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 Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:58 pm
Jae Sung Yeah I know quite a few people who I feel don't deserve their black belt. Though I have to admit, even though I have received my black belt after about 5 and a half years, I don't really 'feel' like a black belt. Anyone know what I mean? Kinda, my school actually requires a black belt level in atleast two of the three arts we practice to be recognized as a traditional student. I dont even pay attention to what "level" I am, or else I start to condemn myself for not doing better.
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:21 pm
Jae Sung The_Mortician This girl I know started TKD last year. She says her black belt exam will be in sring 08'. I've been training since 03' and I'm only a sonkyu. She told me to kkep practicing and speed up. rolleyes Does she go to the same school as you? The one she goes to is definitely a McDojang if its doing that. Sonkyu? Never heard a TKD level called that.... i think sonkyu's a japanese rank so he probably does a dif art.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 8:39 am
knight of disaster Jae Sung The_Mortician This girl I know started TKD last year. She says her black belt exam will be in sring 08'. I've been training since 03' and I'm only a sonkyu. She told me to kkep practicing and speed up. rolleyes Does she go to the same school as you? The one she goes to is definitely a McDojang if its doing that. Sonkyu? Never heard a TKD level called that.... i think sonkyu's a japanese rank so he probably does a dif art. Yeah, I take shuri-ryu karate. EDIT: Our testing is by invation only. If you are not invited you can not test If you are not on time for the test, you can not test. Before the test, if you are testing for purple belt or above, you must run a white pine as a warm up.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:16 pm
TaeKyon bondage bunnie Fitness doesnt have much to do with rank. Show me one 10th dan that can run 1/4 mile ^^. Rank of black belt should symbolize that you know all basic techniques katas history and that you could perform and pass on that knowledge to the next generation with skill. But unfortunately this is europe/america where the almighty dollar talks above all principals. Children whose mommies sent em to 5 classes a week as a daycare have blackbelts in 2 months. Skilless people with big wallets walk out after a test skipping 2 belt ranks. Or better yet the Die hard martial artist with little money who practices 3 times a day 7 days a week, who has amazing skill gets 1/2 belt when they test. Most 10th Dan ranks are given to instructors who "progress" the art or something political within the art or what not. They're like lifetime achievement awards given to old instructors who are well in their years or sometimes given posthumously. Even still, these guys are usually in decent shape. Physical conditioning isn't exactly necessary for rank per se; however, if you're doing a physically demanding activity such as martial arts consistently for a few years, you theoretically SHOULD be in decent conditioning due to the training. Yet most schools aren't very demanding physically or students are too lazy and take shortcuts or don't take martial arts seriously enough to adjust their lifestyle accordingly. The sad truth is capitalism folks. Instructors who want to make any sort of living off of teaching martial arts (or even to pay for upkeep of the equipment/gym fees) need money and to get that money they need paying students. Instructors fear making the curriculum too physically demanding out of fear that students may quit due to the difficulty. They also test often and give out belts in an effort to appease students. People (especially in the fast food American consumerist society) want instant gratification (which is why "loose weight fast" schemes/pills/exercise machines is big money as is "fast food") and they want to see results for their effort quickly or they might get bored and quit and find another school that will reward them for their "effort" more easily (And considering there's practically a handful of martial art schools in any town, loosing students to your competition is an understandable fear). There's also the sad state that a lot of schools are basically day care centers now and of course since instructors need the money they're not going to refuse students regardless of their age and you can only do so much when teaching little kids. There's also a lot of students who aren't looking to be the next Olympian or cage fighters and are only looking for an excuse to work out, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but because martial arts is just an exercise hobby for them they tend to take the training less seriously. Consumerism is just a fact of the times. Martial arts instruction isn't a sought out or necessary commodity in contemporary peaceful society. People aren't seeking martial art instructors to teach them how to fight in a war because martial arts aren't necessary for war anymore. It's no longer customary for students to petition instructors in order to allow them to be their student. Nor is there the quality control that gym busting used to offer, weeding out weaker schools. Martial arts are now primarily sport and are merely optional. In order thus to survive financially as a martial