GRADING SYLLABUS
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Grading syllabus are available for
FOR 9th - 1st KYU
9th Kyu - 8th Kyu - 7th Kyu - 6th Kyu - 5th Kyu - 4th Kyu -3rd Kyu - 2nd Kyu - 1st Kyu
The grading syllabus encapsulates the training for students and the level of competence they will have to achieve to attain their respective grades. The syllabus will be in two parts. A short training document for each grade and an appendex to explain in detail how to teach the system.
(The appendix will be on line soon) As soon as we can all the syllabus will be in the form of Small flash movies to help understand the techniques. This will help the students visualise the principles and dynamics of the system.
The main emphasis has been to evolve the Kyushu element into a complete fighting system with an aim of incapacitating and subduing the opponent by means of strikes to the acupuncture points. Developing an outline for the draft “Syllabus” fell into two groups novice (9 th - 4 th Kyu) & Brown belt. It was felt we should emphasise progressive basics and technical competence.
The only changes here were to ensure that students looked again at Kihon and how they practised it.
Changes were made to ensure the combinations focussed upon developing a fighting instinct and built-up the students reactions. In the creation of the brown belt syllabus (3rd – 1st Kyu ) the evolution of the Kyusho system made it look rather pedestrian and it entirely omitted Kyusho basics. This presented an opportunity to re-think the entire grading structure, which has always been largely based upon how a student's basic technique is developing.
Two distinct sections obviously suggested themselves. Mid-range and Close range as a prelude to all the fighting ranges from Black belt. With Mid range Kihon there was the incongruous situation of students defending from Yoi. This is after 3 years of training, while close range techniques were conspicuous by their absence. It was therefore felt that Mid range Kihon should be in Ju-dachi and that gradees should attack and defend the technique. Also that the techniques should be realistic which meant including tactics such as feints and off/on line fighting as a means of gaining tactical advantage. Further to this the first four sequences needed to focus on honing a students reaction rate. Evidence for this was drawn from the Kyusho training were at close range reaction speed became decisive.
The draft syllabus was photographed and the pictures
put on the web site. However, we acknowledge that the two dimensional representation makes it very difficult to explain the tactical elements in the syllabus that in reality make the techniques work. As a consequence of this video strips are being produced to compensate for this. It is essential that any Syllabus represent the highest level of accomplishment and not pander to student “attention levels”. Therefore the overall level of technique and tactic represented by the syllabus is high e.g. Ushiro Maewashi in combination with other techniques. As always spirit is essential, with emphasis on the principles of combat rules, timing, distance and fluidity.
A whole new Kyusho section has been added under Kihon with a view to them becoming the Kyusho basics. Students will be expected to pad-up for the grading in order to demonstrate their competence under pressure. There are two sub sections. The first dealing with largely Kanku-dai style defence/attacks; Maewashi-Uke defence/attacks and Shuto-uke defence/attacks. The second section adds kicks in combination with the above.
It has been remarked that Kyusho applications also appear in the Kata Bunkai section of the grading and why should they be done separately. Many feel that as with competition or real-time K1 and Mixed Martial arts fighting core techniques must be available and highly practised in order to deal instinctively with a real time attack.
Kata and Kata Bunkai can be seen as an exploration into the roots of martial arts as a means of revealing the core combat patterns. Most kata have been built from modification of the core patterns and hence the proliferation. Kata being broken down from the long Chinese forms and modified into the Okinawan and Japanese versions with cultural variations. We have incorporated the core combat patterns into a new section called Goshin Jutsu (Self Defence) this will bring together all the elements.
We feel that the traditional basics at the start of gradings are representative of real-time martial arts. The basics would also be modified to show a more dexterous and fluid application of techniques. The overall length of the grading is unlikely to be much extended from the current one. At first sight the learning curve would suggest different but a mock run through on video will be produced soon to show the actual time involved.