Dynamics of respect: Kids with higher belts than adults

[Jaeimseu]

Something jumped out at me there... Your senior grades are on the left?

We line up for example like this:

Master

1d 1d 2d 3d

4k 3k 2k 1k

9k 9k 9k 8k

So if someone lined up to the right of someone else (facing forwards) they would be more senior.

Is this how everyone else lines up?

This is how we did it back in the USA. I can't speak for other dojang in Korea, but at ours we line up by belt color (black in front) but we don't bother with what Dan rank someone is. The subject of what Dan someone is basically never comes up.

In our "beginner" classes, the highest beginner rank lines up at the front and higher ranks line up behind them, because they are "visiting" the class.

 

[WaterGal]

Something jumped out at me there... Your senior grades are on the left?

We line up for example like this:

Master

1d 1d 2d 3d

4k 3k 2k 1k

9k 9k 9k 8k

So if someone lined up to the right of someone else (facing forwards) they would be more senior.

Is this how everyone else lines up?

Huh, no, you're right in how you understood me. We're the opposite, with our most senior student at the front-left, like:

2d 1d 1d 3k 4k
6k 7k 7k 7k 7k

We do it that way because that's how GM (who's from Korea) did it, which I suppose is why most people do anything in martial arts, lol. I wonder where the different ways come from? I guess it's kind of arbitrary, what matters is that you know which way is "higher".

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Huh, no, you're right in how you understood me. We're the opposite, with our most senior student at the front-left, like:

2d 1d 1d 3k 4k
6k 7k 7k 7k 7k

We do it that way because that's how GM (who's from Korea) did it, which I suppose is why most people do anything in martial arts, lol. I wonder where the different ways come from? I guess it's kind of arbitrary, what matters is that you know which way is "higher".

I line them up the opposite,

1d 1d 2d 3d

4k 3k 2k 1k

9k 9k 9k 8k

but mainly because as I address my students, having rank descend from the left follows the direction of reading a sentence in English. I've had instructors in the past lne people up in enough different ways that I never became overly attached to any particular way, though my method was used by my kendo instructor. Your schools was used by my hapkido instructor. My taekwondo instructor did something else entirely. In fencing, we don't care.