arts instructor, you generally have to compromise in terms of who and how you teach a martial art. Watered down teaching led to watered down students which led to watered down martial arts. I fully agree. Hell, even in my school there are students who just aren't quite up to par with their belts. However, my instructor (a Grand Master - WTF Taekwondo) is simply amazing (at both TKD and teaching, as well as an understanding of the body, injuries, and how to make students collapse in exhaustion after a workout xP ). As said above, it's the mentality. Because even though there are some kids who are less deserving, I've seen some kids who actually surprise me with how good they are. But in today's Western society, unless you're already well-to-do, you're not going to be able to run a school without trying to appeal to the students. Actually, sometimes I have to really admire the instructors who take on even the most difficult students. They talk back, no matter how much more experience you have, and never listen when you're trying to help them - they complain when you criticize their kicks. As for the daycare aspect - I've seen that too. We have one kid who has some mental disabilities, and his mom sends him to the school because she wants him to interact with others more. Of course, he has not advanced very far at all, but he's certainly not there because he wants to learn how to fight. darkphoenix1247 I actually tested for my black belt with somebody I feel really should not have gotten their belt. I am ashamed to have tested with him, as I now wonder since they gave one to him if I can even fully deserve one. This is Tae-kwan-do, by the way. ...Righto.
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:53 am
TaeKyon The sad truth is capitalism folks. Instructors who want to make any sort of living off of teaching martial arts (or even to pay for upkeep of the equipment/gym fees) need money and to get that money they need paying students. Instructors fear making the curriculum too physically demanding out of fear that students may quit due to the difficulty. They also test often and give out belts in an effort to appease students. People (especially in the fast food American consumerist society) want instant gratification (which is why "loose weight fast" schemes/pills/exercise machines is big money as is "fast food") and they want to see results for their effort quickly or they might get bored and quit and find another school that will reward them for their "effort" more easily (And considering there's practically a handful of martial art schools in any town, loosing students to your competition is an understandable fear). There's also the sad state that a lot of schools are basically day care centers now and of course since instructors need the money they're not going to refuse students regardless of their age and you can only do so much when teaching little kids. There's also a lot of students who aren't looking to be the next Olympian or cage fighters and are only looking for an excuse to work out, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but because martial arts is just an exercise hobby for them they tend to take the training less seriously. Consumerism is just a fact of the times. Martial arts instruction isn't a sought out or necessary commodity in contemporary peaceful society. People aren't seeking martial art instructors to teach them how to fight in a war because martial arts aren't necessary for war anymore. It's no longer customary for students to petition instructors in order to allow them to be their student. Nor is there the quality control that gym busting used to offer, weeding out weaker schools. Martial arts are now primarily sport and are merely optional. In order thus to survive financially as a martial arts instructor, you generally have to compromise in terms of who and how you teach a martial art. Watered down teaching led to watered down students which led to watered down martial arts. Dont forget the fact for most bullshido schools, gradings are a good money spinner. Call it say $20-50 per person per grading, your bullshido master is gonna make everybody they can grade every three months. As it not only keeps the belt hungry punters happy but generates lots of revenue. If they can give out blackbelts you can imediately up the grading fee to $100-300 per person at least. Cha-CHING!! says your cash hungry bullshit master...
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:25 pm
Jae Sung The_Mortician This girl I know started TKD last year. She says her black belt exam will be in sring 08'. I've been training since 03' and I'm only a sonkyu. She told me to kkep practicing and speed up. rolleyes Does she go to the same school as you? The one she goes to is definitely a McDojang if its doing that. Sonkyu? Never heard a TKD level called that.... Sankyu san= 3 kyu = level 1 ichi 2 ni 3 san 4 shi 5 go 6 roku 7 shichi 8 hachi 9 kuu 10 juu But in japanese things get changes around slightly. It makes alot more sence in hiragana. like Hachidan is eighth rank or blackbelt 8th. Hakkyu or Hachikyu is usually whitebelt. What all this as to do with TKD i have no idea cause TDK is Korean ^^
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:08 pm
I probably got confused by what art they were talking about. The_Mortican mentioned TKD, so I probably thought they meant that they too were in TKD...
