There is a joke I always tell to kids that forget their belt:
Oh no! You forgot your belt!! Now you know what happens now right?? [And the kid gets scared and embarrassed that they forgot and they are going to get in trouble now]
Your pants are gonna fall down!!
But what REALLY is a belt for? A belt is a symbol of improvement... Personal improvement. Every student starts out as a white belt, a beginner. As they accomplish and complete challenges, they will earn stripes on their belt. Three stripes means they can attend Belt Promotions and go up in belt. After white belt is the orange belt.
As a student earns a new belt, then stripe A, B, and C and continues up the ladder, they get better at the things we are training on. If a student, focused on personal improvement has no focus, no coordination and absolutely no commitment or discipline completes the challenges, they earn three stripes and a new belt. The same holds true for a student who is a top athlete, in incredible shape, and can learn things really fast.
So in those two examples, both students started as a white belt and went up to the orange belt. One unique thing about Superdojo is that every student's accomplishments are based on individual achievement but have their entire team to keep them excited and motivated to keep going.
So for you, would you rather have someone much younger and smaller than you that's the same belt keeping you motivated or someone that's your age and size that you can relate to keeping you motivated?
Also, our instructors don't teach martial arts to a belt level, we teach martial arts to an age group. When someone learns something new, everyone is equally bad or good at it. But inspiration and motivation is given in our classes based on age. For example, teaching forms or self-defense to adults should be reality-based and focused on practicality, proper technique, and fitness. For kids aged 6-9, we need to teach them proper technique but it's based on bully defense and standing up for themselves to kids their age and be able to do it at school. Not to mention, if their class isn't fun, they won't care at all.
Another reason is this: The number one answer to 'why kids stick with martial arts' is that they are learning something new
with their friends. As long as they are in a group that are close to their age group, we can continue to teach them new things, help them improve their skills, and help to develop their character as a team.
The last reason I'm going to mention is that an experienced 8 year old that has been doing martial arts for 2 years is the PERFECT PARTNER for an 8 year old that just started. They remember how hard it was taking their first class, they probably go to school with that new student. We can use the higher belts in the class as leaders, someone that the newer students can look up to and relate to, and are motivated to match their skills to.
We used to change classes and move kids around as they go up in belts but this system is designed to keep kids focused and excited about class. Now, we only move kids to a new class when they test for their Black Belt because then, they get to do weapons training.
Our goal is to keep them in class because they love it for as long as possible. Our age-based system will prove to keep students training for longer than ever!