Today I went to our grading, and you know what annoys me ? It was the Black belts grading, and a guy I train with every week got his Black belt. He broke two boards with first a side kick (big deal) and he broke two boards with a turning kick (big deal) had five attempts at breaking ONE board with a spinning heel kick and couldn't break it. He then progressed to sparring Black belts for approx 30 mins, and some stages two. I thought he got "owned" for pretty well most of the time, yet was presented with his Black belt. My problem is..........I've seen MUCH harder more skilled, more professional guys go through ten times the length of intensity get their belts deservedly so. My question is....why be easier on people because they can put up with a beating ? there was crap all skilled showed, yet they were still standing at the end of the day ? I know in the near future I will get a much harder time from these guys because I put up a better fight. You're either good enough or not.
Well, I don't know the guy you're talking about, so I don't really want to comment his test, but I've seen people pass who I myself didn't think should. This one guy I watched, had sloppy basics. His stances were not long enough, nor firm, his handwork didn't look like anything I've seen before, his kicks were so bad he lost his balance all the time, and he didn't know the theory at all. He passed, and then came to my school as an instructor because our master thought I'd need some help. I did need help, as I was both working and going to the university while teaching two evenings a week from 5pm to 10 pm, but I didn't get any help from that new "instructor". Whenever he had been "teaching" I had to spend the next class trying to "unlearn" all the sloppy techniques he'd thaugt our students, and when I tried to teach him, he didn't really seem to bother learning anything new. In his mind he was a Black Belt, and thus a superman, and whatever I said just passed trough his brain, unprocessed... Thankfully, he only stayed half a year, before having to move due to work. The main instructor who got him, called me and asked what the h... I had done with him
Tittan I guess I was just a little disapointed at the fact when I fight/spar this particular guy (and another person) in our class, I can easily get the better of them, yet don't believe I'm anywhere near the calibre of a Black belt. I don't want to go for my Black belt until I believe I deserve it, and feel I'm far away from attempting it, yet these guys I feel were standing at the end of the day and were awarded it.
That's life... Some people just take what's given them, while others like to work for it. Glad you're among us who like to work for our rewards though
Yeah, I guess so. I just wanna hold my head high and know I wasn't handed it easily.....when it's my turn.
obviously someone thought that that guy deserved the black belt too. you have to know what the lowest grades are. if he met the lowest requirements, he will pass. not every A at school has the same value, right? but then again, if you think that belts are given for money, or you are not satisified with other things as well, you can always leave.
I don't feel the need to leave, for the reason we have some of the most outstanding martial artists in our club. That's why I made this point in the first place. I have seen some of the toughest black belt gradings that you could imagine (sorry, you've probably seen them yourself too) these guys previously have worked very hard and dedicated their life to earn this belt.....yet these guys today IMHO didn't. I need a line in the sand for when I'm ready. Not a variance between people, age, weight, skill.
I've seen a lot of black belt tests and a lot of students at various levels of preparedness and skill. I've owned several belt tests and I've phoned a few in. What it comes down to, for me, is how I felt about my performance and level of preparedness. MA is about expressing yourself physically, not comparing your test to someone else's. If YOU leave it all on the mats on your test day, you KNOW you're really a black belt.
Im wondering now, what is the best attitude to have towards your Black Belt? If you consider it just another piece of cloth (doing a rather bad job really at) holding up your trousers then is the grading simply a milestone? which you pass if you are good enough to be awarded the belt or retake eventually if you aren't... while always continuing to progress in your skills. To see the BB as either the mark of superman or as a conclusion to a journey has obvious disadvantages. Students who do this will eliminaite themselves eventually. So then do you see the BB as something you have to be at a certain level at before you can allow yourself to earn, or, as something that you pass easily as soon as the opportunity arises and you go on learning new skills/patterns/qualities. I think this is a question a person can only really answer personally to themselves and thus to judge someone for grading before "you" consider them ready is a pretty petty act.
One thing I always tell people at the after black belt party is, "Don't be surprised if you are depressed tomorrow." People are always surprised by this, yet 9 times out of 10 the person will say, "I was depressed! How did you know?" And here is why I think so many feel some disappointment 'the morning after': because when they wake up the next day they are still the same person. There has been no magical transformation. No extra skill miraculously came by strapping on that black belt and it did not lock your current skill into place. The same rules still apply. If you work out you get better and if you start taking it easy you backslide. As pretty as the belt is on you, in the end, it is still just a piece of cloth. The belts serve a function, but if not approached with the proper spirit they only distract us from the REAL reason we train. Which is, of course, the joy of day to training and seeing each small improvement we make.
