Aiki-Jutsu Gradings

Grading is an important part of martial arts and helps show a measure of a students ability. Gradings are only offered to students when their instructor is fully confident that they are ready, and their combined hours of attendance has been adequate.

It is usually around 6 months between gradings for a student until they hit their 2nd Kyu, 1st Kyu and 1st Dan where the time required to be prepared between grading is between 1 and 3 years. This means that it takes around 7-8 years to hit your first black belt, and a further 2-3 years between each Dan after that.

Below is an ordered list of our coloured belts, and a general overview of the ability of the student by the time they reach that grade.

**Our Grading Awards**
Colour	Grade	Brief Description
White	none	All Beginners
Yellow	7th Kyu	Basic Falling, Locks and Throwing
Orange	6th Kyu	Advanced Locking, Basic Pinning and Further Throwing Techniques
Red	5th Kyu	Advanced Falling, Basic Weapons and Two Man Attacks with Basic Counter Attacks
Green	4th Kyu	Full Application Locks, Pinning and Throwing and Two Armed Attacks
Purple	3rd Kyu	Full Applications with Multiple Attackers, and Advanced Counter Attacks
Blue	2nd Kyu	Further Full Applications with Multiple Attackers. Advanced Throwing techniques and Defence against sharp weapons
Brown	1st Kyu	Advanced Full Applications and Multiple Sharp Weapon Attacks. Learning to instruct other students and applying their own techniques.
Black	1st Dan	Ready to be an instructor

Gradings shouldn't be taken lightly, and at the Shorinji Ryu, you really have to work hard to earn them, especially on the grading day itself. The gradings are physically demanding, but will prove to the student how capable they really are.