Set up your belts

In this video you'll set up your belt ladder: the belts your students work through, and what it takes to move up from each one.

Everything about your belts lives in Settings. Click Admin, then Settings. Belts are in the first group, School setup.

School setup holds the structure of your school. Three of these are about progression: disciplines, belts and progression, and curriculum. This video covers the first two.

A discipline is a style you teach. Apex teaches karate. Each discipline has its own belt ladder and its own curriculum, so a school that also teaches jiu-jitsu keeps the two apart.

Starting from scratch? The fastest way in is starter content. You'll find it under Settings, then Advanced, then Starter content.

Each one is a ready-made ladder for a style, like ten-belt karate, Brazilian jiu-jitsu or taekwondo, with its curriculum and skill categories. Click one to see what it holds. Let's look at jiu-jitsu.

Before anything changes, you see exactly what it will add: a new jiu-jitsu discipline, its five belts and its curriculum. And what it won't touch. Nothing you already have is overwritten.

Happy with it? Click Add this starter content, then Yes, add it. You can rename or turn off anything afterwards. Apex doesn't teach jiu-jitsu, so we'll leave this one.

Your ladder is in School setup, under Belts and progression. Belts are listed from first to most senior, each with its color.

Under each belt is a summary: how many students hold it, then what they need before moving on: the classes and days at the belt, and how many curriculum items are required. A yellow belt needs sixteen classes and forty-five days.

To change the order, click Reorder, then use the arrows to move a belt up or down. Each move saves right away, so there is nothing to save afterwards.

Click Done when the order looks right.

To add a belt, click New belt. It goes on the end of the ladder. Let's add a camo belt.

Give it a name. If you teach more than one style, you also pick which ladder it joins.

We'll untick Active, so nobody can be promoted into it while it's being set up. Tick it again when it's ready.

Now the look. Pick a color, or click Two-tone, camouflage or stripe color for more. Add a second color for a two-tone belt, or tick Camouflage print. The preview shows exactly how it will look.

Next, the requirements. Click Add requirement and pick Minimum classes. Type twenty, then click Done: twenty classes at this belt before a student shows up as ready to promote.

Add Minimum time at this belt the same way, and type sixty. That's sixty days, about two months at this belt, before a student shows up as ready.

There are more: instructor ratings, and a minimum or maximum age, handy for kids' ladders. Add only the ones you use.

Click Save changes, and the new belt is on your ladder. You land on its own page, where you can keep editing.

To change a belt later, click it on the ladder. Everything you just set can be changed on its page.

Each belt's page also shows its curriculum, with a link to manage it. That's the next video.

To remove a belt, click Delete belt at the bottom of its page. A belt that students hold, or with curriculum or promotion history, can't be deleted. You'll be told why, and can untick Active instead. Otherwise, click Delete to confirm.

Next to the ladder are skill tracks, marked Advanced. They let you track a skill area separately from your belts. Most schools only need the ladder.

That's your belt ladder. Next, we'll fill in what students learn at each belt.