And while I can't see myself ever owning a car just for looking at (I'd always want to be able to drive it), a car that looks nice but doesn't run fits their needs if that's all they want it for. It feels like it's stretching the analogy a bit (since the car presumably wasn't made that way), but it makes the point.
Agreed. And this is where the analogy actually stops being stretched. I wouldn't buy either of those cars (assuming I had enough money to comfortably do so), because they simply wouldn't meet my need. But they work for those folks, even though "work" isn't the same thing to them it would be to me.
Once you make Shodan you're just getting started.
Rank, grade, level, whatever you want to call it. Although I see why you might want to call it grade instead of rank for the reasons you mention.
That depends where they got their black belt. A black belt in BJJ you would probably want to take seriously.
Nevertheless somebody might ask you first about your rank and style, before they get into detailed conversation with you about the arts. Not everybody might ask you that first but some people will.Seeing someone in action is not necessary to evaluate how long they've been training and thus their knowledge level. It is fairly simple to converse with someone and figure out how experienced they are based on their responses and understanding.
You'll understand this better later on in your martial arts journey.
All martial arts schools have a hierarchy even those that don't use ranks or grades. I once had a friend who trained in a chinese style where you started on day one with a uniform and a red belt. Your belt color did not change and your uniform did not change. You started with a red belt and you finished with a red belt. There were no patches or anything to denote any kind of rank or grade. But there was a hierarchy. There was the hierarchy of instructor-student. So all martial arts schools do have a hierarchy, if nothing else the instructor-student hierarchy.
That's a good way to run a martial arts school if you ask me. And that's why its important for an instructor to know a student's goals.
That's why when asking about what rank or grade you've earned lots of people will also ask where and how you got it.
John Kreese is an excellent example of why martial arts classes should not be run like the military.
In BJJ that's called sandbagging and its frowned upon.
Maybe you want to get good at blocking, the same reason why you might enjoy sanding decks and painting fences and houses.
Well there are some people who collect guns and never fire them.
I happen to have one of that nature. It's from the Spanish-American war (I think), and belonged to my Great-Grandfather (though I don't think he was the original user if it was from the Spanish-American war - he wasn't that old). It's a cool old gun. I doubt I could get ammo for it without having someone custom-load some.
In that case, I agree. I think it's a good idea (for programs that aim to teach for competition or for self-defense) if the rank (at least early on) means something observable about your ability. I won't award a rank to someone just because they can do the techniques I test for - they need to be able to handle sparring and such at a reasonable level. Barring outside training and extremes of personal aggression, I'd expect one of my green belts (third belt) to be able to "beat" one of my yellow belts (first belt) on a regular basis in sparring/rolling. Due to size differences, there might be some discrepancies in adjacent ranks, but not across two ranks (again, barring those exceptional cases).
