It’s exam time for students
THE final month of the academic year is mostly dedicated to the evaluation of students at various levels. The academy has broadened this process by including an exam for examiners, instructors and judges. The national qualifications examination will in future be conducted on the same weekend as the annual Dan testing.
National qualifications include those awarded to practitioners on grounds of their judging standard and knowledge of national and international tournament rules. Students are also tested in competence to evaluate technical standard in order to award Kyu and Dan grades. Knowledge of technical standard and grading syllabus is essential.
Evaluation will also be done of a basic presentation. Applicants are evaluated in their ability to teach or instruct. They will be evaluated on grounds of their ability to teach a basic technique to various levels of competence. Dan gradings will be included in a very full weekend.
More than 50 students are expected to apply for evaluation of Dan grades and the highest at these gradings might be fifth Dan grades. The advantage of having most senior students from across the country together for a full weekend is usual and a large percentage of standardisation practice is done. It will be a long weekend with pressure and intensive training.
Students testing for higher Dan grades will have to complete the standardisation training which is approximately six hours of hard training followed by an individual exam conducted by a senior panel. Students attempting higher than the third Dan grades must submit a thesis before such exam is allowed. The content of such thesis usually consists of a detailed explanation of a favourite combination.
The final coloured belt grading will conclude the year when a full week is dedicated to evaluations and another week dedicated to the awarding of higher kyu grades. We will offer a Dan grading seminar consisting of a four-hour training session focusing on Dan and national qualifications followed by a kyu grading seminar the next weekend.
The JSKA South Africa national development team did an excellent performance in Swakopmund last weekend. More than 100 members of the development team put up an excellent performance against a strong Namibian team.
Pretoria News Weekend Edition, 11 October 2014