ALWAYS CHECK THE CLASS SCHEDULE
and check for updates
* also see our information under the listed changes, about how we are teaching/testing for stripes and why it is even more important for students to get back to class the first week after belt testing.
and check for updates
* also see our information under the listed changes, about how we are teaching/testing for stripes and why it is even more important for students to get back to class the first week after belt testing.
Changes to the class schedule starting December 2023:
Mondays, the Probationary & Recommended Black Belt Juniors no longer have 2 class options this same day. They will continue to have the 6:45 pm class option Mondays.
Wednesdays, the 4:30 pm time will no longer be a teens (age 11-17) class. We gave it several months as a trial option and it was never well-attended. The 4:30 pm time slot on Wednesdays will now be a Juniors Brown - Recommended option. We will still continue testing the option to also work with Black Belt students working toward their instructor collar during this same 4:30 pm Wednesday time slot.
Thursdays, the Brown & Sr Brown Belt Jrs will no longer have 2 class options on Thursdays. They will continue to have the 6:45 pm class option Thursdays.
Why it is important to get back to class the very first week after belt testing?
While expect you to take family mini-vacations and "play hooky" now and then while still trying to get to class as consistently as possible.
Here's why it's so important to get back to class right away:
We are focusing on one-quarter "chunks" of the form each week.
The first week after testing, we will focus only on the first quarter of the form, whether you are a color belt or a Black Belt.
The second week, we will go through the first quarter of the form, but focus on teaching the 2nd quarter.
(Students who test for stripes may test for the stripe for the first quarter of their form during this 2nd week).
The third week we will go through the first half, but focus on teaching the third quarter.
and so on ...
After each class, we typically have all the students of one belt rank being tested for stripes by one instructor.
This helps ensure all the students with the same form are being evaluated with the same expectations
Sparring: we also start sparring drills in gear the very first week back after testing.
After the first 4 weeks, every single student should know their entire form.
If they already knew their form, it should improve and any mistakes corrected.
Why have we made these changes?
During Belt Rank testing events we always see things in forms and sparring that could be improved, and we always evaluate our teaching to see where we can improve and impact future testings.
Students who were a "plain color belt" and are now the Sr Belt level with the same form, now need to do the form with more confidence, power and improved skills.
We decided that focusing on, teaching, and testing for smaller chunks of the form each week would help students with a new form be able to learn and students who are now Sr belts to focus on improving the details.
We also realized that within each class each day it would benefit students to have one instructor teaching all the students who have the same form so they are all hearing and seeing the same thing, and are all learning the same small chunk of the form.
After week 4, by which time all the students will have been taught (or had review of) their entire form), we will then start dividing them up more for the individual help them may need.
All visits are by scheduled appointment only during this time.
Only instructors and students are inside the school., plus:
ONE person per family of students in the current class may be inside (and that one person must be a parent/adult guardian).
Other family members, friends, etc (even when arriving for the trial class) stay outside and watch class from outside.
