Gradings, eep!

m0x1e · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:51 pm Post subject: Gradings, eep!

They're regarded by most as a necessary evil but how many of them per year is smart? I know styles that give a black belt out in (on average) two an a half years and I know styles that take eight years for a black belt (again, on average) so my question is how often should we grade?

Personally, I'm currently having an argument with my sensei because he wants me and all of my students doing two gradings every year whereas I want to keep it to one grading per year. My rationale is that, if I'm going to award them a black belt at some point in the future, then they'd bloody well better be worth it!

Opinions?

Mox
[Edit: Added "less than one" category"]
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Estelindis · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:12 pm Post subject:

Personally, I would prefer to do one grading per year. At a grading, one should show genuine improvement in martial arts, not just surface knowledge of the techniques that are on a particular belt syllabus. In order to gain that knowledge, one has to put a certain amount of work in.

Perhaps it's possible for someone who has lots of free time in which to train to make those improvements, while also grading more than once a year. But I'm not that person. At the moment, I cannot make more than two - or, if there were three during the week, three - self defence classes per week, without it having a negative impact on the other things I want to achieve in my life. So one grading a year it has to be.

What this all comes down to is that I would never wish to grade for a belt I wasn't prepared for.
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Ragdoll · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:17 pm Post subject:

I would feel more comfortable at one gradeing a year. Perhaps this sounds silly but I thought how often you grade is porportionate to your level and ability and therefore would be different rates for different people. I understand though that this wouldn't work in a group/class situation. Still I think one a year is enough for me at this stage.

edited to add the letters ..gh.. in thought

Buffy · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:32 am Post subject:

Wow, am I seeing a trend here? <grin>

I'd be happier taking my time getting grades/belts and not rushing through them. I would rather know techniques well than skim through them all very quickly in order to get the next belt along the line.

I don't think, with the amount of time I am able to give to training (2 classes at the moment, 3 when I'm finished this block of work) I'd be ready for two or more belts a year. While I might manage to pass one or two that way, I don't think I'd really know them properly. Like cramming for an exam, I'd work to get just what was needed (ie, the syllabus as wrote), go through it, and promptly forget it all on the other side of it. If it takes me a little longer than a few goes (or a few weeks/months) to work a throw/technique into my muscle memory, then so be it. I'd rather have it well ingrained in there than forget the next step at a crucial moment, in a real life situation.

At the end of the day, I'm happy enough to let sensei decide, I figure you know a lot more than me about it anyway. If you don't think I'm ready, I won't grade. Likewise, if you think I'll get through it, then I'll at the very least give it my best shot.
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jc · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:47 am Post subject:

Can someone explain to me...

1)How does the grading system work?

2)Who does it?

3)Whats the critera... im mean is it that they can ask you anything off the syllabus and you should know it?

4)Whats the average someone should be doing it that they have a chance of getting the 1st level?

crashaid · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 4:08 am Post subject:

I voted 4, as this is the maximum I'd plan in any given year. But to me this is like asking "how long is a piece of string". Grading is about putting a rubber stamp on someone's abilities. Expectations have been set for different levels of abilities and understandings, and if someone meets these expectations they get the cert/handshake/boot/belt.

To me it doesn't matter how many you have, as long as those who have earned it gets what's coming to them. This might meaning not being allowed to even try the grading, failing on the day, or even skipping grades if they good enough.

I know instructors who don't hold gradings, they just award their students when they know they've "made the grade". When the grading calls for a higer reanked instructor, well then they make arrangements to get a guest judge. In a full time school, I'd personally host one every 3-4 months. In a college club, one towards the end of each semester. This is so that I've given, whoever's ready, the opportunity.

Good Luck to all of y'all. For those who are about to die ... blah, blah, blah Wink

Estelindis · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 3:23 pm Post subject:

Crashaid, when you say you'd plan four, do you mean that you'd expect students to gain four grades every year, or that you would hold four gradings each year, which different people would attend?
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"It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from."
- C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

KMcD · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 5:33 pm Post subject:

I say two grades a year is the perfect amount. Most karate clubs give four grades a year with the result that beginners (well, green belts anyway) in my home club would have no prob taking on a black belt from any karate club. (note this is not a challenge so don't take as such, just a reality. If you don't believe me ask Mox about squad training sessions with my instructor.)

I can see ppls point in taking only one grading per year but it shouldn't take more than six years to learn the techniques of a system.

Estelindis · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 5:50 pm Post subject:

Surely being a black belt is about more than learning the techniques of a system? Presumably, one should also understand them very well. It would seem to me that, for some arts and some practicioners, it can take even longer than six years to reach that exemplary level where knowledge and action are blended. (Of course, that's not the end, but even still...)

[Edited for spelling... ~Estelindis]
_________________
"It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from."
- C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

KMcD · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 9:10 am Post subject:

to reach a first dan in EVERY style implies a knowledge of the techniques of that style. After that it is down to understanding and adding your own thoughts input to the style. Don't get me wrong, being a first dan does imply understanding of the style but this level of understanding would not compare to that of a 2nd dan or higher.

crashaid · Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 12:58 am Post subject:

petals · The Shy One Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 4962 Location: gone

Who voted less than one?

Anyways I know nothing about this stuff but I'll say one.

Could someone explain all the stuff jc asked please cos I'd like to know as well:

Thurifuge · Living it up Joined: 04 Dec 2001 Posts: 261

You should grade when you're ready, depending on the amount you're training that could be as high as 2 grades a year but if you're grading more often than that you don't really get much time to go over all the lower grade techniques to improve them. There no point in having a grade if you can't do every technique from the lower grades to a high enough standard.

JC>>
Gradings involve going through all or at least most of the techniques for that grade. You need to demonstrate a knowledge of all techniques on the grade and an ability do them to a high enough standard for that grade.

As far as time before the first grading, it depends entirely on the person. You'll be told when you're ready if you don't know yourself.

The grading is judged by the Sensei.

The requirements change as the grades go up from basic competence with yellow belt techniques to being able to apply any technique from the syllabus on an opponent effectively at black belt level.
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Ragdoll · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 12:47 pm Post subject:

m0x1e · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:21 am Post subject:

Allow me to say that I am proud of each and every one of you. Sensei Downes was very impressed by my students' technical standard so enjoy the laurels, they're made for resting on after all...
<Grin>

Mox
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Ragdoll · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 5:16 pm Post subject:

petals · The Shy One Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 4962 Location: gone

After watching the grading last week I'd say you'll have a hard job getting me to one of them Shocked

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Asmo · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 12:32 am Post subject:

Thanks Mox.

I think the grading went well for us all, I myself was happy with my performance, even though I thought I wouldnt be.

I think that grading once, max twice a year is enough and I dont think I would grade more than once a year above the standard I am at now. There is just too much work to put in to perfect the tecniques needed for the belt to shove it all into a few months.
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Buffy · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 1:06 am Post subject:

petals · The Shy One Joined: 21 Feb 2004 Posts: 4962 Location: gone

I never said that I'd never train though.
Re the gradings we'll see what happens (Gradings are like exams as such right??? Well I generally don't do exams in stuff I'm crap at that is all)
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