We feel that providing opportunities for rewards, incentives and belonging to a positive peer group is extremely important. We therefore have created, and will continue to create, avenues for students to set and achieve their goals. It all starts with attendance and learning the required curriculum, good behavior and attitude. This leads to stripes and belts. For those students who desire, we have provided various additional groups for them to earn the right to join.
We believe… “A person without a goal is like a boat without a rudder”.
Martial Art should be a personal development program designed to make our students positive, centered human beings. Concentration and focus, coupled with self discipline are the power tools we are using to teach respect for self and others. Our stripe system develops self confidence and helps the instructor to understand what each student needs to make that next step to Black Belt Excellence. Each set of curriculum that is learned by the student will be rewarded with stripes on both tips before being tested for the next belt. The first one is for learning the technique and the second one is for developing skill with the technique.
Students in American Freestyle show their progress by the color of their belts. The darker the belt, the higher the rank. In the old days, the student started out as a white belt. As they practiced their art, the sweat, dirt and hard work made their belts darker.
Testing our students and having them achieve their goal symbolizes their individual potential at becoming proficient at our system. We stress individuality because we must look at each student’s individual ability to determine if they are ready to advance or not. We can determine when a child has reached their potential at certain levels and ask you to trust us on our decisions. We have the children’s best interest at heart. If you have comments, please feel free to talk with your instructor privately at the beginning or end of class. Testing is the most fragile aspect of training. We make every attempt to see our students make the progress necessary.
Sometimes this involves extra help, or holding them back from a stripe or belt. It is not important if they go straight through the system with minimal time or take longer. What really matters is what they learn on the journey .
“It’s the journey, not the destination that builds successful people.”
“Team work is essential for your child to gain the benefits provided through American Freestyle Kaizen”
Curriculum has been divided into three rotations that are covered during the first and second halves of the year. Further dividing the curriculum into A and B sections also allows instructors to move students forward by recommended and decided belts. Elite students may pursue accelerated belt progression by testing every four weeks (at tournaments and at graduations) rather than every eight weeks. Instructors will therefore be able to recognize and encourage students’ progress without compromising the integrity of the belt ranks, allowing for further individualization of program goals and timelines.
During Rotations 1-3, the A material is introduced first during Weeks 1-4; the following four weeks, the A material is reinforced, and the B material is added.
During Rotations 4-6, the B material is introduced first, during Weeks 1-4; the following four weeks, the B material is reinforced, and the A material is added.
Students who are prepared to move forward will be tested only on material taught throughout the full eight weeks of the rotation – during Rotations 1-3, only on the A material; during Rotations 4-6, only on the B material. Students will be making visible progress toward their goals by moving forward to a new belt. A student should therefore spend an entire year as an Intermediate student — recommended green, decided green, recommended blue, decided blue, recommended purple, decided purple — before moving to the Advanced belts.
Students who are prepared to test on both A and B material during any rotation may move forward by demonstrating the current rotation’s curriculum at a tournament or other mid-rotation school event, and the other half in preparation for regular graduation. Both belts will be awarded at the graduation ceremony.
As always, rank progression is at the instructor’s discretion, and should be individualized to help each student reach his or her goals and fullest potential in an appropriate timeframe.