My Opinion: Grading Adults & Children

I maintain "all that is Internet-related" with the IKD Shotokan club I train with, including their YouTube channel with (at the time of this posting) over 400 videos from various events since I joined in October 2011.

The other day, after posting the footage of a recent in-dojo kyu ranks testing, I got an interesting comment, in the form of a question.  I thought it would be better to answer it here, instead of working with YouTube's character restrictions.

The question was:

I would like to hear your perspective on grading adults as well as children. every one is entitled to their own opinion in regards to all aspects of life but one should never be blind to other aspects of the same truth.

I'm going to basically ignore the second sentence, since it's the question that is "the point", IMO.

Martial Arts: Grading Adults vs Grading Children

The concept of kids in karate is an interesting one that brings up a lot of questions.  As a student, I personally started at 18 years of age in a time-slot largely dominated by kids, so I wasn't a kid myself anymore (that's debatable) but I've always trained with kids, and I've thought a lot about kids in karate.

When it comes to GRADING kids in karate, I've had even MORE thoughts.  There are so many aspects of karate that are difficult to communicate to young kids, but that pre-teens, teenagers and young adults gobble up like mad and that many adults actually don't care about once they're in the workforce and have family responsibilities to take care of... Kids can physically learn faster than adults and mimic form a lot better, but adults have a better understanding of what they're trying to ACCOMPLISH with that form they're mimicing... but neither kids nor adults tend to be more coordinated...

Ultimately my opinion is this:  Most kids will take a break from karate at some point, and return as adults to continue their training.  In this context, I'm fine with kids zooming up to purple belt/4th kyu without a lot of coordination, focus, or a lot of skill.  My personal opinion is that slowing kids down during their brown belts and really focusing on filling out their skills by repetition, basic leadership opportunities and advanced application of basic concepts... would be hugely beneficial.  I do NOT agree with continuing the "kid zoom" through the brown belts and to black belt before this repetition, leadership skill work and advanced application of basic concepts is drilled in to place.

My opinion about adults testing is... pretty much the same.  Repetition, leadership skill work (meaning, potentially becoming tournament officials, but definitely fulfilling the role of a sempai and on occasion, teaching junior students their kata, basics, etc - the student becomes the teacher, and the teacher learns from the student - all under the wing of senior/experienced instructors) and advanced application of basic concepts should be drilled in during the brown belts, after being introduced lightly around the green/blue mark.

Either way, I'm not someone who believes that "time warming the floor" is the primary indicator of when a student (child or adult) is due to grade next. 

But hey, I'm not a head instructor of my own dojo either, so it's easy to have strong opinions about things.  These are topics I discuss with my head instructor since I AM in the junior instructor program (if you can call it a program), but ultimately, I've found it better to accept what is and plan for the future, instead of worrying about what is and getting upset at it, and giving up precious planning time for making things better for the future.

More topics on this thread of 'student development' are sure to be posted, since my personal club is going through a bit of a "tightening up" time and defining more about what is expected from students, so the instructors can make sure we're teaching those kinds of things properly.  The followership can only follow as well as the leaders lead, after all.

Link: Senshin and the Five Spirits of Budo

Here's another great article that Sensei Norm Robitza posted on his blog recently.

Karate isn't just a sport like badminton or curling, it's a lifestyle that involves not only physical training, but mental and spiritual aspects to the training as well.  Students who find themselves resonating deeply with the environment of martial art in their early days of training would do well to read about the Budo aspect of karate, thinking of ways they already incorporate the mindfulness principles into their training without really knowing they were doing it:

Senshin - The Enlightened Mind: Senshin and the Five Spirits of Budo: I have been asked what Senshin means and why I chose it for the name of this blog. Senshin is one of the Five Spirits of Budo. Budo, for t...

Future blog posts will have me pontificating on how the Budo concept of Shoshin has influenced my life since I first learned about it as a low-level kyu rank.  It's had far-reaching impacts in my life and how I think about the world.

But, that's a topic for another time...

Osu from Winnipeg!

Link: The Sensei - movie review

It's been a few years since I've picked up true martial arts movies to watch.

It's only hardcore karate nerds who have ever watched them with me.  Some MA movies are so laughingly horrible aside from the fight scenes that "normal friends" haven't been able to tolerate sitting through it all.

At any rate, the first blog post on my new blog is to remind myself of this one that Sensei Norm Robitza recommends to fellow martial arts nerds.

I'm going to have to see if I still have Karate Bull Fighter in my movie collection, too, now that I'm thinking about it.


Senshin - The Enlightened Mind: The Sensei - movie review: The Sensei was one of my favorite movies. This film made me laugh and cry. It is not centered around the martial arts as much as other mov...