In my mind, or what little is left of it, is that the only thing pretentious about rank of any supposed title is the arrogance of some so called "masters". Do they have the respect of thier peers that any well travelled instructor has? Who endorses this rank, What has he done that makes him stand out. If he can't answer any of these questions then who the heck is he and what gives him the right to any title! When he is teaching a class and some yahoo comes in and challenges him. How does he respond? Does he handle the problem and create a new student, does he run away?
Funny, this scenario has been known to happen. There are people out there that will come into a gym for a "lesson" just to test the instructor.
If you are a typical black belt who calls himself some lofty whatever, trust me, your time will come! Be honest with yourself and your students and you will get the respect you deserve, no more, no less.
Chris Arena
Chris,
How do you define a so called Master or would be easier to define a Master as you put it? I am curious.
Respect from their students?
Or respect from other local martial artists instructors and school owners?
Or respect from other martial artists in your system or organization?
Or respect from a larger community such as having article published?
Is there a minimum number of events or size of events that can also describe respect?
Or would it depend upon the situation?
What about those that insult other people and other systems and or are rude to those that come to train with them at a seminar or camp? Do these masters who have followers and may not have respect from others outside their immediate group be a master? Even if they have something to offer?
Endorsement of names or organizations is not always enough to verify or easy to verify.
So, what have they done to stand out? Is this a number of events a I mentioned above?
Or is it producing recognized other black belts?
Or is it that they have won "X" number of tournaments or events?
As to an open challenge, when this occurs you have automatically lost.
If you hurt the person then they file charges and you go to jail.
If you do not hurt them and just control them, many will take this as rubbing it in their face and you loose respect.
For the non open challenge such as it is not done to stop the class, but is done when you are working with them and they just ask questions and wonder. This is good to have questions. But if you do not have an immediate response to their question is it bad? If you take a few minutes to work it out and to look at the situation, is this good or bad?
I have had students train with me from other FMA's and after a while they ask me what about ...? I say go ahead and try. If they hit me they hit me. But, I also do not know what they are planning I just ask them to try what they want and then I react. Most stay and train. Some have left upset, as they thought I was embarrassing them by just placing my hand on or near their face or light contact to the body.
In an open challenge, I smiled and explained a lot of the above. I then asked them to wait until after class was over, and then we could lock the doors and everyone would be gone. Just to two of us. And then see what happens, for at that point it would be their word against mine. The single person who did this just stepped up on to the matts. I smiled, and told a student to call 911 and ask for an ambulance as one of was going to need it. They stepped back off the matts and left.
But I felt like I had lost.
