Who has the biggest passion for belts? TKD, BJJ, JUDO, KEMPO? I'm curious know if it's something that's bigger at the beginning and or if the passion for the belt matures. If the passion is to always get the next belt them what happens when you have the highest belt? When does the passion for the belt turn into something strong than just the next belt?
There's a black belt at my gym who was talking about how much belts don't matter. You should've seen how big he was smiling when he got his first degree on his black belt.
I think it is more of a spectrum within each art. In TKD, I think a lot of people see black belt as a stopping point. You've achieved "the goal". But degrees are important if you want a career as an instructor.
In BJJ, the belts are held in very high regard by some and absolutely dismissed by others. A blue belt could be:
- Someone who's almost a purple belt.
- Someone with very good wrestling who barely knows jiu-jitsu.
- Someone who's done a couple years and is pleasant to roll with.
- A kid with 14 years of experience, but who has to be a blue belt because he's too young to be promoted to purple.
- Someone who should probably be purple or even brown by now, but they're purposefully held back for the sake of staying in the blue belt competition bracket. Especially if they can do 5-10% of the art at a black belt level and the other 90-95% at white or less.
For those who just want to train and have the knowledge come, they don't really care about the belts. They enjoy getting promotions but aren't necessarily eager for it. Those who are competitive may either A) want the belts so they can prove how awesome they are against awesomer opponents, or B) want to sandbag and avoid getting promoted (to the point some people don't sign in to class so they don't get credit towards their next stripe). Those who want to teach are going to seek rank to certify them as teachers, but are also most likely not going to want to rush rank because they want to back up that rank in their class.
I'm in the middle of all of that right now. I'm mostly here for the love of martial arts. I mainly want to learn and have the belts come as they come. I would like to slow down so I can stay in a lower bracket in competition, but I'd also like to go up because it makes the gym look better on paper if I'm a higher belt. But then it comes back to - can I back that up, and make it so it's not
just better on paper? And we've come full circle back to I just want to learn so I can be a better martial artist, competitor, and teacher.
