Apologies in advanced for the length, but I don't think it's rambling, just a thorough answering (from my perspective) of skribs' questions with context.
As a background: Typically for each rank, there were 3 things we had to learn: “DMs”, which we called ‘combinations’, Grappling Defenses, and Kempos. Most ranks had 3 of each, so 9 total, but that wasn’t a hard rule. The forms weren't as hard set (Depending on the belt, we’d learn 0, 1, or 2, with more being learned closer to black). And because my school was a bit unconventional, we learned fu jow pai forms as well, at no set ranks (but before black). Combinations were numbered pretty randomly, kempos and grappling defenses were “Blue belt kempo #3, Purple belt grab #2”, and the kempo’s also had weird names like “Rising Dragon”. If you see me say “Techniques” below, that’s referring to generic combination/kempo/grab defense/weapon defense, so all probably what you’d consider 2-step combinations or longer based on my understanding of TKD.
As an example of what we’d learn-At yellow belt (first after white) so these were the less complex stuff. We’d learn (adult curriculum)
- Combinations 3 and 7,
- 3 kempos
- A back shove defense
- 2 back-grab defenses
- 8-point blocking with counters (without counters taught at white belt)
- 1 pinan
- Various strikes/stances/other misc.
Combination 3 was: Start in a palm tree stance. A straight punch comes in. left hand open mid-block. Then step in with your left foot, and throw a right-handed thrust punch towards their abdomen (also taught as a front-two knuckle punch to the groin depending on when it was taught). Chamber your right hand, and use your left to push down on their right shoulder as you throw a right back-two-knuckle towards their temple.” There was a second part to it that involves a throw which is taught at a later belt. That was the average complexity of the techniques at that level.
With kids, the curriculum was very slightly different. They’d have all the same material, except for the kempos, and once they reached black, they got junior black instead. From there, they’d need to get 5 stripes (Called jr bb 1st degree, jr bb 2nd degree, etc) to get to the actual black belt, during which they’re learning the kempos and improving their other materials. As an FYI, jr bb to bb generally took about 2 years; from what I understand of most tkd schools jr bb would be closer to your regular bb, and bb closer to your 2nd degree in terms of experience level. Also, classes were around 20-25 students for kids most of the time (fewer for adults) and there were no retention issues as a result of the below for kids.
Okay, with the background out of the way, and with your first question semi-answered, I’ll address your other questions. I’m going to save your second question for last, and do a combined answer of your ¾ questions first.
So regarding rote memorization, my experience is that pretty much all of it can be taught, and retained. There is no reason for people to forget the earlier ranks information, and by the time they reached black belt the test was around 5 hours for jr bb’s, and 8-10 for bb, with a large portion of that being proving you still have all the techniques memorized. And not only memorized, but they all had to be above a certain level “black belt technique” so they had to be greatly improved upon compared to when they were first learned. So long as people trained consistently and prepared for the test, they didn’t have to worry about not knowing the techniques (besides stage fright which did happen), and you could ask them to perform any of them a year later and there wouldn’t be an issue.
There are a couple of reasons for this. Also note, I described the difference between adults and kids above in the curriculum, I’m going to focus mostly on the kids below since I think that’s more relevant to you.
- The way advancement was done did not allow for ‘memory dumps’. At each belt, there are ~ 6 techniques (not including forms/blocks/etc.), and 3 stripes. This meant that on average, students would learn 2 techniques per stripe.
- They had to prove they could do the technique up to the proficiency of that belt before they got the stripe, and wouldn’t learn the next techniques until after.
- This meant that as you got higher you had to spend more time per stripe learning/practicing (and also conveniently helped lower rank retention).
- While earning stripes, you would also be expected to continuously go over earlier tech’s in class. A common drill done at the beginning of class was “5, 5, and 5”. You would do a technique, then 5 pushups, the next technique, 5 crunches, next 5 jumping jacks (exercises would change), until you get through all of your techniques. All students would continue until the most advanced student was finished.
- If another student didn’t finish before him, they’d have some sort of ‘punishment’ (an exercise, or hold a horse stance), so the advanced students tended not to rush through, letting them focus on what they were doing.
- This helped keep everything in muscle memory. And let the instructors know when people were forgetting something so it could be addressed before any further advancement.
- All colored tests were done together. The way that it was done was, if there were yellow belts, purple belts, green belts, and brown belts testing together, they would all do conditioning at the beginning, then sparring, then material review. They’d all do the yellow belts material review until they were finished with that, at which point, the yellow belt can sit down and watch the remainder of the test. After that, they’d continue to the purple belts, then the same for green, until only the brown belts were up there. Only then would they do their material, on display for everyone to see, further encouraging them to do it all well.
