Where should I be in my progress ?

[garrisons2]

Hi all, I've been training for 55 weeks now at age 49, the place I go to has what seems like more belts compared to others. I believe that the Grandmaster is a bit of an older school having trained from a young age and immigrated from Korea in his late 20's with a 5th degree TKD BB.

White
Yellow
Orange
Green
Purple
Blue
Brown
Red
Red/Black
Black

Best case it's about 10 weeks in between belt testing and 6 months leading up to black. So on the fastest track 2 1/2 years. I go on average 3 days a week. Not that I am in any particular hurry, but I am tracking to do my Blue belt testing, which will most likely consist of about 10-15 minutes of some drills , Palgwe 4, one step 8,9,10 and breaking, skip roundhouse, skip side kick. One side of me wants to just continue to enjoy the experience, the other can't wait to achieve a black belt as long as I feel as though I deserve it.

What I really feel that i need work on, besides the before mentioned side kick, is lateral movement in sparring and instinctive moving during sparring as well. for a simple example, if I am sparring in a closed stance and the other person does a switch roundhouse, switch roundhouse, I want to be able to instinctively step back, step back roundhouse or some other counter. I understand that repetition and muscle memory is the key here and relatively speaking I've got some old muscles to train, but I'm anxious for the time when I can instinctively do it consistently. I thought it great progress when I playfully approached a friend (2BB TKD) from behind and he came in with a high punch and I instinctively high blocked it. I was like cool, I did that quickly without thinking. Anyway just a few random thoughts

 

[Sukerkin]

Like the piano teacher said,"Practise, practise, practise" . Progress in the martial arts is really measured in changes in yourself rather than changes in the belt around your waist,

TKD suffers more than most from Belt Mania - don't let it infect you. As a wise, non-piano-playing man once said, "When you're ready, you're ready".

 

[terryl965]

Like the piano teacher said,"Practise, practise, practise" . Progress in the martial arts is really measured in changes in yourself rather than changes in the belt around your waist,

TKD suffers more than most from Belt Mania - don't let it infect you. As a wise, non-piano-playing man once said, "When you're ready, you're ready".

This is great advice Please do nt get cought up in the belt thing just enjoy your training and it will all come together.

 

[newGuy12]

Like the piano teacher said,"Practise, practise, practise" . Progress in the martial arts is really measured in changes in yourself rather than changes in the belt around your waist,

TKD suffers more than most from Belt Mania - don't let it infect you. As a wise, non-piano-playing man once said, "When you're ready, you're ready".

Right, right.

Enjoy your forms that you have, just practice them. You will learn new forms eventually, there's no need to rush.

haha -- it took me 7 years to get my 1st Dan, and I have no hope to get promoted, I do not wish any more promotion, all I ever wanted was to be 1st Dan, because I do not aspire to be a Teacher.

If you keep practicing regularly, and if you practice HARD, then you will have good power, flexibility and speed. You will have good control over your motions. That is better than what belt you have, but don't worry, you will also have a black belt some day, too, if you persist, and not quit.

You must trust your Teacher, this is important. You must have confidence that he is doing the right thing. After all, he is the teacher and you are the student, so just be cool. That is my advice.







Robert

 

[dortiz]

All true. Also though I may add. Do you know all eight forms since it sounds like you are doing Palgwe. Kibon forms, maybe your first BBelt form. All One steps, all kicking combinations and hand techniques.
I dont ask in a bad way just asking. You dont have to master them at BB but you need to know them. Each school uses more or less belts to seperate the requirements but all Bbelts need to know them. The day you can demonstrate this is the day you should have your BB.
If that day is here or comes and you bring it up...you should not have to but hey everyones human, Then you can say sir let me demonstrate.

; )

 

[IcemanSK]

Hi all, I've been training for 55 weeks now at age 49, the place I go to has what seems like more belts compared to others. I believe that the Grandmaster is a bit of an older school having trained from a young age and immigrated from Korea in his late 20's with a 5th degree TKD BB.

White
Yellow
Orange
Green
Purple
Blue
Brown
Red
Red/Black
Black

Best case it's about 10 weeks in between belt testing and 6 months leading up to black. So on the fastest track 2 1/2 years. I go on average 3 days a week. Not that I am in any particular hurry, but I am tracking to do my Blue belt testing, which will most likely consist of about 10-15 minutes of some drills , Palgwe 4, one step 8,9,10 and breaking, skip roundhouse, skip side kick. One side of me wants to just continue to enjoy the experience, the other can't wait to achieve a black belt as long as I feel as though I deserve it.

