Advanced Student Grading Update
Dear Advanced Students,
We have made some significant changes to the operation of the club this year. The main one involves separating our grading system from the SKF Alliance. The reasoning behind this was to give us more control over how we run our gradings, and the grading system it’s self. We are still on great terms with the SKF Alliance, but will now benefit from being an independent entity. This does not effect our Kickboxing GB or WAKO Club Membership, and our new grading system is still recognised by our Governing Body.
Advanced Grading Courses
One of the results of this change is that we will now be holding our own Advanced Grading Course in house and it will no longer take place over 2 days.
The next Advanced Grading will be Saturday 12th October 2024. We appreciate this is far away, and out of the normal format. But we wanted to move away from having the Advanced Course so close to Summer Holidays and Christmas, as well as move them away from the hottest and coldest times of year. From next year the Advanced Course will be in May and October.
Any students wishing to complete their gradings at the SKF Alliance Courses, will still be invited to do so. It will just need to be under the original grading syllabus. We continue to recognise and respect any gradings that have been taken under our original system.
New Syllabus
The other main change is that our syllabus has been completed rebuilt from the ground up. This will give students time to adjust to all the changes and prepare for their gradings. We will be sharing the new syllabus after we complete this set of Spring Gradings for colour belts in March.
The new syllabus isn’t a huge shift from the original, at the end of the day we are still teaching Kickboxing. But adjustments have been made to make it more compact and streamlined. All of this is aimed at raising the overall standard of our students and our coaching.
Adjusted Belt System
Along with the new syllabus we have also made some changes to our Belt System. We have included a graphic below that illustrates the new system. For Advanced Grades we have listed the main changes that are now in place.
Brown Belt Gradings are now taken at the Advanced Courses rather than at Colour Belt Gradings.
Kids (10 years and under) will only be able to grade up to Brown/White. The next belt can be taken once in the Juniors and this will be their Brown/Black.
Juniors & Adults (11 years and over) are not required to take a Brown/White Belt Grading.
Junior Black Belt is now Black/White to clearly distinguish it from a true Senior Black Belt. (any students who have already received their Jnr Black Belt will NOT be required to replace it with the new style)
The minimum training requirements for gradings are just that. It is not the only requirement in order to take part in the grading. Above and beyond this is demonstrating that you are worthy of the grade you wish to hold in your training.
There is not a written syllabus for these gradings. Students will be tested on all aspects of their Martial Arts and will be assessed on their overall ability based upon our standards of what it means to hold these senior grades.
If you have any questions on any of this please let us know. We are looking forward to the changes and believe it’ll all be a net positive for the club moving forward.
Az & Co
Warrior MA
