There's really no reason to adhere to them either. I could write over a check to any one of those endless TKD orgs that advertise in Black Belt or TKD Times magazine right now and get ranked at least around 4th dan, considering I hold legitimate certificates in goju-ryu (4th), tae kwon do (2nd), and aikido (2nd).
In principle, no, there is no reason to adhere to them. But people like to know who trained whom and it is a potential landmine. Keep in mind that regular people don't know a thing about the martial arts, so a credential is very meaningful to
them. And if they find out that he has no credentials, that may be a problem. The last thing he needs is for a churchgoer who happens to be highly ranked in an existing org showing up to check him out, only to fine that he has no credential whatsoever, then telling other churchgoers that they'd be better off in a "real school." That would undermine him very quickly.
Certifications are only useful if you wish to participate in the area the organizations offering them are strong in. The best reason I can think of to join a particular org is to be KKW to compete in tournments. In this case, there's really no need for any at all since I bet there's no plans to compete in WTF-style tournaments.
Once again, I did not say that he needs to affiliate. He needs to be prepared to be asked who made him a black belt. It is not the majority of his students that he needs to be concerned with. It is the potential troublemakers. And just because it is church does not mean that troublemakers aren't present. In some cases, the percentage is higher: church is less likely to tell them to take a hike, so they gravitate there.
I don't know (yet). Let's assume he's a first dan with no one particularly special as his instructor. Does it change anything? I don't think so.
Yes, it does, but not because of ranking. Unless he's one of those guys who started training a long time ago, got his first dan more than five or six years ago, and just never tested any further but continued to train and improve, then he probably isn't ready to be running his own show. Which is probably the reason that he asked you to help.
Ranking only has the depth of meaning that you choose to attribute to it. Not everyone is interested in world-building and setting up their own 10th dan ranking system. This is a church ministry after all, meant for the members of the church, not for anyone else. So the idea of being certified by some organization seems rather unnecessary and even ridiculous on some levels, considering how absolutely minimal the standards and requirements some of those orgs have.
I reiterate: he doesn't have to affiliate the program with any of the big (or small) orgs. Nothing wrong with being independent. But he should have demonstrable lineage and be able to say who promoted
him to whatever dan grade he holds. Remember: people like credentials.
This is a new project that is years away from promoting anyone to black belt rank. We've not even announced the ministry formally yet. Baby steps first. I imagine if the program is successful enough over time to be in the position of promoting someone to chodan, there will be steps taken to make sure sufficient paper is around to make such a promotion above the board. I do have a 2nd dan in TKD from years ago, so I can dust off my certificate and lend a meager amount of credence. Ironically, I've been around the block to know how irrelevant that stuff is, particularly in TKD. Master rankings are dime a dozen and one of the local schools has more kiddie BBs in their 8-12 class than I have fingers. I'm really not worried about this at all.
If they're a dime a dozen then why train with a guy who doesn't have one? I realize that this is a church ministry program, but he is teaching a physical skill that is unrelated to ministry and has an entirely different set of qualifications.
Honestly, I think this is an irrelevant concern to have about a church ministry program that likely has no interest in being compared to any other alternative out there. It will be available only to members of the church and what you see is what you get. Either people will like it and join or they won't. This isn't meant to compete with other, possibly commercial, studios. If I help with the program, it'll be the most rigorous class I can help teach under the circumstances and I'm quite confident it'll measure well with anything we have locally, but I wouldn't worry about any potential comparisons.
I wasn't thinking of comparison shopping. I am thinking of how he is perceived by the people within the church, and like it or not, people within the church have contact with people outside of the church.
Be able to present the best program possible.
If he's a first dan, then he needs to present the best program possible as a first dan, though if he's been a first dan for less than a year (second dan in most TKD schools is only a year out), then he's barely been training long enough to have any depth in the art.
But if he's is continuing to train under another master, he can appeal to his lineage. Then he looks less like a guy without the relevant experience going it alone and more like a proactive student who wants to share what he's learning with the folks at church, but who is still continuing to better himself.
With only a first dan or over fourth dan, lineage and organization are actually more important if you are instructing than they are if you are third through fourth. Even out of a two year BB school, a third dan has at least six year worth of training and has probably been teaching on some level for at least a year or two under the supervision of another master. Also, up to fourth dan can generally be tested for inside the dojo.
A fifth dan or higher is usually not promoted to fifth dan or higher within the dojo, so he or she will be scrutinized more closely. A first dan teacher doesn't have the relevant experience and needs to be able to appeal to his org or lineage in the event that his students (or his students' parents) want some kind of organizational safety net (not that orgs really provide one, but people seem to have some idea that it does).
If he has a huge rack of competition trophies, he can mitigate the rank issue: Americans place a fantastical level of importance on competition wins, transferring the prestige of those wins to cover other areas that competition success is not necessarily related to.
Likewise, if his physical skills are just phenomenal, he can mitigate the issue as well. The fact that he has you involved will help out in addition.
My point in my lengthy posts is not to pick at your friend or throw a wet blanket on his ministry idea. I actually think that, the way that you have described it, it is a good idea.
My point is that the "Christian" part is not really the issue. The major issue is that first dan students generally are not ready to run their own program out and away from the schools in which they have trained through the colored belts and that he probably is not prepared to deal with some of the pitfalls that go with running your own program.
Daniel