What I really feel that i need work on, besides the before mentioned side kick, is lateral movement in sparring and instinctive moving during sparring as well. for a simple example, if I am sparring in a closed stance and the other person does a switch roundhouse, switch roundhouse, I want to be able to instinctively step back, step back roundhouse or some other counter. I understand that repetition and muscle memory is the key here and relatively speaking I've got some old muscles to train, but I'm anxious for the time when I can instinctively do it consistently. I thought it great progress when I playfully approached a friend (2BB TKD) from behind and he came in with a high punch and I instinctively high blocked it. I was like cool, I did that quickly without thinking. Anyway just a few random thoughts

If I may butt in with my .02 cents, garrison. I have to agree with Master Stoker & Mr. Witten on this. The only thing you really need to focus on is learning what is in front of you. You seem to have an idea of what you need to work on already. That's good! Talk to your instructor & he'll have another list for you, I'm sure. I've been training for more than 25 years & my instructor always has a list of things I need to work on. We on this site haven't seen you train, so it's hard to point to things we think you should do, specifically.

It's exciting when there is a belt test & everyone gets a new belt. There's always a story of someone who worked really hard & moved up the ranks quickly. Friends, who don't know much about MA, ask "what belt are you now?" And whatever color you tell them, they're not impressed (cuz they know a guy who's higher rank). Or we just want to "get there" in TKD. I still don't know where "there" is. I'd venture to guess that the masters on this board don't either. It's all about the journey: not the destination.

Enjoy where you are. Learn all you can. Take tests as they come. If you do that,the black piece of cloth will be just another milepost in your journey...as it should be. If it becomes the end for you, you'll be very disappointed.

 

[garrisons2]

Perhaps the title of the post "where should I be with my progress?" is misleading in terms of what I am asking, which move succicently (I hope) would be: From your perspectives , what level of capabilities should a blue belt have?

 

[IcemanSK]

Perhaps the title of the post "where should I be with my progress?" is misleading in terms of what I am asking, which move succicently (I hope) would be: From your perspectives , what level of capabilities should a blue belt have?

A blue belt in my school is 4th gup. It may differ from school to school as to where "blue belt" falls in belt order. Expectations are different for every school as well. Not being your instructor, not seeing your skills, & not knows what your instructor's expectations are for you: no one here can really answer that for you. I's encourage you to ask your instructor.

 

[MA-Caver]

Like the piano teacher said,"Practise, practise, practise" . Progress in the martial arts is really measured in changes in yourself rather than changes in the belt around your waist,

TKD suffers more than most from Belt Mania - don't let it infect you. As a wise, non-piano-playing man once said, "When you're ready, you're ready".

I heartily agree. I've heard it so many times related to so many different things. Hard to believe it sometimes but that comes from expectations rather than acceptance.

You're exactly where you should be at this precise moment. Keep moving forward, keep moving forward.

 

[newGuy12]

Perhaps the title of the post "where should I be with my progress?" is misleading in terms of what I am asking, which move succicently (I hope) would be: From your perspectives , what level of capabilities should a blue belt have?

I wish to say one thing, and this is not intended to give offense. Sometimes when students get the higher level belt and they start to feel more powerful, they wish to go about and get into a fight.

This is unwise, and should not be done. Very bad things can happen. This should be enough said about it. You can have more power now than you are aware of. If you have the inclination (and I am not saying you do, I said *IF*) to "play around" with these techniques, please resist that urge, because serious injury can result.

 

[matt.m]

As everyone on the thread has stated it all differs from school to school. The thing is for TKD and HKD it is
white
yellow
orange
green
blue
purple
brown
red
black
For my Yudo class it is
white
yellow
green
brown 3rd
brown 2nd
brown 1st
1st dan

In any event........every school is different: For example we use the 1st 8 tae gueks and 1st 8 chang hon hyung per gup rank test. So Chong Ji and Il Jang for yellow belt test etc.

I have a friend from another school that didn't learn Sam Jang until he was a blue belt. I had to know it for green.

Plus you have to accept the fact that all schools have different basic moves, one and three step sparring techniques.

So as everyone else has pretty much pointed out, just worry about the current school's cirriculum.

We have a 2nd dan from another school with KKW cert. I am going to tell you the 1st day of class with us he asked "I know up to the 3rd dan testable Tae Guek, however I expect a long road to because I am sure the basic moves, 1 and 3 step sparrings are diff. I can't wait to begin learning the ITF poomsea."

