My Arnis group uses belt ranks, however, a) nobody wears a belt, and b) no belts are awarded until black belt. Even those of us that do have BB's, only wear them for certain occassions, ie: the group photo at a camp.
Personally, I think that much like any other art that uses rank, its done for the modern times, so people will have some sort of visual sign of progression. Then again, just because one may be wearing a brown belt or even a black belt, doesnt mean that their skills are worthy of that rank.
For me, I'm more interested in how well the person knows the material, how well they understand it, how well they can do it, teach it, etc. Those things are IMO, what really matters.
As far as the material goes....there is no more material for me to learn per se. I mean really, how many more versions of siniwali, how many katas, how many more whatever, do you really need to learn? What matters now, is how well you can perform what you already know. If what you know sucks, then anything else you learn will most likely suck too. LOL. Instead, I take certain things, and work the hell out of them. A few weeks ago, during a private lesson, my inst. put on an old dvd of the Prof. We watched him teach things, even putting the dvd into slo-mo, and it was amazing to see the things he was doing, things that unless you were either taught or fortunate enough to catch, then you never learned them. Even the way that some of the tapi-tapi, and palis-palis drills are done by some, vs. the way the Prof. did them...again, are you watching or are you really watching?
So its stuff like that, as well as giving back to the art, ie: taking on students of your own, teaching, etc. That is the stuff that is taken into consideration, obviously along with being sure that you look sharp and know your stuff, that determines whether or not you are promoted or not.
