2022-05-25

2022-05-25, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

As planned, we had a small kyu grading this evening for the two young men who’ve been with me from the start, and both did pretty well. Every dojo does rank exams differently, so I thought I’d share what I’m doing. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Every rank exam consists of five sections: Kihon, kumite, Kata, Fitness, Self-Protection, and Knowledge. Not every rank will have items in every category, but it was a convenient way to break down the totality of what I think needs to be covered. Also, for 9-7 kyu, I plan to break each rank into four “sub ranks” for youth students. In other words, when young students test for 9th kyu, I may award them 9d, 9c, 9b, or “full” 9th kyu, depending on their performance. This gives them room to advance without having to get absolutely everything spot-on every time. To put that another way, I’d much rather tell a student “You passed to 9c” than have to say, “I’m sorry, you didn’t pass.” Again, I only plan to do this for young students and only for the first three ranks. Adults should be able to cope with “I’m sorry, maybe next time”, and that’s part of what I’m trying to teach to young students … just not all at once.

For the 9th kyu test, I ask students to do the following:

• Kihon: Oi zuki, age uke, mae geri keage, and gedan barai.
• Kumite: yakusoku sanbon kumite - oi zuki jodan vs. age uke.
• Kata: Taikyoku Shodan
• Fitness: 1 good push-up, 10 seconds of leg lifts, balancing on each leg for 10 seconds, and sitting still and quiet for 15 seconds.
• Knowledge: Demonstrate zenkutsu dachi, understand basic vocabulary like “dojo” and “gi”, and be able to tie their belt by themselves.

Again, young students don’t have to get all of that right to pass, but that’s the goal. Admittedly, it’s a high bar compared to what I’ve seen on the syllabus of several other dojos, but I don’t make exuses for having high expectations.