copyright john anderson 2012

 
  WHY HAVE A 9TH KYU GRADING?

The 9th kyu or red belt grading is the traditional starting grade for karate, and indeed a great many other martial arts. I note that recently many clubs and associations have abandoned this grade in favour of starting at 8th kyu or yellow belt. I personally feel that this is directly due to commercial competition. If you are a complete beginner in the martial arts and you have equal access to two different clubs, the first club telling you that you had to grade as 9th kyu red belt, and then train in more techniques for a minimum of three more months before trying for your 8th kyu yellow belt, and the second club informing you that you could go straight to your 8th kyu yellow belt level at your first successful grading, you may very well feel the shortcut club is your better option. After all, you would be graded to yellow belt three months earlier. However, you would probably find that you are requiring, less knowledge, less technique and almost certainly a lower standard of karate to pass this 8th kyu yellow belt in the second club. You will find this difference in knowledge, skill and ability will follow with an increasing discrepancy throughout the grades. There really is no substitute for practice. Along similar lines, there has been enormous competition between clubs and associations in recent years to produce younger and younger black belts, and I must say having witnessed a lot of them, the promotional publicity for the clubs or associations seems to have taken precedence over the actual abilities of the young black belts. Once a standard has been lowered it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to raise the standard again. It is surely better to be a good red belt than a poor yellow belt or for that matter black belt.

   AM I READY FOR MY GRADING?

Very often a grading instructor will be asked by a student or parent (in the case of young children) whether they are ready to try for their grade. I have always made it clear when asked this question that I will not allow any student to attempt their grade if they have absolutely no chance of gaining their grade. However, the other side of this is that if I tell a student they can attempt their grade, it should not be seen as a guarantee of a successful grading. In most borderline cases, it is a good idea for the student to attempt their grade. They may find the atmosphere on a grading day, helps them to focus on their techniques and so successfully grade. If a student, for any reason, does not successfully gain their grade, they will always be let down gently with a lot of the focus given to their positive points. They will also be given a very clear indication of the points that need to be improved for them to successfully gain their grade in the future.

  9TH KYU GRADING

This 9th kyu grading, being your first grading, is to my mind very often the hardest. The techniques are not particularly difficult, the kata is the easiest kata in Shotokan karate, the partner work really is as simple as it could possibly be, but all of this must be done to a reasonable standard, in most cases, without prior knowledge. All gradings following this one are built on the foundations of this grade. This is like building a house, without good foundations your house will progress at a steady pace until the day it suddenly collapses.
 
With this in mind do not look for the minimum standard to gain this 9th kyu red belt, rather look for the highest possible standard you can achieve.
All the basic stances, blocks, strikes, kicks, kata and partner work are listed below. In the following pages you will see each of these techniques, etc., described in detail, sometimes in great detail. A student could not possibly hope to perfect all the details in these various techniques at this stage, and indeed, throughout a persons karate training, they should always strive to achieve the highest standard they can, in the certain knowledge that if absolute perfection was ever required to hold any grade, then every single person (without exception) would still be a white belt trying for their red belt. A student should listen carefully to the instruction they receive from their Sensei or other coaches and first identify the most important faults they have, and then with their Sensei or other coaches help, try to improve these. On a similar note, many students are confused by the Japanese terminology. At this stage, do not consciously try to learn this; you will learn it better without conscious effort.

  WAZA (TECHNIQUES) (required for 9th kyu grade)

Zenkutsu dachi (front stance}
Kiba dachi (horse stance) Oi zuki (step in punch)
Gedan barai (down block) Gyaku zuki (reverse punch)
Age uke (rising block) Mae geri (front kick)
Soto uke (outside block) Yoko geri (side kick)
Uchi uke (inside block)

   KATA (FORM) (required for 9th kyu grade)

Kihon Kata (Basic form) this kata is sometimes also known as Taikyoku Shodan (First Cause)

   KUMITE (SPARRING) (required for 9th kyu grade)

Sanbon Kumite Jodan (three step sparring with partner, head height)
Chudan (three step sparring with partner, body height)

  SELF-DEFENCE (required for 9th kyu grade)

Release from two handed grab to throat using one finger defence.

Continue to page two --

  direct link to KYU pages --

  PDF DOWNLOADS