Curriculum

[BDelich]

Hello Allie,

First, thank you for taking time to share your experience. It is much appreciated.

Some questions on curriculum:

1. For Adults:

a. Was your system orginally a menkyo kaiden system, and if so, how did you break it down in order to teach in the time frame that you currently use for classes?

b. Do you rotate curriculum at all, monthly, weekly, or quarterly?
1. Does your testing format follow the curriculum cycle?
2. Providing a student shows to all classes, what is the time frame they will be "up" for promotion?

c. Do you have class's seperated into beginning, intermediate, and advanced?
1. If so, can students participate in other class (rank permitting).
2. If no, how do you keep all of the students learning new skills in a mixed class?

2. For kids:

a. Is your children's curriculum an "expanded" version of the adult's material, or have you modified their classes to be more based on core strength and coordination skills?

b. How did you design your children's curriculum so that it would prepare and lead them into your adult program?

c. Is it plausible for a child to earn a black belt in your children's program?
1. If so, would it be a "Jr" blackbelt?
2. How do you handle when a child transitions from the children's to the adult classes? How would it be handled if they have a "Jr" blackbelt?

3. For Curriculum in general:

a. Do you have a definite "set" curriculum?
b. If you change it, how do you implement it without freaking out students and parents?

Regards,

Benjamin Delich

[Allie]

Dear Benjamin:

Wow! Those are some great questions. I will start by saying. Yes, Yes, Yes, No, Yes, Just kidding.

I have all of curriculum following that of my teacher Tanemura Soke of Japan. We do Genbukan Ninpo, Kokusai Ju Jutsu and Koryu Karate. There are some differences in the curriculum as it is taught in Japan. I have rearranged many things in order of difficulty and then put it together slightly different. It does not differ that much for the original kyu level - dan level in Japan. When all is said and done, my students are fully capable of testing any way the grandmaster sees fit.

I do have seperate curriculums for little ninja3-5, Mighty Ninja 5-8 and youth and adults. The curriculum is an Adult curriculum and it is thinned toward the little kids.

Yes, I do have jr. Black Belts. All of my classes are broken down by rank, age and color of belt. I do not use a rotating curriculum. My curriculum doesn't allow it. It would be nice, but our techniques are based on difficulty and they are all based off each other. So we can not jump around. If we did people could get real hurt.

The thing with the way we teach is we are teaching based on three criteria. One classes in, time period and ability. The students can not promote to a rank without all three criteria. We make sure they are in good shape in all areas. Each rank has a different amount of time. As they get to the higher ranks it takes longer to promote.

My curriculum from beginner to Black Belt is a 5 year curriculum.

In spirit;
Allie Alberigo
LiNinja.com

[John Lindsey]

It is refreshing to hear that you have a 5 year time frame for black belt. Have you ever read about any research as to the average time it takes these days? Such research may be hard to do, but I am thinking 2 to 3 years may be the average, which is too low I think for someone new to the martial arts.

Back when I was with EFC, they made a big deal about making sure your student's knew you were a BLACK BELT SCHOOL and that their goal should be to get a BLACK BELT. Some dojo even had these huge banners saying "We Are a Black Belt School" and the idea was to sell the students into a black belt plan. They even suggested that once a person signs up for the black belt plan, that you put a black belt with there name on it, on the main wall so that they see it all the time. I didn't like that idea very much.

[Allie]

Dear John;

Once again, you ae correct. The EFC plan is awesome. I know the average is 3 years in most school. Especially Tae Kwon Do. This is a the time it takes to progress to Black Belt in that style. As you know in our style it is a bit more involved. So I have it take 5 years. I used to take 7 years, but was losing many students because of the time.

I do stress Black Belt we have creeds that get the students focused on that goal. My primary focus is on the teachings and life skills not the Actual belt. You know the belt can be bought at any store. In fact, after seeing some of the teachers out there, I believe that they had a sale one day.

I think that retention is the key to getting successful Black Belts. They won't stick around for 5 years if they are not interested. My retention as of last night is 70% over a 2 year period. That is actually awesome.

IN spirit;
Allie Alberigo
LiNinja.com