Picking up a new art in a new school?

[dvcochran]

That's a very important piece. It's good you know what your instructor expected on the tests. Here's a story of someone who didn't...

At my school, we don't teach punches correctly. We do that on purpose. Because if you try to teach the proper footwork to do a punch with power to a 4-year-old, that 4-year-old is going to take "pivot your rear foot" as "run forward 5 steps and accidentally punch the person in front of you". So we teach the kids to not move anything but their arms when they punch. Around green belt we start to clean that up.

One of the black belts who would judge was an older student who couldn't really do Taekwondo anymore, so he wasn't around the dojang much except around testing times. So he would sit there and look at these kids who are white and yellow belts and be really harsh if they weren't punching correctly, even though they were doing what they'd been taught, and had never even heard the criticism he was giving until that day.

Do you teach the Kicho forms to the 4-5 year old's? If so, doesn't this at least start teaching them the transition? I know it will not be perfect, not even close, but it is a start. Also we use the "not hitting the person next to you" issue as part of teaching respect, discipline, awareness, etc...

 

[skribs]

Do you teach the Kicho forms to the 4-5 year old's? If so, doesn't this at least start teaching them the transition? I know it will not be perfect, not even close, but it is a start. Also we use the "not hitting the person next to you" issue as part of teaching respect, discipline, awareness, etc...

We don't teach forms to the kids white belts. The kids white belt is basically "can you listen and follow directions?" And for some of them it takes 6 months to get even that.

 

[dvcochran]

No, spread out over the course of a week. Usually a couple Tuesday, a couple Wednesday, one Thursday, and maybe one Friday. My Master oversees all the tests, so we can't have multiple at once.

We have around 150-200 students (it's hard to keep track of some of the ones that are less than regular in attendance).

Our testing's start at 10:00 am. We will have 60-80 testing usually and have had them last in to the early morning hours. We use the panel format and either our GM or someone assigned by leads the groups testing. I may anywhere from one person to six testing at a time but eventually each person is isolated.
The younger kids and most white belts have left by the end, even though staying for the duration is expected. It is harder on the higher belts testing, which is by design. Harder on us older folks to stand up at midnight and start sparring too. But it is worth it.

 

[skribs]

Our testing's start at 10:00 am. We will have 60-80 testing usually and have had them last in to the early morning hours. We use the panel format and either our GM or someone assigned by leads the groups testing. I may anywhere from one person to six testing at a time but eventually each person is isolated.
The younger kids and most white belts have left by the end, even though staying for the duration is expected. It is harder on the higher belts testing, which is by design. Harder on us older folks to stand up at midnight and start sparring too. But it is worth it.

Each of our tests is an hour to two hours long. 3-4 hours for black belts.

Usually we'll have around 10-30 students per test (depending on belt level). We'll have 5-7 judges, including our Master. So with say 22 students and 6 judges, each judge will be focused on 3-4 students.

Our tests are in the afternoon because of school and work.

 

[Yokozuna514]

Comparing what one knows to what is being learned doesn't preclude that white belt mentality.

It doesn't preclude it but it does inhibit it. It's like talking and listening at the same time. Difficult to do both well at the same time.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

It doesn't preclude it but it does inhibit it. It's like talking and listening at the same time. Difficult to do both well at the same time.

Not really. I don’t have to do the comparison while they are teaching. Nor does it require much by way of conscious thought.