This is a question I've struggled with. My intention is for the belt to signify a level of competency and understanding. At the same time, I actually have a stated secondary purpose of helping people develop themselves. At what point is it appropriate to use the second statement to amend the intention of the first? I think that's a personal question every instructor should consider and answer to himself/herself.
@Mark Lynn Thank you for your time writing all that good post. I agree with most of what you say (if not everything). I will not be so detailed as you did, but I will try to answer you.
First topic: We agree that some bad Black Belts degrades the ranks and the status of other Black Belts (and BB may be replaced by other equivalent levels).
But it also degrades the perception of the styles... If I meet more than one high-rank master of the same style and both are weak (in too many senses) I will not trust the style. I know every school is different, but I lost the interest in some styles from consecutive bad experiences.
One consideration for you - perhaps "your way" only works better because you know it better. That may not be the case, but I've had students come in and say "but ____ is easier than that and works better". I then have them give resistance while I demonstrate the technique (or clarify what the technique is meant to work for), and usually it's simply a matter that they are doing the technique wrong because they just learned it and are trying to apply the principles of what they already know. As I said, that may or may not be the case for you.
) I'm sure I'd be mentioned on some internet forum as a fake. I'm sure some of the people testing who didn't and don't really now me wondered WTH? How could he pass? He forgot a kata completely, his tonfa flew out of his hands during Tonfa Ichi, they might get disgusted and leave the organization or feel I bought the rank (for all of $10.00 for the regular class test fee). Bottom line that was almost 5-6 years or so ago and I'm still there teaching, training and contributing. Where are they? Most of them aren't there. Out of the 100 or so people that went through my class 2010-2012 and the one after 2012-2014, there are maybe 5 from my class, 7-8 from the class after that are continuing to train for 2nd dan.
Agreed. It;s the influence that you have had in other people's lives. By the time you make it to 6th Degree, you probably have juniors who have gone out and opened their own schools and possibly some of them have juniors who have done the same. It's kinda like a family tree.
This is one of the reasons I don't like "one and out" tests. Things can go wrong, and that one thing shouldn't create that big of an issue. There's only one part of the BB test in NGA that's truly pass-fail: the self-defense test. If you can't defend yourself, you have to go back and train some more. Even if you forgot techniques (which would fail your Techniques test), you can come back and test again in 2 weeks. Most mistakes, even at BB level, are just re-checks. You fix the problem and come back a couple of days later. For me, I had to get a chiropractic adjustment to be able to perform the left-side kicks on my test - my pelvis was tilted to one side and my left leg just wouldn't go into position that day.For me the first thing to come to grips with is what do I feel the black belt (BB) means in my school or for my students. Back in the 80's when I started being a BB meant something. Generally you would be accepted in a school or work out group as a person who knows something of value, there weren't young kids as BBs, Ernie Reyes Jr. being a young BB was an oddity, something you didn't see everyday and especially someone who had a such a high skill level. But today it seems like schools pride themselves on you can produce the youngest BB, or for that matter the youngest master or high ranked BB. It's crazy. So in a sense the BB rank has been diminished on one hand due to this type of an attitude.
Nowadays for several reasons a BB coming into your school isn't such a big issue it's almost like everyone has one, so because you are a BB in some system doesn't mean as much if you are not from that school, style, governing body or that system. That actually helps to free up the high expectations that we had in the 80's and I think ultimately gives the instructor more freedom as to what the BB means in his particular school. So as I set about creating a curriculum for my school I tailored it towards the more SD side of things, while still keeping the "martial art" through forms and basics. So I then set about adding in different drills, techniques, concepts etc. etc. that would tie the kata to basics, to SD etc. etc. and de-emphasized the tournament focused stuff.
