From White to Yellow

I have been asked a few times to go over how we grade from belt to belt… especially white belt to yellow belt progression.  This article is a general overview of what students must learn to graduate to yellow.  

Just for those who are interested, my grading approach is roughly as follows; Attendance 5% weighting

Participation in warm-up, exercises, drills and games 5% weighting

Judo etiquette, knowledge, terminology 5% weighting

Breakfalls, front falling, front rolling, side, and rear 10% weighting

Holddowns, application in ne-waza (groundwork) 15% weighting

Throws (Gokyo), application in randori (stand-up fighting) 60% weighting

The ratios shift dependent upon whether the judoka attends tournaments, or various other scenarios. As another example, although breakfalls carry only a 10% weighting, a student is unlikely to progress if he/she is unable to fall safely.

A good place to review gokyo is at ‘judoinfo.com’, or just google ‘judo gokyo’ and you should land on this site. Judokas should be able to readily demonstrate at least 6 of the 8 throws which form the first track of the gokyo. (while demonstrating ‘breaking the balance’, and control of their partner)