Taekwando Grading - Has anyone's LO's done it?

[cjt110]

A few months back DS started our local taekwando class. It's great and he loves it. He goes on a Sunday morning and is in a class aged 3-6.

His first set of grading has come up and we've been invited to put him forward. We've also been offered 3 free extra training sessions for extra practice before grading. I've taken them up on the offer of the extra sessions and will 99% be putting him forward to grade.

I can only assume as we've been invited, that he is ready? It's £30 to grade and we are not allowed to observe.

Can anyone tell me about your own grading experiences?

ds did up to blue belt (he had yellow, orange, green then blue iirc but maybe not in that order) in karate before dropping out in favour of more footie training. I don't think the lower belt gradings are that stringent for such young children and they were always done directly by his instructors (7th and 5th dans).

A good instructor will not put them forward until they know they are ready to pass (first grading after they have 3 tabs on their current belt). It costs money to grade and a failure could be demotivating so no point in putting forward if they are not fully ready.

Every grading ds (and his pals) went for they passed. Never heard of any failing as they usually make sure they are at the right level before they put them forward. I would assume TKD is very similar, it doesn't get harder until after the blue belt in karate.

Black belt ITF here - we don't put juniors that small in for the grading unless we are fairly certain they will pass. If things go wrong in the grading (and they do!) it is all dealt with very gently. The grading is carried out by the 4 and 5 dan black belts who are also instructors so they are known to most juniors. Juniors grade in small groups and, if a couple are struggling to remember the patterns, then one of the other instructors (always a few on hand to deal with this) will take them aside and run through the one causing a problem and then they come back in and do them again with the rest of the group. The focus is on it being a positive experience. Make sure you know what the grading consists of since, for ours, they have to learn a bit about the pattern and words in Korean so there is "homework" to be done. Oh, and be prepared to be sitting around for a while - gradings can take time to get through everything with a large group. Our junior white belt ITF grading consists of fundamental movements which are basic kicks and punches, four directional punch and block, padwork (again basic kicks and punches but this time onto a pad) and then the theory. Take a good book!

Hope it goes well for your DS!

Thanks all for your replies :)