So even with students who have learning challenges, I can make allowances for not having the kata exactly right (look wise) if the student is understanding some of the applications of the moves found within the form. I do this by teaching, asking questions of the students etc. etc. to gauge their understanding and I look to see improvement of their techniques as they train. All of this depends of course on the student, their age, skill level, attitudes etc. etc. However I try and set a decent standard that has both physical skill and understanding as part of it.
At my first BB test for my TKD students, my sensei was there and he said "Mark, I your kids did fine. I could pick apart their kata, their sparring was OK, but their SD they got an A on, and that's what is important" That was what I wanted to hear. Because his students do different kata, they also take a lot longer to get to BB, he has better instructors to help off set his teaching etc. etc. so they have in a sense more resources where I'm a one man show. So I wanted to pass onto my students more of the physical SD related material than having perfect kicking techniques or forms.
To bring this back around to the original discussion about what is the difference between a 6th dan and a GM, this is part of the reason I try and stay away from making comparisons based on physical traits or characteristics of the instructors. Simply because I suck at exams, I suck at tournaments, I don't kick like I use to, I don't look like I use to, put me up against some instructors that I know and I would look like the lower rank. Put me up against some of my sensei's younger BB students and have us do a kata and I'd look like the 1st dan.
However put me up against them with a weapon in my hand and that is a different story altogether. On my 1st dan test in Kobudo, I put in a lot of outside time getting ready throughout the whole 2 1/2 - 3 yr program. Weapons were my main interest and focus of study. It comes test time and I had carpal tunnel issues with my hands, I drove 40 something miles in my wife's mail jeep through heavy construction traffic, and I had just completed teaching about 3-4 hours of class prior to leaving for the test. Did I mention that I suck at exams on top of this. Worst test of my life, first time I ever blanked out completely forgetting a kata, dropped my tonfa during a kata cause my hands opened up due to the carpal tunnel, oh and I was one of the highest ranked (there were two of us at 6th dan) testing with a bunch of 4th-1st dans and some brown belts. Talk about humiliation to say the least. Out of everyone there I had the most experience (except for the examiners) with weapons due to my FMA background, all things considered I should have Aced it instead I stood their believing that I was going to fail my first test in 30 years of training. When it came time for one steps with the weapons I didn't care anymore and just let go since I was in my element. I had fun. I figured I was going to fail so I didn't worry or care at that point, it just didn't matter anymore.
When it came time to promote the senior instructors spoke about how at times we have bad tests for different reasons but we earn our rank on the floor, in class and outside of class. They knew me, they understood what happened, they looked beyond the two hours of the test and instead took into consideration the many many hours that I spent outside of class teaching my students the same material and practicing it. So they passed me and used it as a teaching lesson to the rest of the students.
Had someone like, I feel some of the posters here (I don't mean personally but more from the tone of some posts) seen that exam, and seen my rank (even though I don't wear stripes on my belt
Whats the difference between a 6th dan and a GM, the 6th dan still trains and the GMs are the ones guiding them.
I hear that said a lot by martial artists, that bad fighting techniques can be dangerous. However, nobody has been able to explain to me how this is so. I personally know quite a number of people that have been injured during controlled sparring in martial arts classes (myself included). I only know of a couple of people that have ever had to use their martial arts training in a real self defense situation. With this in mind, please explain to me how learning poor self defense skills can possibly be considered more dangerous than actually learning proper ones?
Sorry, I know I said I would walk away, but I didn't seem to be able. I'll try again.
They _appear_ to fill the need, and that's the problem. If people are going for training to defend (or compete, or anything else), and the instructor knows that what he is teaching is not effective but convinces them it is, he is lying. The people _think_ their need is being met, but it isn't. They didn't choose to buy snake oil; they thought they were buying a legitimate medicine (to maintain the analogy). Just because they pay for it doesn't mean it's useful to them - it means they think it is useful to them. The same can be said of any investment scam - people pay into it because they _think_ it will help them build retirement money. It doesn't, and their need isn't met.
It does, but just like things like investments, people just starting out have too little information to make a good selection.
