GRADINGS

Our gradings are done with a modern coloured belt system except at our main dojo where a more traditional system is in place based on levels.

When grading students it is important to have consistency not only between different clubs or across the range of students of a club, but also across an individual’s syllabus. Students naturally find themselves better at some techniques more than others and they therefore find more enjoyment at performing these techniques practising them more often than techniques they are not so good at. This can lead to groups of techniques, such as kicks for instance, becoming better than others and holes can appear in groups of a student’s portfolio of moves. In many instances these go unchecked for years until someone hits upon one of these holes and easily defeats a senior grade with a particular technique.

It is important to avoid this and therefore each technique is marked on a rating of 0-5, 0 being best. To pass coloured grades students need to have the majority of their techniques graded to the level of 3 or below. Brown belts must have all their techniques from the syllabus marked at 2 or below. Black belt grades are split into two sections, the first being an assessment of techniques of the syllabus which must be marked at 1 or below. The second part of passing a black belt is a separate grading which is testing under pressure and checking body movement and techniques whilst being pushed to your limits. Enough pressure is applied to make every student’s techniques fail and fall apart and it is at this point important as to the decisions made by the student as to whether they pass or fail.

This grading system helps instructors to see issues in a certain student’s group of techniques which can be corrected early on before this becomes a major weakness. Grading cards are kept up to date with new updated marks so students can see what they need to practise and learn to progress forward. This system also keeps the consistency across students, clubs and the style as a whole as well as helping instructors grade consistently by providing an easy systemised method.

Up to black belt techniques fall into categories or groups such as throws, chokes, locks, etc. As grades progress through to brown belt and beyond the techniques reduce in number and are replaced with conceptual teachings which shows you a set of rules which when used can either let you escape from or apply a category of technique. Many of these concepts are basic rules of techniques which provide a fixed outline to a more fully in depth understanding of the application of such techniques.  Others are a range of attitudes to deal with various styles and types of situation which constantly change. This type of conceptual teaching allows the individuality and personality of high grades to present itself and expressed via various combined techniques from different categories to overcome a certain situation. This gives the art flexibility as instead of attempting to learn a technique for every situation you are instead taught how to adapt techniques in real time and by applying these in combination use these to meet an overall strategy or aim.