1. Bow in.
2. Opening Remarks by the chief instructor.
These would be very positive in nature and congratulate the students on their hard work and progress.
Refer to the page for ideas on how to create an emotional connection with the students and families. The incremental learning lesson is a good one for graduations.
3. Demo
You might kick off the graduation with a short demo by your demo team or staff. It could be an exciting board break or you could show the families what the students learned that Semester by having the instructors demonstrate it while you explain how this material is important and beneficial.
4. Success Story
Have a short, motivating story about how one of the students overcame an obstacle to be there that night or just to continue training. Or a way a student used martial arts in a positive manner to do something noteworthy.
5. Students Perform
Bring the most advanced students up first. Have them perform their most advanced material with full power. Because they are more advanced, you might have them perform combos in a partner exchange or on pads instead of in the air. Then have the next most advanced group join them.
Repeat this until all students are up. This way, the advanced students are up the entire performance, which should tax their conditioning. If your class is too crowded, let the most advanced take a seat.
3-5 repetitions on each side are fine. The goal is not to test but to demonstrate for the families.
5. Wrap speech
Finish with a congratulatory, emotionally charged speech of less than 60-seconds that recaps your opening remarks.
6. Belt presentations
Make sure you have a strong sense of ritual associated with the belt awards.
Have an instructor prepared with a list of students and the rank they are being promoted to. He or she calls out, “promoted to orange belt, sally smith!”
Sally runs up, bows, and shakes the chief instructors’ hand who ties the new belt on her quickly. In some cases, they bow and turn to the camera for a quick shot. This works well if you have time.
7. Bow out.
