Rank in the martial arts seems to be on most martial artists minds. Rank means something different to each practitioner, a sign of their skill, that they are better than they were before, that they are good, that theyre a bad a**, and many others. The belt ranking system is rather new to the martial arts; it started with Judo and its founder Jigoro Kano. There was only two ranks at this time white and black (kyu and Dan). Now we have anywhere from 4 to 14 non black belt ranks and 10 or so black belt ranks. These ranks are not meant too be a symbol of how tough you are or how much of a bad a** you are pure and simple they are meant as markers for your instructor and other martial artists to know what you can handle and what you are ready to work on. As a instructor in the arts I have heard people over the years say the want to get their next rank or that they feel the other person should/ or shouldnt get their next rank. This is nothing new to any martial arts school or instructor. When I went through the kyu ranks (non black belt) there wasnt any middle ground you either made it to your next rank or you didnt. My Sensei came up with a great way to help not only the student but the other instructors see their advancement about the time I hit brown belt and that was to make sub sections to each rank; thus was born the stripes earned during each belt (this is for our system). Each student learns then demonstrates that they know each sections of their next rank and they earn a stripe once the proper number of stripes are earned they are eligible for promotion. Again let me emphasize the word EARN here neither I nor anyone who teaches at the dojo will give you a stripe or a belt you must earn it. If you think just showing up and wandering around the mat will get you to your next level; I am sorry to tell you it wont, you have to put in the time and effort to get there nothing else will do it. We will always do our best to teach you but you have to put in to your art what you want out of it. I write this due to a couple of statements overheard lately about how certain students got their stripes only because they knew me (outside the dojo). I hate to burst a bubble here but no you dont get special treatment because you know me or because your parent, child, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, ext knows me outside the dojo. You have to work just as hard as the next person. I hold to the thought that every rank is only as valuable as the least youll take for it. I will use my son Hunter to illustrate. Hunter spent seven years as a yellow belt. He thought that he would just be handed his blue belt because he was my son. He knew his yellow belt techniques front to back but refused to put any effort into learning and/or practicing his blue belt techniques. A few months ago he finally knuckled down and earned his blue belt and has been working to get his first stripe since then. As an instructor I want each student to get to their next stripe and next belt but I wont sacrifice the students well being by just handing them a belt. I respect my students to much too do that, and I honor the arts to much to do that as well. This post is not meant to upset anyone, it is meant to expound on the belt system and how it is applied at this dojo.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 06:28:20 +0000
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