Attention all TKD schools : You need to see this

[Manny]

Well, believe it or not this pays his bills and makes him a little profit.

I have 3 kids of my own and I started teaching them all at 2. My youngest is 2 now. She does not go to any classes but at home she is learning her basic form now. I will take 1 month to show her just the fist move (basic down low block). There are 9 movements to this form. So one year total for her to learn just this form. She will not take her first real class until 5. So by the time she steps on the mat she will know maybe 2 forms to my standard for a white belt. This is the pace these kids should be taking. But hey who wants to wait 8 years for a black belt. Should not matter what they want but for some reason it does.

I have mine take their time. And it shows when they go to tournaments now. There have been many that got promoted over my kids. My wife did not understand it at first and was the typical "Why are they getting promoted and not ours". I would tell my Master, do not promote them, they are not ready. He would just laugh. But now they are the top students in the class and everyone envies them.

Even my instructor, whose dad is a GM, took 8 years to get his black belt. He was the best student by far in the class, and made many black belts look silly, but his dad would not promote him. He made him wait 8 years. This is a good pace for kids.

1 belt a year. Imagine being a white belt for a year.

Thanx for charing, infact this is the way I think too!! So manny dojangs/sambonims are getting a huge income promoting children so quick, it took to me 4 years to become a black belt now it takes less but the most important is maturity, if the boy or girl has not the maturity to comprehend the kicks,blocks,etc and can not perform then well I would not let them test.

Manny

 

[FieldDiscipline]

What does everyone think?

 

[bekkilyn]

I've never taken TKD, but this post interested me. I am wondering if maybe there could be a middle ground to the goals vs. skill thing with these kids. I fully agree that the belts shouldn't just be handed out because it's supposedly the only way to keep a kid's interest and make money for the school.

And yet, the school does need money to survive. So what about using a boy scout/girl scout strategy and make up a bunch of badges for each belt level. The kids can be earning all of these badges as goals and they can wear them on their uniforms, but they can only test for the actual belts when they are truly ready and have accumulated all of their badges for that belt. They would still have to really earn the badges, but it wouldn't take as long per badge as it would per belt.

And maybe it's already been done. It's just a thought that came into my head that could attract and keep students (and money for the school) without just handing belts out to the students.

 

[rosworms]

this looks ALOT like the school that I passed over after watching a few classes. it was also the most expensive of all the schools i looked at. they even had belts that velcro closed for the kids that couldn't tie their belts.

 

[Gizmo]

1 belt a year. Imagine being a white belt for a year.

Pretty much standard in kids groups here where I live.