An impressive display results in an eruption of euphoria as students are awarded new grades!!
Covid once again threatened to derail the event after a recent outbreak in the village caused concern amongst club officials. For the first time during the pandemic several of our students have contracted the virus which lead to them missing the event. Precautions have been put in place over the last coupe of week to help minimise the risk to our students, including bringing in social distancing measures where possible, stopping all paired up activities and stopping games (all of the fun things students like to do sadly) however our students safety is our main priority at all times.
The grading took place on a bitterly cold November morning in the mist of storm Arwen which was battering the county, bringing torrential down pours, hails storms and gusts of wind of up to 90mph. If it wasn’t covid trying to disrupt the grading it was the weather, with a flurry of brief power cuts making for a nervy morning.
The grading began at 9am with a warm up, due to the cold conditions this was more vigorous than normal, wanting to ensure the students were warm and ready to go. After the warm up had concluded we were ready to begin the grading. Some students were visibly still tired and the early start was clearly a shock to the system for some, but it didn’t take long for them to overcome this.
The grading followed its usual pattern covering a range of aspects including break falls, basic hand techniques, stances and stepping, kicking, kata and combinations. On the whole students applied themselves well and showed a good level of understanding and application when asked to perform the various techniques.
As always there are things that need to be improved and it’s usually stances and footwork, and again it was noted that this particular aspect of training needed the most improvement.
The Results
After two and half hours the grading came to an end and the following results were awarded.
The following students were awarded new belts. Yellow Belt: Eliza Thomas, Louella Griffith, Katie Matthews, Niall Manning-Payne (+1 Tag), Euan Manning-Payne, Ayla Payne, Evie Jeffery, Ethan Callaghan, Elliott Toms, Ollie Shannon. Orange Belt: Emlyn Baker, Henry Golding. Green Belt: Aneurin Baker.
The following students were awarded tags: 1 Yellow Tag: Eden Griffith, Darci Griffith, Senara Popp, Sasha Vavrecka, Torran Parsons, Alice. 2 Yellow Tags: Theodore Wyatt, Thomas Chisholm, Treeve Price, Seb Shannon. 1 Orange Tag: Alex Whittaker. 1 Green Tag: George Rimmer. 1 Blue Tag: Mawgan Elford, Tegen Elford
A big well done to everyone!! It’s often a tough decision to make when deciding on the results of a grading, on the day students are judged on a number of categories including, footwork, stances, blocking, hand positioning, movement, correct targeting, their ability to successfully perform combinations, their level of focus, and their overall spirit and attitude, that along with how they apply themselves in class each week along with their number of hours they have trained for is taken in to consideration when awarding grades.
It’s also not unusual for younger students to take a bit longer to progress than the older ones as they may still be developing their sensory and motor senses which can effect the speed they learn and retain information, this is normal and our young students shouldn’t get too disheartened if they didn’t come away with what they were hoping for. Whilst many were experiencing joy and happiness there’s those who we experiencing sadness and disappointment, to those who didn’t grade this time keep trying your best and continue to show up every week and focus on getting the grade next time.
The star of today’s grading was Niall Manning-Payne who showed great attitude and focus throughout the grading and impressed with the level of his techniques. Niall also shows the same focus and attitude every week in class and he got his just reward for the effort he puts in every time he attends.
