Correction & Feedback System: The Ladder, the Fault Libraries, the Scripts, and the Paper That Makes Corrections Stick
Mat Manual companion guide to "How to Correct a Student Without Killing Their Drive." Print it. The article sets the order corrections run in. This book runs them: the ladder as a wall reference, fault-to-fix libraries…
| Art | For Instructors |
|---|---|
| Family | Instructors |
| Level | all-levels |
| Format | system |
| Topics | teaching, retention |
Mat Manual companion guide to "How to Correct a Student Without Killing Their Drive." Print it. The article sets the order corrections run in. This book runs them: the ladder as a wall reference, fault-to-fix libraries organized by what you actually see, cue-word banks, delivery playbooks by age, scripts for the hard conversations, grading comment banks, and the logs that prove a correction was given, tried, and closed.
Instructor: ______________________________ School: ______________________________ Term: ______________
SAFETY, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE ☐ Safety faults are corrected immediately, out loud, at any moment, including mid-rep and mid-round. No other rule in this book outranks a safety correction. ☐ A correction never involves grabbing, moving, or repositioning a student's body without warning and agreement, except to prevent an injury in the moment. ☐ Contact level, protective equipment, tap rules, and fall standards are corrected as safety items, never as style items. ☐ No correction is ever delivered as humiliation, sarcasm, or a comparison with another named student. A correction that costs a student standing in the room has failed, whatever it fixed. ☐ Pain is data. A student who reports pain during a corrected movement stops that movement. The correction waits. The body does not.
Part 1: The Correction Ladder — Wall Reference
Pin this page where instructors prepare. Every correction in the school runs down this ladder, in this order.
| Rung | Fault family | Examples | Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Safety | Contact control, joint loading, falls, spacing, equipment | Uncontrolled strike, knee collapsing inward under load, fall taken on a straight arm, pair drifting into another pair | Immediate, mid-rep |
| 2. Structure | Base, posture, guard, grip, alignment, distance | Short stance, dropped guard, grip in the wrong place, hips behind the throw | End of the rep or round |
| 3. Function | Does the technique do its job | Block that does not cover the line, throw that does not unbalance, escape that creates no space, strike that arrives without the hip | Once structure holds for several reps |
| 4. Style | Finish, polish, presentation | Chamber height, snap, breathing pattern, line and posture in a form's picture | Last, lightly, and rarely for beginners |
Decision rule, printed under the ladder: Correct the highest broken rung. One rung, one fault, one rep to try it.
☐ Every instructor and assistant in the school can state the four rungs from memory ☐ Assistants correct rungs 1 and 2 freely, rung 3 with the lead instructor's agreement, rung 4 only when assigned ☐ The ladder is reviewed at the term's first staff meeting and after any grading cycle
Correction & Feedback System: The Ladder, the Fault Libraries, the Scripts, and the Paper That Makes Corrections Stick
Mat Manual companion guide to "How to Correct a Student Without Killing Their Drive." Print it. The article sets the order corrections run in. This book runs them: the ladder as a wall reference, fault-to-fix libraries organized by what you actually see, cue-word banks, delivery playbooks by age, scripts for the hard conversations, grading comment banks, and the logs that prove a correction was given, tried, and closed.
What's Inside
- Part 1: The Correction Ladder — Wall Reference
- Part 2: The One-Correction Worksheet
- Part 3: The Observation Sheet — Watching a Whole Class
- Part 4: Fault-to-Fix Library — Base, Stance, and Posture
- Part 5: Fault-to-Fix Library — Striking
- Part 6: Fault-to-Fix Library — Forms and Line Work
- …and 20 more sections
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Free companion article: How to Correct a Student Without Killing Their Drive — the full article, free in full.
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