i ve been training some kid in kenpo that bugged me for about six months to show em some self defense and he gots everything he needs to past a orange belt test but its only been 2 months - is that to soon to test him or should i make him wait for a minute - he learned everything quick because its only him and because hes the only person i train he writes everything down hits hard and moves quick and shows me hes focused - i dont have a school we work out in my backyard wensdays and saturdays and the rest of the week he trains at his home - to me he seems ready and you could tell hes very hungry for this knowledge - i know its on me with what i do with my student - i was just wondering if i could get some opinions from some of you more experienced teachers out there - some quick feed back on this matter thanks !
You're right. It's on you as to what you do with your student. From your question, I gather that you may be new at teaching, and that this may even be your first student. It sounds like you don't have any clear benchmarks for what you expect of an orange belt.
First and foremost, if you think he's ready, he's ready. If you are fairly new at teaching, I would write down a list of the attributes that he has that make you think he is ready. Next time you have an orange belt, check your list, make a new one, etc. Everyone will be slightly different, but you should quickly start to see an emerging pattern of what you expect at that level. Your "standard" will emerge.
Here are a few of mine...first off, there are 30 self defense techniques and one kata required, along with a list of basics. So, to pass an orange belt test:
- All of the techniques must be performed from memory correctly. I will call out the name, but the student must perform the technique without having to ask me what it is against, or for any other hints.
- All of the techniques must be performed full speed, full power. That is relative, of course, and will change as the student progresses. But the student must give all.
- The kata must be correct. Self correction is accepted, i.e., the student messes up in the middle and starts over on his own.
- The individual basics (punches, blocks, kicks, combos) must be correct and should reflect time spent in training.
Orange also represents a benchmark for me. I look at the student's level of skill, time in grade, and time spent in studio training, and it gives me "from start to now, this person has improved this much in this much time." Not a hard and fast quantification by any means, but useful.
I expect the above at each test, with an increase in skill level and performance level for each belt level. Character, maturity, theoretical knowledge, sparring skill, etc. is evaluated daily, and not part of the actual test with one exception. Student's who don't attend sparring will be asked to spar either on the test, required to attend a certain number of classes, or required to put in a certain amount of time privately with me or another instructor.
Students with character/maturity issues are handled differently, depending on the issue(s).
