Additional Students Resources
Wing Chun Student List	Wing Chun Lineage	Grading Videos	Photos	About the Performance Tracker

Why The Performance Tracker was Created
The Dynamic Defense Performance Tracker was created as a tool for our active Wing Chun students to make the process of advancing in kung fu more efficient, understandable and fun both for you, the student, and me as your Sifu.

At the first 2 levels, we work on most of your grading material in almost every class, so it's not too difficult to know when you're ready to grade. However, at higher levels, the student is expected to know more things and to practice them many times to refine a skill to a certain degree of mastery. Knowing if you have practiced all the skills you need to the degree that is required for your level is difficult. This is why advanced students often ask "Am I ready to grade?" and it can take an hour for me as Sifu to look everything over in detail. This is inefficient and the uncertainty about readiness to grade is not good. If you use it correctly, the Performance Tracker turns this completely around and makes it fun and easy to keep track of the level you are working on.

How to Use the Performance Tracker
Using the Performance Tracker is fairly straightforward. We will email you credentials to allow you to log in to your Personal Performance page on the Dynamic Defense web site.

Here are the steps to follow:
1. Attend a class.
2. Go to www.dynamicdefense.ca and log in using the credentials we emailed to you.
3. Go to your Personal Performance Tracking page.
4. Log the skills you worked on in class.
5. Use the visual indicators on your Performance Tracking page to know what you need to work on and when to ask Sifu if you are ready to grade.

Log Your Skills The Easy Way
Here's some suggestions to make skill logging easier.

1. If you bring a smartphone to class, you can bookmark your Success Tracker web page. Then you can open your Tracker page and log your skills in the Academy foyer right after you finish class. 
2. It's still pretty easy without a smartphone. Check your email when you get home. Every time you attend, you receive an email reminding you to log your skill practice. Click on the link to dynamicdefense.ca in the email to go directly to your Success Tracker page. You don't even have to remember your credentials since the link will automatically log you in.

Log In to the Site
Once you are logged in, all pages on the site will show you are logged in. As you can see illustrated here, all pages show your logged in status in the upper right with a rectangular bubble showing your face, name, level and a light indicating readiness to advance to the next level. If you hover over the bubble, a text box appears letting you know how close you are to the next level and that clicking on the bubble takes you to your Personal Performance Tracker page. There is also a small logout link beneath the bubble. You do not need to log out unless you share a computer and don't want others who use it to be able to see your performance page. For most students, it's better to log in and stay logged in so you don't have to enter the password every time.

Access your Personal Performance Tracker
Once you clicked to enter your Performance Tracker page, you should see a page like below. Near the top is a progress summary using text and graphics to indicate how close you are to the next level. The bubble on the left includes a large indicator light and text describing your readiness to grade. When you start a level, the light will be red. As you progress, the light turns amber and finally green when you have enough practice will all the required skills. Beside the bubble is a graph showing your progress in a different way. It shows how far you have progressed on the current level as well as from Level 0 to today.

Below this header is an interactive grading sheet for your level. For each skill required on your level, there is a *plus* and *minus* button to add or remove a practice session for a skill. Between the plus and minus are numbers showing how much practice you have logged versus the required practice for that skill at this level. In the example below, the "Chum Kil complete" has been practiced in 18 classes of the 20 that are required for grading readiness. This is visually indicated by the stop light on the left side of each skill.

Red means less than half of the required practice has been completed.
Amber means you are more than half way to the next level. (anywhere between 50 and 85% of required practice) Start to consider a grading date.
Yellow-green means you are in the home stretch to advance to the next level (85-99% of required practice). Ask Sifu if you are ready to grade.
Green means all required practice is complete, so you *should* be ready to grade.
 

Log Your Skill Practice
After attending a class, you can log your training practice. Click on the green *plus* to add a practice session for a skill. If you practiced Round Punch Defense in a class, log it as one practice increment. As you log your skill practice, the background for the skills will turn blue so you don't mistakenly log it twice. As you log skill practice, all the visual indicators change right away. At the top, you will see the % done text change, the bar chart will move and your progress will be described as shown below. It's kind of fun tracking your progress visually and knowing when you are ready to level up to the next level of Wing Chun. When you get close to green light readiness, then I can consider setting your grading date.



When to Log Practice
Please log your practice immediately after every class, while you still remember what was practiced. If you have a smartphone with a web browser, you can log your practice before even leaving the academy. Otherwise, log in as soon as you get home to a computer.    

Make sure you enter your attendance on the Attendance Screen at class, since it unlocks your ability to log skill practice. **It is my responsibility to Sigung to not allow anyone to grade unless I actually know they are ready.** If I see students at least once a week in class, I can monitor your progress and adjust the numbers if I feel you need more or less practice in an area. This allows me to have confidence that the data is accurate and allows me to confidently put students forward to grade or send them back for more practice.  I have to actually witness at least half of your skill practice and I would prefer if it were 75% or more under my supervision.

Details
1. Your skill progression is stored on the server but it is private between you and me, your Sifu.
2. Normally, you should add skill practice after every class. As long as you attend regularly, you can also log the occasional practice outside Dynamic Defense.
3. You should rarely need the *minus* button to remove skill practice. It is there in case you make a mistake, adding the wrong skill. It is also there for my use. As your Sifu, I regularly monitor everyone's progress in person and can adjust the number of practices down or up depending on what I see in class. I would make such adjustments only to help keep the system accurate.