Our next 3 students take their black belt grading at the Impact Martial Arts Academy

Saturday 4th June 2005 saw three more of our senior belts taking their black belts - the three students Andy Phillips - Andy O'Bryan and Shane Griffiths who were all at the brown and black belt stage of their grading syllabus - were all due for a grading and we believed they were ready for the next step up the martial arts ladder All three students have been training regularly for many years with us - were physically and mentally ready to take our black belt test - which was not going to be easy, not at all! Students wishing to take any gradings at any of our clubs must first satisfy some set criteria we have set out - this being that they must regularly attend class sessions and complete a minimum number of sessions to qualify - plus show a very good level of improvement during pre-gradings from that during the last grading, and all students must always show respect to senior belts and obey all club rules at all times. We set a date for the three students to do this grading well in advance of the actual date - so that they had plenty of time in preparation for their big day All three students punched and kicked their way through 6 hours of 1st degree black belt - which involved demonstrating every single kicking and punching technique in our syllabus - completing every one of our self defence techniques plus grappling and groundwork - and a very high level of understanding for our whole syllabus Each of the students performed so well during this six hours, plus they showed such good team work by helping their partners out as much as they possibly could when things got a little hard, by encouraging them at every possible opportunity - this was very impressive in itself The gradings were then topped of by the written test part of the grading - again in this they all done very well - this was the last part of the grading to be completed on this day The grading sheets were scored during the entire grading - and students were marked on each and every technique they performed - these scores were then totalled and then the scores were marked in order to ascertain the students result Each and every student that takes any of our belts from our syllabus are aware that they are not guaranteed to pass the belt that they have just taken - although we do our best to ensure that every student who takes any of our gradings stands a good chance of passing it - we do this by means of pre-gradings and the ensuring the students have achieved the set criteria we set out (outlined above) and giving them the best possible martial arts tuition we can when they are training with us - and on occasions we do have to fail people - which is not very nice for us, and not very nice at all for them - so the three students who were taking their 1st degree black belt knew that they had to work hard for it, or risk failing - and if any of them were not good enough, we had to fail them. The score sheets were marked by our 3 most senior instructors and then each of the students was called back into the grading area individually and told of their result - and I am very proud to say that all three achieved the highest possible mark available, which made me very happy indeed. At the end of the day we had time to reflect on the what we had done on the day and time to discuss informally how the students performed during the grading - and we all agreed that what they done on the day was as much as they had, and they could have done no more. So we are very proud to have our three newest black belts training with us - wearing the belts they have worked so long and so hard for - and congratulations to you all again. We do take so much pride in our grading system - what it means and what it stands for represents our feelings on teaching martial arts to the highest standard and highest levels - we don't give any belt to any student who does not 100% deserve it - and to wear one of our black belts around your waist truly shows the level of dedication and commitment each of the students that have one has shown. Well done again to them all. Wayne Timlin - Chief Instructor