Revised Requirements up to 1st Dan?

[Makalakumu]

Hi All;

I posted this thread in the Tang Soo Do Forum. I'm linking it here because I would like to get some more traffic on that thread. The gist of the thread is that I've revised my requirements up to first dan because of a schedule change in my dojang. I would like people to take a look and let me know what they think.

Thanks in advance...

upnorthkyosa

 

[Flying Crane]

Hi All;

I posted this thread in the Tang Soo Do Forum. I'm linking it here because I would like to get some more traffic on that thread. The gist of the thread is that I've revised my requirements up to first dan because of a schedule change in my dojang. I would like people to take a look and let me know what they think.

Thanks in advance...

upnorthkyosa

One question: why does a schedule change at your dojang require that you change your curriculum?

As far as modifying curriculum goes, I think it can be a good thing. Martial arts are supposed to be a living thing. They change with each person who learns it, because each person is different. Different strengths, weaknesses, body type, personality, likes, dislikes, etc. This means that everyone will do things differently, whether they realize it or intend it or not. This can result in some decisions being made to deliberately change the curriculum. If you belong to an Organiziation that oversees your art, you may need to clear things with them, or else run into trouble. Politics, plain and simple. Otherwise, if you feel you have the experience to know what you are doing, and you feel you have a better way of doing things, go ahead, in my opinion.

I recently changed my Kenpo curriculum. I am from the Tracy lineage, which contains hundreds of self-defense combinations, many of which are repetitive and many of which make no sense and would probably get you killed if you tried to really use them. I pared them down to the ones that made sense to me, and then re-structured them into a new curriculum. I don't belong to any organizations, but I did get my instructor's whole-hearted approval on the project. I don't pretent that this is a "new" system of Kenpo, or that I am any kind of a founder/grandmaster or any such nonsense as that. It is just Kenpo as I now choose to practice it. I do not have any students, but if I do at some point, this is how I will teach it.

I do not have any high rank in kenpo, but I do have over 20 years in the martial arts, with experience in several different and diverse systems. Given that, considering the circumstances and my intentions, I saw no reason to feel that it was inappropriate to make the changes.

That being said, I dont know the Tang Soo Do terminology or material that you list, so I cannot comment on that. But, I think if your approach is correct and your heart is in the right place, you could end up with a good system. Just be honest with yourself and don't sacrifice your integrity with your final system. Don't water it down for the sake of marketing or anything like that. Make sure that what you keep is high quality, and what you discard is low quality. Good luck!!

Michael

 

[Makalakumu]

The schedule change dealt with the end of my experiment with kid's curriculum. There are plenty of McDojos up here to serve the masses and I want to attract a different crowd. Also, with my growing family, its been hard to teach classes for so few people and for so little return. I need to maximize my instruction time.

The other issue is the preservation of what my teacher taught. He is much more skilled then I, has more experience, and has much more depth then I do. Thus, his teaching was very intuitive. A lot of what I learned and was required to know for 1st dan was not on a requirement sheet. I want my first dans to be of equal caliber.

 

[Flying Crane]

The schedule change dealt with the end of my experiment with kid's curriculum. There are plenty of McDojos up here to serve the masses and I want to attract a different crowd. Also, with my growing family, its been hard to teach classes for so few people and for so little return. I need to maximize my instruction time.

The other issue is the preservation of what my teacher taught. He is much more skilled then I, has more experience, and has much more depth then I do. Thus, his teaching was very intuitive. A lot of what I learned and was required to know for 1st dan was not on a requirement sheet. I want my first dans to be of equal caliber.

OK, so it sounds like you are mostly adding things to the curriculum that were a bit more nebulous, and not really deleting, or moving things around?

 

[Makalakumu]

OK, so it sounds like you are mostly adding things to the curriculum that were a bit more nebulous, and not really deleting, or moving things around?

Yeah. I need to organize this stuff so it works for me. My objectives in this project are the following...

1. To preserve what my teacher taught me.
2. To produce black belts who have a depth of knowledge.
3. To produce black belts that can fight.

 

[Flying Crane]

Yeah. I need to organize this stuff so it works for me. My objectives in this project are the following...

1. To preserve what my teacher taught me.
2. To produce black belts who have a depth of knowledge.
3. To produce black belts that can fight.

Well, i think it's not a bad idea. Sometimes things get lost and forgotten otherwise, and if you codify and formalize the concepts and techniques into the curriculum, then you are taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen.

However, make sure you don't end up making a system that is cumbersome, tedious, and difficult to practice because it becomes bogged down in too many details. That is sort of what my gripe with the Tracy kenpo is all about. I think Tracy's mistake (let me be very clear about this: IN MY OPINION, so that I don't start getting slammed by all the other Tracy people out there), was to keep EVERYTHING that they learned in the early days. Like I stated earlier, the arts are supposed to be alive, so they do change. I think the Tracy approach in keeping everything ended up creating a cumbersome system. Just because someone made something up and taught it to someone else, doesn't mean it needs to be kept forever. Some things need to be discarded when they are of questionable value.

That being said, I guess my suggestion is that you try to find the healthy balance between trying to keep everything, and recognizing that maybe some things don't need to be kept. Sometimes techniques and combinations can become repetitive. The meat of the technique, the important concept, may be taught in several different places within the curriculum. When that starts to happen, maybe you can recognize that some of it can be eliminated.

 

[The Kai]

Two thoughts

1.) being knowledable and being able to fight ain't the same thing! sometimes they work together sometimes they work against againsy=t each other
2.) Work up to a difficult set list, let them devolp pride in what they do first

What rank are you?

 

[Makalakumu]

What rank are you?

I'm a 2nd dan, working on 3rd. Time between tests is fairly long, so there is time to learn all of the stuff on the lists. More then enough time. My teacher taught in a teired system. Beginning, intermediate, and advanced all had a different character...a different mentality. Beginning is white like the snow, everything is new and the seeds are being sown. Intermediate is green like spring, the seeds bear shoots and need to be tended. Advanced is red like summer fire, alive with motion.

 

[The Kai]

If you don't mind me asking do your new requirements reflect what you had learned up to Shodan or reflect what you know now at Sandan?

 

[Makalakumu]

If you don't mind me asking do your new requirements reflect what you had learned up to Shodan or reflect what you know now at Sandan?

There are only about a half dozen additions. The rest comes from the notebooks I kept as a gup.

Are there any specific things that you think should be moved to higher ranks or perhaps to the dan level?