Revamping our grading syllabus

The different colored belts for judo

As our club grows and evolves, so must the way we practice and the way we grade. We must continually strive to improve things. This includes our grading syllabus. Even the Kodokan revises its official list of techniques from time to time (the last time being 2017), so why shouldn't we?

Revamping the syllabus, of course, cannot be done in a vacuum. I've been researching the syllabus of many other countries to come up with something suitable and practical for our club.

Contest points
One thing I've noticed about many countries' syllabus is that the shiai component is present for most of them. That means contest points are required.

What about those who want to grade but for some reason do not want to compete (perhaps due to age or injury)? In this case, Australia has a reasonable solution. It is possible to grade through "knowledge of" and "service to" judo.

Because the shiai (or competition) component is so important, anyone who wishes to grade through this unconventional way must have a lot of knowledge and do a lot of service to judo. This is how Australia describes the process:

This method of attaining promotion requires the judoka to show dedication through active service via demonstration of techniques, coaching, refereeing, administration, and management appointments. Judoka who wish to gain promotion on this path must also be able to demonstrate significant knowledge on a broad range of aspects of the sport and art of judo. This will include theory, practical, theoretical teaching of techniques, demonstration of the required katas, and refereeing theory.

Range of techniques
In terms of the techniques covered, some places base it on the Gokyo, which now has 68 throws and 32 groundwork. In other places, notably the UK, it departs a bit from the Gokyo. In the UK for instance there are some Gokyo techniques not covered and even some non-Gokyo techniques covered (e.g. mune-gatame, which doesn't exist in the Gokyo). I've also seen kouchi-gake in some syllabuses (kouchi-makikomi is in the Gokyo but kouchi-gake isn't).

So, it really varies. Should the grading syllabus be based entirely or mainly on the Gokyo, which frankly, has many obscure techniques (how many people have heard of yama-arashi?) as well as some impractical techniques (sumi-otoshi, anyone?). And of course there are those which are practical but banned in competition (mostly hand techniques like kata-guruma and morote-gari).

I'm personally quite torn about whether to include all Gokyo techniques in the grading syllabus. On the one hand, some of the techniques will never be used either because they are now considered illegal techniques or are simply too impractical for randori or competition purposes. On the other hand, it could be argued that if you want to become a black belt in judo, you should be familiar with the Gokyo (if only for historical reasons).

I, myself, have always been competition-oriented yet I did bother to learn the Gokyo. So this is a tough one for me. The practical side of me says no need to teach banned or obscure techniques. The slightly conservative or traditional side of me feels it's necessary to know this stuff to be a truly complete judoka.

Perhaps the middle ground would be to teach only practical techniques up to brown belt and for those who truly want to gain a black belt, they need to learn all the other stuff in the Gokyo.

Note: Those who wish to grade through knowledge of judo (without competition points) will have to go through a more expansive syllabus from yellow belt onwards. They will also have to have a sound understanding of refereeing and do a variety of services to judo (as per the examples int he Australian guidelines).

Knowledge of Japanese terms
This is where I am very conservative. A sound grasp of Japanese judo terms is a must. Enough said.

Bottom Line
So, in a nutshell, what will guide the revamp will be:
a) The shiai component will be required for green belt onward (not required for yellow and orange).
Note: Exemption from competition points is allowed through knowledge of and service to judo.

b) Yellow through blue belts will consist of practical techniques only. Black belt, however, will require knowledge of the Gokyo.
Note: Those opting for exemption from competition points will have a more expansive syllabus from the start.

d) Knowledge of Japanese judo terms is required.
Note: No exemption.