The grading syllabus is progressive and divided into kyu and dan grades. There are 8 kyu grade rankings and 10 black belt rankings. Generally, in Japanese martial arts the founder of an art is 10th dan and everyone else struggles to attain his level of skill and knowledge. So 10th dans are very rare, and if you should come across one he will be very, very good and very, very old. If this isn't the case he's lying!

In Shodokan aikido the examinable grades finish at 7th dan. Nariyama sensei, world technical director for Shodokan aikido, is an 8th dan, so if you want to be an 8th dan you have to be at least as good as him.

In Japan, the university students wear a white belt until awarded shodan (literally beginner level) black belt. In the town clubs in Japan the belts follow a colour system as follows; 8th, 7th and 6th kyu = light blue, 5th, 4th and 3rd kyu = green, 2nd and 1st kyu = brown.

The children's clubs in Japan follow a slightly different system which for some reason we British adults have also adopted, and that is as follows; 8th, 7th and 6th kyu = red, 5th kyu = yellow, 4th kyu = orange, 3rd kyu = green, 2nd kyu = blue, and 1st kyu = brown. This makes for a very colourful mat.

Once you get your black belt, it stays black until it fades and all the black threads fall off and it turns back to being a white belt, which is where you started, which is all very Zen!

8th, 7th and 6th kyu cover the basics of falling over safely (ukemi), how to move about (unsoku + tegatana dosa) and introduce the 3 types of technique in aikido - atemi waza, hiji waza and tekubi waza (strikes, elbow techniques and wrist techniques).

5th through to 2nd kyu looks at two kata; suwari waza and randori no kata. The first is aikido groundwork and demonstrates how we pin people to the floor. The second is a group of 17 techniques deemed safe and effective in randori (free play) hence its name.

Whilst teaching actual techniques the syllabus also looks at kihon no tsukuri (fundamental structuring practice) that is necessary to be able to apply the techniques. Kihon no tsukuri is divided into 2 practice types; firstly for atemi waza (strikes) dealing with correct distance and timing, and secondly for kansetsu waza (joint techniques) dealing with high and low posture breaking (kuzushi) and possible grips.

1st kyu is basically a consolidation of 5th to 2nd kyu, where the randori no kata is demonstrated in it's entirety. Also a new kata is introduced, the Ura Waza (counter kata), which introduces the idea of countering the randori no kata techniques.

From 5th kyu through 1st kyu the syllabus also progressively demonstrates an understanding of randori from tai sabaki (avoidance) through to soft randori (safe free play).

The black belt grades are also divided into 2 groups; firstly the goshin no kata (50 techniques) from 1st to 3rd dan, then the goshin ho (57 techniques) from 4th to 7th dan. But let's face it, if you've got this far you'll already have a pretty good idea what you're doing and why you're doing it.