Gradings (belt promotions) take place usually twice a year, once near the Christmas break and once at the end of the Summer term.

A student does not automatically grade, ultimately, the decision to grade is down to the discretion of the instructor. and eventually the ITA Panel of grading examiners. There is no benefit in rushing up the grades if the student is not up to standard.

Three weeks before the grading date a series of assessments take place to see if the student is eligible to grade. This allows the instructor to feedback in more detail on performance and technique and a chance for the student to work on what is required for the grading. If they are still unable to hit the criteria at this stage, then they are advised to wait until the next grading.

Everybody is different and some people require more time to hit the criteria than others.

There is a number of criteria required to be able to grade:

1. The student has had a good consistent attendance over the year and has made up classes if they missed due to illness or holidays.

2. The student always trains with effort and doesn’t just coast through the class.

3. The student has a good attitude at all times, pays attention and isn’t distracted (talks a lot) in class.

4. The student pays attention to corrections and makes an effort to apply them.

5. The student has a good level of strength and fitness (green belts are recommended to train twice per week if they are not doing any other physical activity) . This can also be age dependent as you cannot grade to black belt unless you are age 13 and above.

6. The student knows the required syllabus (Patterns, linework, step sparring, fitness and sparring ability for their grade).

 

Below is an estimated time span based on training twice per week (students training once per week will take longer):

Gradings for white belt up to blue belt may grade every 3-4 months.

Gradings for Red tag and above may grade every 6 months.

 

This means it would take approximately 3 & a half to 4 Years to get a Black belt assuming training twice per week. It takes considerably longer if you train once per week.

White