For people who teach/rank kids classes

davejitsu

davejitsu

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Just kinda curious how you run your ranking...obviously there is the age standard, but do you set a circ. for them to learn? What is your time standards to each belt? Do you use stripes? Thx
 
We follow the Gracie Barra guidelines for kids belts. We follow the Monthly guidelines between promotions (because in reality it doesn't matter so much. My son will get his blue belt at age 16, and he will have been training for 11 years - he'll be a pretty solid blue, I think!!!), and we follow the age restrictions. No yellow until 8 (I think), no orange until 10, no green until 13. Because this makes for such a long wait between belts, we use a ton of stripes. Basically one per couple of months for colored belts. Just as training incentive.
 
Correction. No real age limit for white/yellow or yellow.
 
Thanks for the imput...I wasn't going to do stripes for kids, but maybe I'll have to do it
 
Yeah - just like with adults stripes 1-3 on the belt are pretty much for attendance and stripe 4 is a bit of notification that you're on the coaches radar for a belt promotion.

Our belt ranks are white, yellow, orange, green for the kids mostly. I've never seen a gray belt awarded but I guess it could be a possibility if there was a good 6 year old.

From there the guidelines are as follows:

Minimum 7 years old for Yellow Belt
Minimum 10 years old for Orange Belt
Minimum 13 years old for Green Belt

If you're a green belt for at least 2 years before turning 16 it's up to the head instructor if you jump up to purple at 16 but at the very least the kid will get his blue belt. It's basically verbatim what the IBJJF guidelines are since our school is an IBJJF member school.
 
On a more serious note, at my previous school, I think they would just do 4 stripes in between each belt color. I'm not sure how often those would be handed out, but I think I saw some fairly young kids with yellow belts and orange belts (and maybe green belts in the mix also), for example. I think it probably doesn't matter as much since you can't get a 'real' blue until 16 anyway.
 
We've never ran a kids class before, so it is new to me. Just trying to gage how I want to run the ranks per time/skill for kids, while staying within the IBJJF guidelines
 
What I mean is I know what I want out of a Blue, Purple, Brown...but kids are harder to judge.
 
My daughter is 5 and she takes a kids class that has 6 yo twins in it.
 
davejitsu said:
Thanks for the imput...I wasn't going to do stripes for kids, but maybe I'll have to do it
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Not only will you have to do stripes for the kids, you'll probably have to double the stripes and make 8 and maybe do have belts like white/yellow and yellow/orange. My son teaches the kids clas for Keith Owen and they had to do that. As much for the parents as for the kids. I have witnessed parents go ape $hit because their kid didn't get a stripe on a belt. Weird but stripes and belts really keep the kids motivated, and in this day of a hundred different kid's activities, reward and feeling of complicment is what keeps them coming back. Once passed 11 or 12 they usually are in it and he goes back to the 4 stripes on the orange or green belt. Hope that helps.
 
mweaver123 said:
Admittedly, not many, but I hope my son will start training when he is 4. :icon_chee
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4 years is way young. I think 6 is the very earliest age and that is young. Its like herding cats, a room full of little kids. Hope you have another adult or two to help. You'll need them.
 
Thanks Boise,
What is the time standard on the stripes that you guys use?
 
PM me, and we could talk about what we do at the Jungle Gym, I am not sure if I can speak about our whole curriculum in here.
Also I disagree with 4 being to young, we start them here at 4 1/2 they just have to be potty trained. One of my training partners who owns another Jungle Gym has a toddlers class for kids 3-4, & I can tell you from watching that its fantastic!!! & he has few problems. I couldn't do it so I know what you mean lol.
 
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boisefireman said:
4 years is way young. I think 6 is the very earliest age and that is young. Its like herding cats, a room full of little kids. Hope you have another adult or two to help. You'll need them.
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I teach starting at 4, they can do quite well. It's not easy though, and requires a whole different approach to teaching then older kids.

Lots of combat games, and switching gears every few minutes.

Anyways, as for the question. I rank kids white to black, taking around 5 years to get to black for a kid starting at 7 or 8, a little longer if they start younger. Of course my situation is different, I don't rank adults. So they get their black shortly before they'd be moving into the adult classes and going "beltless".

However, personally if I was ranking adults it wouldn't change for the kids. The Kids program goes white to black, they have their own curriculum and a checklist of requirements at each level.

For kids belts can be a pretty big motivator, and if they look around and see friends getting black belts in karate or TKD and they get told they aren't allowed to get even a blue belt until they are 16 its going to discourage them.

The Kid-based styles have a long history of ranking kids and figuring out what works and what doesn't in terms of retention and motivating kids, IMO its worth paying attention to what they have learnt and not trying to force a adult system into a kids class.

It's a idea not without precedent, not sure how things work in the states, but up here we have cadets, basically a military like thing for kids, run by the military. They have their own uniforms and their own rank. A 13 year old can be a Sargent, but if when they turn 17 they enlist the rank obviously doesn't carryover.
 
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