So my pal Matt is humble and modest and well as a 2nd dan in Yudo I have the following thought that I follow "The higher your rank, the more humble you should be." Not only that but I always work on stuff. The thing is this, all the practice in the world only makes good, not perfect."

So be true to yourself and the answer will present itself.

 

[dortiz]

I guess we can each throw out different requirements but your teachers, whatever he goes with will be yours.

Here in LaLa land its this up to Blue:
1. Kibon 1&2 Tae Guk Il, II ,Sam, Sa, Oh Jang (substitute with Palgwe same difference, we do them at Dan level with BB forms) WTF ITF would just be same amount of Chonji forms.
2. Hand techniques up to Blue Belt. Each belt has two or three hand technoques and at each level you should be able to do them all.
3.Kicking techniques. 3 per gup, one being a jump kick (4th gup) = 21 kicking techniques
4. One steps Each color has 3 and strip has two at (4th gup) thats 20 techniques to demonstrate.
5.Sparring, as you progress more 2 min rounds. At (4th gup) should be two or three. Depending on shill level maybe two opponents.
6.Breaking, 2 techniques
7. Physical fitness X amount of push ups, sit ups and kicks on each leg.
8. Language/Terminology/History

Again by Black Belt it will include all of this demonstrated over many hours and more importantly you can walk on to the floor and minimally help a lower rank in their quest to learn these things.

Oh yeah, also......Black Belt feels like the day you put on the white belt.....so much more to start now that you have the basics.


Lastly, spend 10 years if you can on those basics. Spend 3-4 on punching alone. Thats where its really at. Black Belt is really about knowing the core and going back and being able to really focus without the distraction of the curriculum. You can be a Black Belt now. Take every kick and every technique and make it yours and make it unstoppable and perfect. No matter how hard it is. Then your teacher will smile, look you in the eye and tell you he knows what you know..... You will have become a true Martial Artist a Black Belt.

Yours in training,

Dave O.

 

[Kacey]

First, I'm going to agree with all of those who said don't get caught in the belt mania. Train for yourself, to improve you skills and increase your knowledge, and don't worry about rank; it will come or it won't, as your instructor feels you have demonstrated the appropriate skills.

Second, while I realize your later post states that you are not concerned about rank per se, but rather about whether your skills are sufficient/appropriate for the rank you are working toward (blue belt), your first post seemed more like you were asking if you should be progressing more quickly - so that's why the first part of my response, and others', is what it is.

As far as whether you are where you should be as a blue belt, I really can't say, as I come from a Ch'ang H'on training set, which uses different terminology, different patterns, and uses a different set of belts (white, white w/a yellow stripe, yellow, yellow w/a green stripe, green, green w/a blue stripe, blue, blue with a red stripe, red, red w/a black stripe, black). If you were in my class, you would know more kicks than the ones you list (but I don't know if that's because you're only listing your current requirements - we add several kicks and/or variations at each rank); you would know 5 tuls (patterns), you would be able to demonstrate 3-step and 2-step sparring, free sparring, ho-sin-sul (non-striking self-defense - grabs, releases, throws, and sweeps) and hand and foot breaks. How your ability compares to my own students, I can't say from a list of requirements - I would have to see you perform... which brings us back to my original response; you will progress - or not - as your instructor sees fit, based on the requirements of your organization. Others who are in a more similar organization may be able to provide you with more specific feedback.

When I was where you are now - an intermediate color belt - I had no idea of the broader arena of martial arts that existed outside the several classes with whom my instructor's class regularly interacted. In the late 80s, when I started TKD, there were few reliable books (and they were hard to find) and the internet as we know it today did not exist. You have a wonderful opportunity here to find out about other arts and see how they compare to your own - so please don't take others' inability to answer your question directly as any type of negative; it just means that you have access to a wider range of stylists than any practitioners have had in the past - so you're also going to get more responses from people who can provide general answers from similar styles (which can help broaden your understanding of your own style) but not the specific answers you may be looking for. Just hang around for a while and someone who can be more specific will show up at some point!

 

[granfire]

As somebody who moved through the be;ts rather fast I can tell you, you will discover that the Color belts are like Grammar school, the real learning starts with Black - in this set up.


As for sparring....spar more with better partners, things get better. Same here, you get better with age ( ) and practice. Besides as we get advanced in age we also tend to spar smarter...because we hurt more easy and heal a lot slower.


Don't worry about where you should be, as long as you are better then the day before!