How Deep Is Your Bench?

[Bill Mattocks]

I was thinking about this the other day in our dojo. I had been entrusted with bowing in a group of young students, and as I looked over the kyu line, I realized that the senior kyu students were those who had been white belts on the other end of the kyu line not that long ago.

I should explain for those who do not line up or bow in as we do that the kyu line is the line of students under the rank of black belt. At the beginning of class, they line up facing the shomen (as we call it, the wall of honor) and the sensei or the sempai if sensei asks someone like myself to bow them in. I am a 2nd degree black belt, so sempai and not sensei. In our system, a black belt is properly addressed as sensei only at 3rd degree black belt. The kyu ranks like up in belt rank order, and for those of the same rank, those with most time in the dojo senior to those with less.

The 'senior kyu' is responsible for ensuring that the kyu line is properly formed, attentive, and ready to begin instruction. As time goes on, students who continue to train eventually become the senior kyu. Depending on class size, weather, and public school closings, a senior kyu could be a brown belt, blue belt, even a green belt at times. The senior kyu is merely the student who is the most advanced student under black belt present for training at that time, so it changes from class to class, day to day.​

As we bowed in and began training, I noticed that the newest students were watching the higher kyu ranks and emulating them. What the green belts and blue belts did, they did. And I smiled as I realized that it was not that long ago that the students they were emulating were doing the exact same thing to their senior students. I remember them struggling to learn techniques; now they perform them with precision and power and speed and the white belts look at them and boggle.

Our sensei has over 45 years of training experience. His two main instructors have over 35 years training experience. Then we have black belts who have 20, 15, 10, and less years experience. Some of our brown belts are approaching 3 to 5 years of experience. Our younger students vary in experience from 0 to 5 years in our dojo.

And I reflected that this is a very good thing, very desirable.

Often times, the newest students will despair that they will ever be as good as the senior black belts they see in the dojo; but there is always someone with just a bit higher belt, just a bit more time in, that they can imagine themselves becoming as good as. The white belt looks to an orange or a green belt and thinks "I could do that." The green belt looks at the brown belts and thinks the same thing. Even the dan ranks experience the same thing. As a nidan, I look at the sandans and the yondans and think, "Yeah, maybe, if I really try, I can do that."

So I think it is a good thing, and very important, to always try to have a deep bench of experience. I mean people at all levels of belt rank and time in the dojo. People who are just enough better than you to encourage you and for you to emulate, but not so good as to make it seem you could never be that good.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

We traditionally line up in the same manner, though everyone (dan and kyu) lines up in a single line unless there are too many people for a single line. Because dan ranks are long to reach (typically 7-11 years to shodan), there are usually few there.

I like this observation. I've made it myself when I was teaching at my instructor's school. I'd look out and see the green (mid-kyu) and brown (most advanced kyu) and remember when they started. For most, I could remember the day they stepped into what we refer to as the "place of honor" - that leftmost spot in the line, where the newest student stands. And as students are advancing, I always made sure to let them spend some time training with folks a belt or two ahead (yellow with blue or green, blue with green or purple, etc.).

When I go back and visit now, all of the shodan are people I helped train. Some were actually my students. Since I'm outside their association (they changed associations, I went independent), I defer to their rank while at the school, and they defer to me because I was their instructor. We all end up calling each other "sir" (normally used for a dan rank who outranks you), which seems to confuse the students a bit on the days I visit.

 

[JowGaWolf]

thanks for sharing

 

[JR 137]

The dojo I train at isn't too "deep." We're very black belt heavy. We got a pair of new white belts a few weeks ago. I'm the senior-most adult kyu at 4th kyu (green belt in our organization). There's two 6th kyus, and the two new white belts. The rest of the adults are black belts of various dan rank. There's a bit more of a mix with the kids, but we don't train together.

My CI is a bit lenient with the kyus when it comes to proper protocol, but in a good way. He leads by example rather than verbally correcting everything, and has the mentality that they'll figure most things out in due time.

I was the one who'd tell the kyus protocol stuff when they broke it. Usually in the locker room or whispering it in a non-talking down to them way. The other day, one of the new guys broke protocol when starting and finishing class - we go into seiza to start our opening and closing. When we do this, we go by rank; the instructor goes first, followed by each rank. Basically, don't kneel before your senior. The new guy knelt down once my CI gave the command, rather than waiting. After class, before I could say something to him, one of the other kyus told him. And he said it the same way I did to him. The new guy responded the same way the other guy did - "Sorry, I didn't know. Thanks for telling me."