Modification of Curriculum

[ldgman1970]

Hi all,

Well I have been at Kenpo about 8 months now and I must say I love it. Anyway I have been a yellow belt for about five months, really more like three if I deduct time off for a knee injury. At any rate I believe my private instructor is going to test me for Orange next week and although I feel ready there are a few things in the orange curriculum he hasn't taught me. I know all of the techs but our curriculum list kicking set #1 and long form #1 and he has not taught me these yet. I believe he substituted in striking set # 1 for the kicking set because of my knee injury. So I am wondering whether or not it is common for instructors to sometimes move the curriculum around to accommodate the student? I get the feeling that knowing all the techs at the appropriate belt is crucial but that there is some flexibility as to when Forms and various other sets are taught, at least in the beginning.

Thanks

 

[MJS]

I don't think its regular practice for and instructor to do this. IMHO, he did this, as you already said, to help you out due to your injury. I would think that once the injury is healed, things would go back to normal as far as the material is concerned.

Mike

 

[carmstrong]

I think I recall that you are at Larry Tatum's in Padadena (so am I). According to the orange card I have you should be doing short 1 (both sides) for orange belt. I don't think these things are written in stone though. You will notice on the later cards that some teachers may teach some forms/sets earlier or later than what's on the cards.

It seems to be "tailored" to the individual student. I've even seen one of Larry's female blue belts doing form 4. That blew my mind. She was just really into forms and progressed quickly in that area.

Chris

 

[ldgman1970]

Thanks for both the responses. Hey Chris, yes I am at Larry's school. Thanks for confirming what I thought, that things tend to be tailored to each student which is one of the things I like about the school. I think was a little confused because on the Mr. Tatum's website he does have listed Kicking Set #1 and Long Form #1 as part of the orange curricula. My instructor did start out teaching me kicking set #1 but never went back to it again, probably due to my injury. But then again I now know striking set #1 which I believe is traditionally taught at the purple belt level for blue.

I just want to clarify though that I have no doubt I will be taught those things and that I am receiving excellent instruction but I was just curious as to what the practice normally was. I know if long one were thrown at me right now I would probably be looking at another month of yellow which isn't necessarily a be bad thing but it would seem like quite a bit of material given the normal time in rank for yellow. Thanks again for the responses.

S-

 

[Andrew Green]

I would say it is there job to accomidate the students abilities / dissabilities.

There is a base curriculum which everyone builds off of, but no one will get "exact" cause there is no such thing as a "perfectly standard" person. Most people get small adaptations, some get bigger ones. All depends on the person

 

[ldgman1970]

Thanks Andrew and I definitely agree with you.