- Sometimes it would be conditioning, material review, then sparring. That way the lower ranks get a break after conditioning, and higher ranks are fatigued going into sparring. But that’s a side tangent.
So, essentially, no matter what rank you were, you couldn’t ‘cram’ for the test, and you couldn’t forget material while you move on to the next shiny thing. Occasionally people would ‘fail’ the test; but 80%+ of the time it was due to the quality of the technique, not remembering.
The one exception to that is technique names. If an instructor asked a brown belt to do Orange Belt grappling Defense 2, and they do 3, or an (adult) brown belt to do Blue belt with stripe kempo 1 (or whatever naming system the school uses), and they performed blue belt kempo 1, that wouldn’t negatively impact their test. In that sense, it was understood that not everyone is as good at remembering names/numbers, and that was fine. We’d rather people spend their time training than trying to improve their math.
Regarding the talent thing, not including the above thing about names/numbers, I found it to be pretty irrelevant. There was talent towards picking it up initially, and if someone took a hiatus, some people will remember the material better than others when they come back-if your school let people brain-dump stuff as they increased in rank, my guess is that’s where you’d see a difference in talent. But it was clear who did/didn’t remember their material well, and it never seemed to be correlated to ‘talent’, but rather who trained hard in class, and who (per their parents for kids) trained at home.
It’s similar to a musical instrument. You can be very talented in guitar and pick up songs very quickly, but if you stop playing those songs after you pick it up and move on, and someone else continues playing it, they’ll be the ones who know how to play it in half a year.
So as a short version of the answer to your questions:
- How much of rote memorization is up to natural talent, and how much is able to be practiced? In other words, if someone can't memorize something, is the answer that they need to keep working at it, or that they've reached their limit?
It’s pretty much all practice. Muscle memory is a form of memory that they have to work at, and as long as it’s done incrementally with a continuing focus on all the levels, there’s no reason someone shouldn’t be able to do it. Barring something extreme like a developmental disorder or brain damage.
- How much of rote memorization can be taught? In other words, is it a flaw in my Master's teaching that people did not retain the colored belt curriculum and struggled to keep up at 3rd Dan, or is that just the nature of the beast?
Depends on what you mean by “a flaw in my Master’s teaching”. If you mean a flaw in his ability to teach the material, no. If you mean a flaw in his overall method/style of teaching, most likely that’s exactly where the issue lies.
Okay, so onto your question 2. “How important is rote material to Taekwondo? Should someone "peak" in their career because they've reached their limit on how many forms and combinations they can commit to memory, or should their technique and ability to teach technique and application be a bigger factor in promotion?”
There are two different questions in there. I can’t answer the first one, as I don’t train TKD, but I can say that rote material is very important in Kempo. But only if you’re looking back at them, training them, and furthering your understanding. It’s part of why I liked the “junior black belt” stage at my school, as throughout it you spend a lot of time going back and improving your strikes/movement through them, learn the ‘bunkai’ of them better, and also practice applying them in sparring. It also works out because at that stage students are more motivated to become a black belt, so they’re more willing to put in the time and effort to do all that, while having a better understanding of martial arts in general. If you leave out the stage of going through all the material, understanding and utilizing it, you’re leaving out more than half of the art.
Now, in terms of fighting it’s not needed, as there are arts that don’t teach that, but it’s a way of organizing what you learn, and adding another level of understanding that doesn’t always come from boxing or kickboxing (it can, it just doesn’t always since it’s not built into the systems).
Regarding them “peaking” in their career, since you mention promotion, I assume you mean peaking in rank, not in memory. To my knowledge no one was no longer able to remember more material after black belt, some were slower than others but that was never the issue for the reasons I listed above (the same training methodology continued past black belt). But I think that’s the wrong way to measure your career, and personally, I purposefully ‘stunted’ my rank growth at 1st-degree black belt for over 5 years, because I felt that there was enough material before then to last me a lifetime. This didn’t mean that I couldn’t memorize more, I just felt that there was more benefit in continuing to work on what I knew, than there would be in spending that time learning new combinations/forms all involving the same strikes/blocks/stances/grabs/etc. in different ways.
For the system in question, if that is material that’s part of their system, yes it should be a factor in promotion because that’s how the system works. However, if I were the founder of the system, or if I ever founded a similar system, I would not have any new material after black belt. Instead, once they reached that level, the focus would be on application and martial improvement, and that’s how they’d get to 3rd or 4th degree, then around that degree, it would change to teaching. So by the time you hit 1st degree, you know everything in the system, by the time you hit 3rd (or 4th), you’re recognized as having ‘mastered’ the system, and all ranks above that are based around your ability to teach and help the art grow.
Hope that answers your questions from my perspective. Sorry if it rambled (typed in google docs and I’m on page 5), but I have a lot of thoughts on this subject.
