CombatSombo Camcorder

I was one of the first to offer Camcorder Grading’s and the established Martial Arts Community condemned me. Saying grading must be done on site. WHY? Obviously you cannot do a Camcorder Grading for a competitive art but when a grading is just about showing technique why not? When you think about it a Camcorder is a better way of examining someone techniques and can improve their technique. In a standard grading where you perform all your techniques in front of an examiner it becomes no more then an endurance test with many of the techniques failing because of fatigue. 
Now some organisations/examiners say that is the reason why you need a formal grading but ask yourself if you are doing a Martial Art as a Combat Form when do you spend hours continually in Combat? If you are competing in a Competitive Combat Discipline then you either have to show your track record by ways of competitive wins and proof of wins or as we do in the IBF UK you compete on the day of the grading. Yet even our IBF UK Competitive Dan Grades have to do Kata and theory but does this have be done on one day? I think not for example for 1^st Dan you are expected to do Nage No Kata this can be done by camcorder or with a senior examiner present on the final day of the Competitive grading you will be asked to do one set. The logic behind that is that you are still practicing the Kata, we in the IBF put considerable emphasis on Kata not all organisations do, that is their choice.

So why can a Camcorder Grading be superior to a normal standard grading?

1)   It is not a test of unnecessary endurance. Want to show your fitness do a fitness test

2)   The Grading itself becomes a learning module. The Candidate can look at the technique on Camcorder delete it until they have got it right so therefor improve the technique. They can also film each technique from different angles and can spot anomalies as can the Examiner

3)   The examiner can spend time looking at the recording rewinding if unsure of what they have seen. This will help them with their decision and also help the candidate when giving an assessment

4)   You keep a record of the Grading’s for ever

5)   Proof of you ability. Martial Arts does have a reputation for Practitioners criticizing other Practitioners on their ability and their status a copy of your grading can displace this

The Martial Arts are inundated by so called experts you see people as young as 30 claiming to be 10^th Dan in a Multitude of Completely different Arts, Camcorder Grading would prove they are Charlatans’. A Grade is only as good as the organisation that awards it. So if someone who claims is a 10^th Dan in the King Kong Martial Arts Society that maybe telling the truth  But what you need to ask is what is the King Kong Society and what are their standards? My Camcorder Grading’s have the advantage that through the Classical Martial Arts Society all my examiners can show their credentials most have 30 years to 60 years experience and the CombatSombo has even bigger advantage in that the System was devised by me and is a Registered Trade mark in my name, so any person stating they are doing CombatSombo must be registered to me and my organisation

So if your are interested in Camcorder Grading in CombatSombo or Classical Martial Contact Martin Clarke 8^th Dan IBFBCSA@gmail.com

http://combatsombouk.blogspot.co.uk/