Congratulations! You’ve passed in-club pre-gradings and have now been entered into your first T.A.G.B. Grading. Assessments can be daunting when you don’t know what to expect, so we’ve put together some information to help make you feel as prepared as possible. If you have any questions that aren’t covered below the please do not hesitate to speak to us.
Grading Requirements
In order to take part in your first Coloured Belt Grading you will need a White Coloured Belt Dobok (please see our Equipment Order Form if you don’t have one).
To print your Grading Card for marking we also need a digital head and shoulders photograph of you against a plain wall/background. You can email this to us at admin@newmanmartialarts.com.
The cost of the Grading is £28 and can be paid for via bank transfer to the same account as Training Fees using the Student’s name in the description. If you don’t have our bank details to hand please see our PDF below.
Practicing For Your Grading
Extra Lessons
If you would like to, you are more than welcome to attend extra lessons between now and the Grading, even if you are usually only a part time student. If you are a Chipping Sodbury student you may wish to attend a class at Emersons Green to help familiarise yourself with the venue ready for the Grading. For more information on the times and locations of our Classes please visit Our Clubs page.
Home Practice
Practicing at home can be helpful in the build up to a Grading, but please make sure you do so in a safe space and notify other members of your household. Below you will find a PDF listing everything in your Grading to help you with your practice; this can also be found in our Student Zone under 10th Kup.
Theory
At each Grading you will be asked a few questions to test your knowledge. Questions won’t be too tricky for your first Grading and most will be covered in class (things like counting to 10 in Korean, knowing the name of your Instructor etc.) but we do recommend a little bit of theory revision to firstly help you feel more prepared and secondly help get you started in learning theory regularly.
We have tons of resources in our Student Zone to help make theory as fun and easy as possible which we have outlined below. We recommend little and often to help expand your knowledge, so find what works best for you and try to work a bit of learning time into your weekly schedule.
Online Theory
Our suggested method of learning is via our online Flashcards and Quizzes.
10th Kup Flashcards – These take a few minutes to read through so maybe not ideal for younger students but they do cover some useful information about Tae Kwon-Do, the T.A.G.B. and all the techniques you learn as a beginner.
10th Kup Quizzes: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced – These are perfect for all students, with Basic being the shortest and Advanced being the longest. At the end of each quiz you’ll be given a score and the answers to anything you got wrong. See if you can better your score each time!
10th Kup Quick Fire Quizzes: Quiz 1, Quiz 2 – These are great if you don’t fancy multiple choice; either use them as a quick test or as short flashcards to revise on the go.
10th Kup Comprehension Quizzes: English, Korean, Missing Word – These are good for an extra challenge if you have mastered the others.
Printable Theory
If you prefer working with paper we suggest starting with our Revision Card; this summarises some of the key elements and is a great starting point for everyone, especially younger students.
Prefer a definitive list? Take a look at our Revision Sheets. Designed to help higher grades recap lots of theory you’ll find a page per element (stances, kicks etc.) with a belt guide down the side.
Grading Day
The Grading will take place at the Emersons Green Village Hall on Emersons Way. Parking Eye manages the car park so where possible please use the Sainsburys car park and walk over; if you need to park at the Village Hall and are more than 10 minutes you will need to enter your vehicle registration in the touch screen at reception or online here.
Start time is 6pm; we will be opening the doors to let you in at 5.45pm. As you come in our friendly door staff will be there to greet you and check you in. As you enter the hall you will notice tables at the front for the Grading Examiner and Administration Staff, non-slip silicone markers on the floor and chairs at the back for students. Please find a chair and put your shoes and socks under your chair.
We don’t have the space for parents/carers to stay and watch unfortunately but we will always have several friendly, knowledgeable Black Belts at the back of the hall to help calm any nerves, answer any questions and escort younger students to the toilets if necessary.
The Grading will start off with everyone lining up and bowing to the Grading Examiner, Grand Master Michael Dew (9th Degree Black Belt). After sitting back down the Grading will start with the highest grades in groups of up to 8. When it is your turn you will get called up onto the stage for your Theory, where a Black Belt will ask you a few questions, and then back down onto a silicone marker on the floor for the practical work which will be called out by Master Newman.
When everyone has been up you will then be able to watch the higher grades free sparring, before lining up for the end of the grading. At this point anyone with an “A” or “above average” pass will have their name read out, and the best student in the grading will be presented with a Grading Award. Only the highest passes will receive their result on the night, everyone else will need to wait for their next lesson to find out their result.
Lastly, if there has been a recent Black Belt Grading you may see some of our hard-working Black Belts be presented with their T.A.G.B. and Tae Kwon-Do International Certificates. These promotions are not easy to earn and take years of dedicated training so please join in in giving them a round of applause.
Gradings usually finish between 7.15 – 7.30pm, so after bowing out our friendly door staff will check you out and back to a parent/guardian if under 16.
Belt Presentation
You will receive your result the next time you train. If you would like your result as early as possible then you are welcome to attend our Family Class at Chipping Sodbury from 6 – 7 pm on Thursday evening, even if you are usually only a part time student.
During the lesson (usually right at the start) we will present students with new belts and certificates. We will take a photograph for you of you/you child being presented with your new belt and send it to you either via Whatsapp or email if you don’t have Whatsapp.
If your belt is too long we will trim it down for you. 9th Kup belts are white with a yellow stripe on one side; they also wrap round twice unlike Junior White Belts which only wrap round once. If you are finding it tricky to tie your new belt you can re-visit our How To Tie Your Belt page.
Newman Martial Arts 