A few weeks ago one of our training committee put together a grading package for us. Drop Bear did a whole bunch of research and put together the following system based on some conversations she had with other trainers and other gradings she had looked at. We pretty much all passed ‘Red’ on the day and will be testing every two months or so.
RED STAR (beginner)
Fitness: 20 push ups and 20 sit-ups
Skills:
- T-stop, plough stop, and a turn around toe stop
- Single knee fall, a double, and a 4 point fall
- Able to be able to recover from a fall and keep going
- Jump while skating, hop from one foot to another while standing still- to each side, and forwards and backwards
- 5 minutes of continuous skating in correct stance, able to smoothly do cross overs in each direction
ORANGE STAR (intermediate)
Fitness: 30 push ups (20 of these on toes if possible) 50 sit ups and a 60 second body bridge (aka: plank).
SKILLS:
- 5 minutes of sprinting aiming for 30 laps of the track
- Snake pace line drill (pace line with an arm’s length between skaters where the person at the back snakes between skaters and takes the lead)
- Do all falls and be back up and skating again within 3 seconds
- Fall big (like from a big hit in a bout) and be up and skating again in 3 seconds
- Skate for one minute and squat when the whistle goes while maintaining motion, ten second break, and then skate in a squat for another full minute
GREEN STAR (bout ready)
Fitness: 50 push ups, 100 sit ups and a 60 second body bridge and side bridges
SKILLS:
- 5 minutes of sprinting aiming for 30 laps of the track
- Double-snake pace line drill (not sure but suspect this means two people snaking through a pace line)
- 30 minute endurance pace line
- Do all falls, be up and skating in good form within 2 seconds (in line with new WFTDA Minimum Specs – Aug 2009)
- Fall big (like from a big hit in a bout) and be up and skating again in 2 seconds
Angela J Williams 