Rotating Curricular Schedule Foundation

A guiding principle that must be established before we finalize any type of rotating curriculum to our schedule is curricular priorities. These priorities define what we value most when developing our black belt standard.

Silent River Kung Fu curricular priorities are as follows:

1. Six Harmonies (White Stripe) - Forms

2. Keystone Principles (Red Stripe) - Basic stances/kicks/blocks/fundamentals

3. Vocabulary of Motion (Yellow Stripe) - Combinations/footwork/sparring skills

4. Wuxin (Black Stripe) - Applications/grappling

5. Dynamic Control (Orange Stripe) - Weapons

   Traditional Tenets (Blue Stripe) - Lion/Dragon Dance

Not included in these priorities is Wude (Green Stripe) - Character Development; as that curricular ideal is non-physical and the majority of the development will take place outside of the structured class during special events and private  time.

Dynamic Control (Orange Stripe) and Traditional Tenets (Blue Stripe) are both ranked equally at the bottom of the curricular priority list as being the least important contributors to the physical development of a black belt. However! It should be noted that while they are considered the least important contributors to helping our students become black belts, they are the MOST important contributors to the definition of what makes SRKF unique from other martial arts schools. Weapons and Lion/Dragon dance are the main values where no other school can compete with us.  Therefore they are very important to the school, not so important to the students.

With our curricular priorities defined and guiding us, the next step in developing a rotating curriculum is to define our values within each curricular ideal.  Using our Six Harmonies (White Stripe) as an example, we may decide that our priorities for earning that stripe are ordered:

1. Sequence

2. Technique

3. Flow

However if we reflect upon the evolution of Hsieh Chien, we can see how prioritizing sequence can become the root of mediocrity in our system.  Hsieh Chien was conceived and implemented all within 30 minutes of a Young Dragon Class. I was leading a drill of combinations and decided to keep adding techniques to see how far I could get the students to go. By the end of 30 minutes I had a sweating group of kids who were loving every single second of the class and who had memorized the entire sequence (as did I). I slapped a name on the sequence and made it a curricular form on the spot.

Over the next twenty years, we all sucked the fun and the life out of the Hsieh Chien because we did not teach it the way the I originally taught it. I taught it for fun and to make the class feel challenged and accomplished while we worked on vocabulary of motion. After that first class we all shifted our priority for Hsieh Chien to be about teaching the sequence, not having fun, not perfecting vocabulary of motion.

The problem with the way we teach Hsieh Chien is the exact problem we have with every single form we teach. We prioritize sequence at the expense of energy, fun, flow, inspiration, and technique. By the very definition of the six harmonies we should now better.

Therefore our priorities when teaching the six harmonies must shift to (or something similar):

1. Fun, creative repetition

2. Technique

3. Flow

4. Sequence

Ideally, sequence should be a byproduct of everything else.

Once we establish our curricular value priorities  and our priorities within each curricular ideal, we can begin to establish a logical rotating curriculum schedule that reflects what is important as opposed to only reflect what is balanced.

If we expand upon the concept that sequence should be a byproduct of everything else, the same logic applies to Keystone Principles (Red Stripe). We should not have to dedicate any time to Keystone Principles as the Keystone Principles are part of every curricular ideal that we teach.  We just need to dedicate focus to the keystone principles when we are teaching everything else.

The bottom line is creativity is key. We do not have to teach Keystone Principles and Forms by just performing the Keystone Principles and the Forms. There are creative ways of doing fun things where we can focus on our priorities within the curricular ideals without hitting them dead on in a boring and uncreative way.

2-4-6 Contacts

The main reason people cease their training, no matter what they may tell you, is the perceived indifference of their instructor. If they do not know we care and if they do not understand our values, we do not have the foundation in place to help them change their minds. Without that foundation, it is almost impossible to intervene in a positive way.

Our database continues to show potential as being a valuable tool to help us improve our retention by helping us maintain connection with our students and their parents throughout their training. It is my goal to develop a report to track our communication with each of our students (and their parents) to ensure that the lines of communication are always open and that we are being proactive, as opposed to reactive, in dealing with crisis and miscommunication. This yet to be developed communication protocol tracking and report will kick in after the student has been with us for two months. Up to that two month point, our existing 2-4-6 Contacts report is already in place to ensure those earlier contacts are executed and tracked.

The main thing holding us up in developing a career-long communication tracking system is our own failure to comply with our existing 2-4-6 contact responsibilities. There is no sense in creating another tool as an add on if the exiting tool that we hope to add on to requires further refinement.

The 2-4-6 Contacts is a tool we implemented to help foster our relationship with our students and their parents. Nothing says you care more than reaching out to a person to ensure we are meeting their needs. Much more powerful than reaching out to them after we have already let them down.

Communicating with parents has never been easy. Even when they were in the Kwoon for their kids’ classes, most of them were not paying attention and the majority of the announcements went right past them without comprehension. To make matters even more difficult, it was hard for us not to confuse their attendance with our engagement with them. Just because they were in the Kwoon does not mean we ever reached them or even engaged with them. Direct, personal contact is the best way to engage and communicate.

I hope I can convince everyone that effort is not the same as accomplishment. Obviously effort is required to achieve an accomplishment but it does not guarantee it. I know most of us are taking care of our 2-4-6 contacts by reaching out to the parents and students but reaching out is not the same as contacting. What we seem to be missing is follow through. In other words, we can’t just leave it as an attempt to contact, we need to follow up and try again and again until we are successful. Text is great because we are creating the documentation as we go. But if text and email are not working, a phone call is required. If you leave a message for them to call you back and they do not, another phone call or parking lot conversation is required. Our goal is to turn a red dominated 2-4-6 report into a green dominated 2-4-6 report.

Once we get our 2-4-6 calls sorted out, I will finish the development of an ongoing tracking system. In the meantime, let’s not waste time discussing the efficacy of the 2-4-6 Contacts until after we are 100% compliant with our responsibilities.

Jeff Brinker