Online Grading During Suspension Of Activities From 27 March – 30 April

The Ministry of Health (“MOH”) issued an additional advisory “Tighter Measures To Minimise Further Spread of COVID-19” on 24 Mar 2020. In view of the evolving COVID-19 situation, Sport Singapore (SportSG) has also provided operational guidance on physical distancing measures on 25 Mar 2020 with further clarifications on 26 Mar 2020. With effect from 27 March 2020, the People’s Associaition (PA) had also suspend all courses, organised activities and interest group activities at Community Clubs/Centres (CC), Residents’ Committee (RC) Centres and other PA facilities, till 30 April 2020. The measures implemented are for the safety of the Taekwondo community and the Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF) will remind all affiliates, coaches and students to adhere strictly to the measures.

As the national sports association of Taekwondo, STF is committed to supporting the affiliates, coaches and students during these challenging times. STF will thus make the following adjustments to the 176th Centralised Grading so that our members can continue to pursue their sporting aspirations while not compromising their safety.

• As per the previous announcement on the 176th Centralised Grading, Affiliates are allowed to conduct internal assessments for their students based the guidelines as previously stated (http://www.stf.sg/grading/2159-176th-centralised-grading).

• These assessments can now be done ONLINE but only if 
  o The affiliate have already registered their centralised or supplementary grading with STF.
  o the registered supplementary grading is before 30 April 2020.
  o No date change is allowed for registered supplementary gradings which is after 30 April 2020.

• Only senior instructors (holders of STF 4th dan and higher) can assess their students who are going for up till RED BELT (2nd geup) going to BLACKTIP (1st geup). Instructors can decide on how these online assessments are performed.
  
  o  Instructors can arrange a “live” streaming using availabletechnology*.
  o  Students can submit pre-recorded videos of their performance.

• All Red 1 (1st geup) and higher (up till 2nd dan going to 3rd dan) will be graded by STF-appointed examiners during the centralised grading or the affiliate-organised supplementary gradings. These gradings will also be ONLINE. This grading for SENIOR RED 1 and above (up till 2nd dan going to 3rd dan) will be organised on the original date of 18 April 2020 and more details released shortly. The grading for 3rd dan going to 4th dan and higher will be put on hold.

• The submission for Senior Red 1 and above will be extended to 6th April 2020.

• All affiliates are reminded that they are NOT ALLOWED to assess students going for 1st dan/poom and higher. For 1st Poom and Higher, instructors are to arranged for pre-recorded videos of the students’ performance to be sent to STF Office. The student can only be awarded the belt after STF’s official approval.

• During submission, the affiliate will have to indicate with the Secretariat, the senior instructors (holders of STF 4th dan and higher) who is going to grade the students. Affiliates who do not have senior instructors (holders of STF 4th dan and higher) will submit the instructor with the highest Dan. The management committee will grant approval on a case-by-case basis.

• For all students, their grades will only be recognized by STF if their grading cards are submitted within two weeks of the scheduled supplementary grading. All grading cards must have the instructor’s own signature and a STF-authorized examiner’s signature.

• For all students, if the instructor feels that the student is deserving of a double promotion, they are to video the students’ performance and send the video to STF within two weeks of the schedule supplementary grading. The student can only be awarded the double-promotion after STF’s official approval.

• To adequately prepare their students for the online gradings, instructors are encouraged to train the students but within the measures required by MOH, SportSG and PA. For children and youth, instructors are encouraged to conduct trainings online with available technlogy*. Instructors have a right to postpone at student’s assessments if the instructor deemed that a student is not adequately prepared.

• As the assessments and gradings will be performed online, the following adjustments will be made to the grading criteria.
  o the sparring component will be modified to shadow sparring.
  o For poom belts, self-defence component will exempted, poom beltsmay be required to attend an unarmed combat course of the appropriate level when Covid-19 measures relaxed.
  
  We hope that these adjustments will motivate our coaches and students tocontinue training. Please contact STF if you have any queries.

• Available Technology. Instructors may pre-record videos for the students or may also use “live” streaming technology that may include but not limited to Whatsapp video calls, Skype video calls, FaceTime, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Hangouts. Arrangements, whether for training or grading, should be mutually agreed and Instructors should try not to let the students incur additional costs due to a need to purchase technology.

SUMMORY