As long as you're a good boy and pay for your lessons and grading you'll pass. Before my MT classes we have a group doing Freestyle MA, not one of them goes hard, just tip tap, weaks kicks, weak punches, joking around... yet every time they grade each one of them passes. The way i see it, people will quit if they paid for grading, dont pass and then have to pay for another 6 months of training and then grading again.
Aussie Bob - yup, I'm trying to cope with the disappointment of seeing this happen once in a while at our dojo. There are a small number of people who are so focused on the belt syllabus but have less ability to apply what they have learnt in sparring, line-ups, teaching, circle attacks etc. compared to 'lower ranking' students. You sound like you are honest enough with yourself to grade when you are ready, not when everyone else is doing it. Continue to do this and you'll be able to hold your head up and most probably kick ass at the end of the day. Everyone's aims are different so don't sweat over the BB.
Black belt devalued? My instructor was one of the first people in the UK to get his black belt in TKD. In those days the training was far more brutal than it is now and ataining a black belt really meant something. I feel that one of the reasons TKD is 'devalued' as a martial art by many practitioners of different styles is the number of crappy black belts that are around. One of the reasons is many associations seem to give black belts away, especially to kids. There will always be the true dedicated people who work and train hard and really earn their belts but unfortunately they seem to be in the minority nowadays. I remember teaching at one club many years ago and an 11 year old 'black belt' asked me a simple question about WonHyo. I just told him he really ought to know that as he was a black belt, his response was 'its just a belt. It shocked me as to how little he thought of it. Maybe that's the problem, the belt has become devalued in the public and the students eyes. After all 'It's only a belt...' Cheers!
that's definitely not true. if that is the case at your club, then it does NOT have to mean that it is like that everywhere around the world.
I guess I want them to respect the training more than the belt. But that doesn't mean I don't want to take it seriously. If I see a kid yawn, for example, I'll make them do 20 updowns/jump squats because they obviously need to 'get their blood moving'.
When I hold a Black Belt Grading,I judge each person by thier own ability,because each persons abilities are different.I will be a little easy on those with medical problems.I will not pass someone that is not doing thier best.Martial Arts is not about Mastering techniques,it's about Mastering Your Self,becoming the best Person you can be.The 5 tenets of Taekwon-Do is what a Martial Artist is all about. Fred
My karate instructor said two things about what getting a black belt means: 1) You have mastered the basics. 2) Now you can begin to train.
I agree with you there Fred!! But I was also shocked and stunned when I was getting ready to go for my 1st dan and at the grading itself! Because I had been lucky enough to be in a really technical class I had not known that a lot of my fellow candidates were really well below the standard of the 3 of us that were going for the black belt that day!! On the day before my 1st dan i was at a seminar with the examining master and a 2nd dan going for his 3rd dan the next day was paired with me for self defence work. He leaned over to me and wispered "I know nothing about self defence". Now he may have forgotten about me and that day! But hav'int forgotten about him!! But as Fred says, you have to judge everyone on the limits of there physical ability!!
gradings/ people passing without having skill This subject is the subject that really frustrates me. When I graded for black belt I made sure that I knew everything. All the patterns and all the Korean, virtually fluent in Korean by the time I graded! What frustrates me the most are students passing there gradings with no passion or dedication for the art. I attend all the local gradings, sitting on the black belt table asking the students questions, and I am shocked that some students don’t even know there instructors name! They just get up there do what they have to do and walk away, the result, lazy students which brings the standards down for tae kwon do. I went to a demonstration recently which a new club has just opened and they put on a bit of a show. Normal stuff, patterns and sparring etc. This club was not TAGB (thank god) but another organisation and I couldn’t believe on there technique. It seemed so bad and disorganised that I was embarrassed to watch. I am glad to say that the standard is raising eventually now and new programs are being put in place with instructors to make sure that there students are to the highest standard. I would like to think that in years to come, getting that black belt like it was for me would be hard to get and you feel more satisfied when receiving the belt.
Scott, It really used to get me down! But now I'm independant I only have to worry about my own students!! Which is all we can do as instructors, by setting standards that we would wish to see in other clubs and groups!!
