The Complete Guide to GKR Karate

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Objectives and outcomes

For most students, karate training is typically very goal directed. The nature of the grading system is one which provides short, medium and long-term goals for students. Tournaments are held regularly and achievement here is also a popular motivation for student to attend and train at many classes. Many of the younger students are there to improve their discipline, kinesthetic coordination or perhaps for their social development. Many of the older students are there to improve their fitness, their strength or to maintain mobility. Of course, many students are also keen to learn self-defense.

The value of objectives

Having goals is a vitally important part of a student's learning and development. As I discussed on my motivation page "The Role of Motivation in Learning", both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation significantly improves the rate at which students learn, and also has a marked effect on their personality and character development. Specific objectives are much better than general objectives as in the planning process they are much easier to develop meaningful drills and activities for. They are also more quantifiable and thus a student will be able to evaluate their success more readily.

For each of the three general goals above, there would probably be more than one specific goal associated with it. Some students will be able to cope with having many goals and objectives to work towards, while others, particularly new students, may find this quite daunting. GKR has provided, through its class format, the specific technique objectives that students need to work towards. This scaffolding of learning is quite beneficial for children, and instructors should be open minded about its implementation. Some children for example are highly motivated and fast learners and are better off having their plate full of things to learn. Some adults on the other hand tend to struggle learning, for example, three or four different stances. In this case, a good instructor would provide a framework for that student to learn and reach an acceptable level of competency with one of the stances, before moving on to the next. The one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work very well and those instructors who use this approach will continue to see students make the same mistakes week after week because they have too much to learn at once. It will also results in the best students becoming bored, which will initially stunt their growth and may lead them to quit.

The importance of outcomes

A positive attitude is invaluable for learning. It also has a significant influence on our daily quality of life. It is important not to get carried away with goal setting. While it is great to set high goals and working hard towards them is its own reward, sometimes it can become too much. Sometimes, especially in those periods where students seem to have reached a plateau in their training, the constant setting of goals can make it seem as though students are not good enough. A little too much pressure or failure to achieve a specific objective can induce a negative attitude. Its important for instructors to regularly provide feedback about a student's outcomes - that which they have already achieved. While they may not have reached their goal of being able to do 20 pushups - being able to do 18 is a pretty good outcome, if three weeks ago they could only do 5. Perhaps their stances or kata were not up to the standard required for their 2nd kyu grading. However, reaching brown belt first of all, and secondly being sent to a grading is a good indication that the student is progressing well and heading in the right direction. Positive feedback and positive reinforcement are just as critical as setting goals and objectives.

I regularly, usually every time one of my students grade, get my class to remember back to their grading at that level. I also ask my class to remember their first class and to think about how much they have learnt since then, how many good classes they've been to and how many good times they've had. Its also good to preempt outcomes and to suggest that there is an equal if not larger quantity of good times, good classes and achievement to be had in the future.