Tao of Chris

My view on the world of Martial Arts.

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Location: Canada

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The All Powerful Black Belt!

Ah, the all powerful black belt. I don’t know how many times I have heard things like “don’t mess with him, he’s a black belt”. It amazes me time after time how many people are impressed with someone just because they have a black belt. Truth be told, there are so many bogus schools out there that the term black belt shouldn’t even be applied to their teachers. There are numerous schools out there that are pushing people through the ranks just so they can have extra teachers or have boasting rights about how many black belts they have. I have even seen teachers promote students just for the sheer fact that they will then have to pay extra for special testing due to their new rank. Now I am not trying to be rude, merely honest about things I have seen.

In my years of training I have come across countless numbers of people that have black belts. Some are pretty good, others shouldn’t even be ranked a yellow belt. I don’t know how many people I have seen that have a black belt around their waist and think that they are Gods gift to the world. Now this is not true about all black belts, although it seems to happen all too often. Maybe it is just me but just because you are wearing a black belt around your waist doesn’t mean that you are all powerful. I have seen so many people at this rank that can’t fight their way out of a paper bag. Even point sparring gives them trouble. Why is this? I personally think it can happen for many reasons. They could come from a club such as I talked about before where they are pushing people through the ranks. Doing this doesn’t benefit anyone. It waters down the art that they are doing and it gives people too much confidence in what they do because they think they have worked extra hard to get their black belt that quickly. Another reason is that there are a lot of clubs that don’t concentrate on practical application. All too often they are doing drills where if you don’t attack them a certain way or move a certain way they can’t apply their techniques. Like I said though, this does not include all clubs. There are plenty of great clubs out there, you just need to find them instead of settling for the first one you come across.

To me, it is not the black belt that is impressive. It is the length of time and the amount of effort that impresses me. I have done martial arts for about 14 years, if I feel like a beginner how can I be impressed by someone that gets a black belt in their three years of martial arts? The most impressive people I have met have all done martial arts longer than I have been alive. These people have forgotten more than I have learned. There is one common trait that these people share. They all believe that they still have lots to learn even after all those years. Now that is impressive.

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