The Red Stripe

At karate we work on a stripe system. So once you get a belt, like the brown one I have, you earn stripes with attendance over time. It’s a time-based system since it’s every 12 classes (roughly) that you get a new stripe. When you have enough stripes, and another 12 classes, you’ll test. There is a little flex with scheduling since adults don’t test on a specified night. Usually it comes on a Mon, Tue, or Wed night for adults and depending on what’s happening, you might test at 12, 13, or 14 classes. There’s also a tendency to group people for tests, so that might flex you another class or two.

For kids it’s different. They still have the timing and stripes, but the last Saturday of the month is when kids test, and they have to not only get their classes in by that last week, but also get a form signed by parents and a teacher. Then if they do well that last week, they’ll get a red stripe and be eligible to test on Saturday.

That’s where Delaney is. He got his red stripe last night, so he’s good to go for Saturday. It used to be that you had to come twice that last week, and red stripes were handed out on Wed/Thur of the week, but apparently things changed again.

So we don’t need to go tomorrow, but Delaney could use a little more prep. He got up last night in front of everyone, by himself, to do a form and did pretty well. He messed up a couple things, but he realized it, which is good. The test is more of an effort test, which I don’t completely agree with, so I think he’ll be fine, but he still could use the practice.