To Darkling:
I sometimes wonder about my dojang...
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:36 am
DarklingGlory Dont forget the fact for most bullshido schools, gradings are a good money spinner. Call it say $20-50 per person per grading, your bullshido master is gonna make everybody they can grade every three months. As it not only keeps the belt hungry punters happy but generates lots of revenue. If they can give out blackbelts you can imediately up the grading fee to $100-300 per person at least. Cha-CHING!! says your cash hungry bullshit master... O...M...F...G... If I had to pay that much for my gradings...and every couple of months... like... Jesus Christ, that could practically pay for... well, a damn lot. sweatdrop And as for the daycare aspect... there are a lot of young kids, say ten, that go to my dojang, and some are of fairly high ranks. But then again... some of those kids are absoloutly amazing. They deserve their ranks more than some older kids do. Some of them spar SO damn fast... and talk about flexible... On the other hand, there's a whole seperate class for really little kids of low ranks who are basically there while their mothers go to the gym. Blaah.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:18 am
Jae Sung Yeah I know quite a few people who I feel don't deserve their black belt. Though I have to admit, even though I have received my black belt after about 5 and a half years, I don't really 'feel' like a black belt. Anyone know what I mean? i haven't reached that level yet, but one of my friends/instructors says that when he got his first dan it took him a couple of months to actually feel like a first dan as for the japanese naming of grades kyu grades go in reverse order, so starting at 10 (or whatever) and going down to 1, then first dan, up to higher dans
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:42 pm
Jae Sung Yeah I know quite a few people who I feel don't deserve their black belt. Though I have to admit, even though I have received my black belt after about 5 and a half years, I don't really 'feel' like a black belt. Anyone know what I mean? I suggest that any person who becomes complacent with their level of skill or rank should enter a tournament or competition. Preferably something at a state level if possible...humbling experience. I'm in a college club for TKD and the level of competition is ridiculous. Possessing a black belt merely means you can spar with all the big kids now.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:52 pm
Yeah, I need to go to more tournaments. I just hate it when they put me up against a guy who's like a giant compared to me because they got longer legs.
As for the level of competitiveness, I'm not very competitive. I just like to spar. But just because I'm not very competitive doesn't mean I train like I'm not.
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 7:31 pm
I agree with TaeKyon beacuse their is a lot of younger people in tkd in my organatzion and it seems like only half of the black belt actually deserver it they can't do their form break a board or lead a class. I am not one of thoese people(because I push myself then most of the students their) but it is sad to see them suck so badly lol.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:54 am
TaeKyon Jae Sung Yeah I know quite a few people who I feel don't deserve their black belt. Though I have to admit, even though I have received my black belt after about 5 and a half years, I don't really 'feel' like a black belt. Anyone know what I mean? I suggest that any person who becomes complacent with their level of skill or rank should enter a tournament or competition. Preferably something at a state level if possible...humbling experience. I'm in a college club for TKD and the level of competition is ridiculous. Possessing a black belt merely means you can spar with all the big kids now. Very true. Not only for the actual skill level of the fighters, but the entire situation. The stress involved is probably the closest you are going to get to a street situation. Being able to perform under extreme stress is very important. Are you seriously saying at your club you dont get to spar blackbelts untill you have one? Cos if thats so, thats totally lame...
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 4:31 pm
Yeah, that'd be pretty lame. I was allowed to spar black belts when I was a green belt (I guess due to me needing a little more experience). The most fun I've ever had in class.
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