The kenpo system I have joined (I won't name it because I'm not trying to create a public referendum) has modified the traditional white/yellow/orange/purple/blue/green/brown 3 degrees/black that I grew up with (I'm starting again as an adult) and see in most contemporary kenpo places to one that has 14 colors including black, with ones included like "grey" and "tan" etc.
Suffice to say, it is difficult to get my head around this. Each belt gains a tip after 6 weeks, and upon the second tip you are ready for the next belt test. Tips alternate between self defense (6 per belt) and one kata. So every 12 weeks/3 months you advance to a new belt after learning 6 self defense and 1 kata. Everybody is grouped as Beginner (white-orange), Intermediate (purple-"grey" which is after green), and Advanced (basically brown and up). There are 4 belts in between brown & black, and brown does not have 3 degrees - it is treated like any other color.
I understand that colors are all arbitrary to begin with, and i think that this system was designed this way to 1) encourage kids to continue advancing by placing more "goals" in front of them at regular intervals and 2) get efficiency in training lots of people at scale (you are training 3 groups at once instead of 8 belts at once). I don't mind this, so long as at some point this "journey" through kenpo gets me to the same place that a more traditional curriculum would.
Before I invest too much of myself and my kids into this, what are people's thoughts? At best case, they've simply broken up the traditional kenpo curriculum to be more digestible at more frequent intervals. The basics are taught and upheld, and attention is paid to the things I would expect. I can't shake the feeling, however, that a new black belt in this system is further behind than a traditional black belt - not to mention that this system treats black belts very strangely (you start with no degrees, and advance to a new degree through a series of "ranks" - basically to achieve a 10th degree black belt you would technically have received 26 different physical black belts to get there).
Is this a smart way to mix things up for the reasons already outlined, or problematic? I have my own feelings but I am very interested to hear other people's thoughts. FWIW (and I'm not exactly certain what it it is worth) it's my understanding that Mr Parker was aware of this innovation and didn't object to it before passing on. Again, FWIW .
Suffice to say, it is difficult to get my head around this. Each belt gains a tip after 6 weeks, and upon the second tip you are ready for the next belt test. Tips alternate between self defense (6 per belt) and one kata. So every 12 weeks/3 months you advance to a new belt after learning 6 self defense and 1 kata. Everybody is grouped as Beginner (white-orange), Intermediate (purple-"grey" which is after green), and Advanced (basically brown and up). There are 4 belts in between brown & black, and brown does not have 3 degrees - it is treated like any other color.
I understand that colors are all arbitrary to begin with, and i think that this system was designed this way to 1) encourage kids to continue advancing by placing more "goals" in front of them at regular intervals and 2) get efficiency in training lots of people at scale (you are training 3 groups at once instead of 8 belts at once). I don't mind this, so long as at some point this "journey" through kenpo gets me to the same place that a more traditional curriculum would.
Before I invest too much of myself and my kids into this, what are people's thoughts? At best case, they've simply broken up the traditional kenpo curriculum to be more digestible at more frequent intervals. The basics are taught and upheld, and attention is paid to the things I would expect. I can't shake the feeling, however, that a new black belt in this system is further behind than a traditional black belt - not to mention that this system treats black belts very strangely (you start with no degrees, and advance to a new degree through a series of "ranks" - basically to achieve a 10th degree black belt you would technically have received 26 different physical black belts to get there).
Is this a smart way to mix things up for the reasons already outlined, or problematic? I have my own feelings but I am very interested to hear other people's thoughts. FWIW (and I'm not exactly certain what it it is worth) it's my understanding that Mr Parker was aware of this innovation and didn't object to it before passing on. Again, FWIW .