Die Pad na Yellow Belt

Toe ek die eerste keer begin martial arts met 'n Shotokan karate klas by ons plaaslike junior kollege, die instrukteur uitgedeel 'n artikel vir almal om te lees. Die artikel bedek 'n studie met statistieke. Die studie het bevind dat uit elke 10,000 martial arts studente enigste 100 sou gaan oor swart gordels te verdien. Most beginning students quit after six months and seventy-five percent quit after a year.

In the almost ten years that I have been teaching, I have found these statistics to be pretty accurate. Due the high attrition rate, I have begun to rethink what a modern curriculum should look like. If most students will be gone in six months and most students come to class to learn self-defense, we should focus the first six months of a student’s training on making them as “street ready” as possible.

In retrospect, I would make the beginner’s program six months long. We would focus on learning the techniques by striking pads, sparring and practicing self-defense. Once the student showed a significant mastery of these techniques, I would teach them the things that make a martial art: forms, traditional drills and traditional sparring.

Most martial arts programs including mine are very concerned about outlining the path for the student who wants to get their black belt. It is important to encourage and guide those rare students who will one day be black belts. Egter, it is just as important if not more so to have a solid beginning program because most students don’t go past this level.

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