time for a kid to be doing something without getting a tangible reward.

For the curriculum they need to know, we are flexible with how proper everything needs to be in the lower ranks. For each rank, they have to be able to show us certain stances, blocks, strikes, kicks, sweeps, breakfalls, self defense techniques, and kata, and they have to be able to answer some questions. As long as they get pretty close to what it should be, we're okay with that. The standards get more strict as the students go up in rank, though. By the time they get to 5th kyu, we will have really started working on cleaning up their technique and form.

[mal103]

Quoted from previous replies:

"ranks below Shodan are made up necessary evils to keep kids (and adults) interested. If it wouldn't cause 99% of the kids to drop out, he'd probably go back to just white, maybe brown, and black. As such, he's very loose with kyu standards."

I would love to bin all Kyu gradings and have 3 or 4 steps to Shodan.

I don't have lots of detailed criteria as I don't have the time to keep track of it all, I will "know" when someone is ready to move up, some may still move up on their earlier gradings but I set a certain benchmark for them to get to at certain levels. I will try and describe it below but it can be slightly different for each student due to age, illnesses, past training etc. So long as they put in effort and show an increase of skills then they will progress, they will also need to do their latest Kihon, Kata and Kumite.

10th Kyu - for their first grading then keep it simple, basic skills, do their Kata on their own, 5 step Kumite, allowed to make mistakes. The first can be the hardest as it's all new.

9th/8th/7th - gradual increase in speed and skills, should be using Hikite (pulling) hand in all basic techniques and twisting the hips, should have good stances and show some power!

6th/5th/4th - leading up to Brown belt then this is where I like to see the "click" moment and for maximum effort to start showing. Skills and technique should be good, speed and power should be progressing. Anyone who is still having issues with basic stances/movements will be stopped from grading further.

3rd/2nd/1st Kyu - Brown belts should be learning new Kata and skills with ease and working to their maximum, if anyone here isn't at 100 percent then they will stay on Brown Belt Row until they get on with it or give up.