Gradings
When you first begin Karate, you start off as a white belt. A great way to see how your skills and abilities have developed is to to grade for the next coloured belt! We host two gradings over the year - usually near the end of December and April.
The first belt you can grade with us for is red belt (8th kyu), and this continues up to brown-black belt (1st kyu). At this point you'll be elligible to grade for black belt (1st dan - shodan) which will require external officiates to be present.
The full belt progression is:
Red > Yellow > Orange > Green > Purple > Brown > Brown-white > Brown-black > Black
A more in-depth outline of what is required for each each belt can be found by clicking on the respective colour above, or on the side bar.
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Grading Structure
Gradings happen during one of our Wednesday fitness sessions - so you have the first hour warming up before the grading begins.
- Basics & Kata:
Once started, you'll be called up in small groups of your grade colour to perform some basic techniques (called out/demonstrated by the instructor) and your kata(s). We encourage you to look through our glossary of terms as, at certain grades, the instructor will only give the Japanese names of moves.
- Kumite (Sparring):
Once each group has been called up, you'll equip some club sparring gear ready for kumite. At this point everyone grading (all colours!) will pair up for some short intense rounds of kumite, changing partners every couple of seconds. The higher the belt you're grading for, the more rounds you'll have to do! We've compiled a list of useful kumite moves and training techniques to win that crucial fight!
- Belt Presentation:
You've finished your grading, and hopefully were prepared enough to be presented with your next belt in your journey through karate!