Time between belts

[roryneil]

I was just reading another thread, and I wondered this:
Why is there an artificial time requirement between lower (1-5) degrees of black belt? There is the same ammount of new material for 1st black as there is for each degree of brown, so why have someone have to sit for 2 years without any new material?

 

[jfarnsworth]

Teaching Time:asian:

 

[Kirk]

I have no idea, but I would suspect that you should go back and reflect on what you've learned?

 

[rmcrobertson]

In part because, "new material," isn't at all the issue.

But I also assume it was one of those things that jest growed, in an attempt to keep in check the fast slide to very advanced rank.

 

[jeffkyle]

Originally posted by rmcrobertson
In part because, "new material," isn't at all the issue.

But I also assume it was one of those things that jest growed, in an attempt to keep in check the fast slide to very advanced rank.

I second that.

 

[MJS]

Originally posted by roryneil
I was just reading another thread, and I wondered this:
Why is there an artificial time requirement between lower (1-5) degrees of black belt? There is the same ammount of new material for 1st black as there is for each degree of brown, so why have someone have to sit for 2 years without any new material?

Nothing wrong with going back to the old material and doing it over. There is always something that you can improve on. With all the kata and SD that are in the EP curriculum, I'm sure finding something to expand on would be no problem.

Also, the time that you have put into that rank and how much you have given back also plays a part.

Mike

 

[roryneil]

Going back over old material? We go through all the material up through our current belt for every rank. I do more yellow than my current rank.

Why not have brown wait 3 years per rank and be extra good when they get to black? Its somewhat artificial isn't it?

 

[Scott Bonner]

If one goes into martial arts knowing it is a lifelong pursuit -- no end, no stop, always more -- then it becomes utterly irrelevant when or how often one gets red stripes. Perhaps the waiting time for stripes is designed to reflect that idea. If it takes a bare minimum of 54 years to get from 1st to 10th (using the plan of waiting an equal number of years as your next rank), then one has a goal to take them into retirement.

If it starts taking, say, 20 years to go from 1st to 10th, then it doesn't seem so much like a lifelong pursuit. Martial arts becomes more like a modern career, to be followed for a while until you can't go any further, then go find a new career.

Besides, if someone proclaims to have mastered what takes at least a lifetime for the great students to master, except in only 20 years plus time as an underbelt, that's pretty friggin' cocky.

No offense if someone has done this. Well, no personal offense. I guess you could construe the non-personalized categorical statement that such a thing is awfully cocky. However, in martial arts -- despite all it's supposed lessons about humility and being forever a student -- being called cocky is somehow usually seen as a compliment. Sigh.

Maybe by the time I get to black someone will convince me that humility = thinking I am da' *****, too.

Peace,
Scott

 

[Scott Bonner]

Addendum:

Roryneil said: "Why not have brown wait 3 years per rank and be extra good when they get to black? Its somewhat artificial isn't it?"

My understanding is that there is a waiting time for underbelts as well, going from 3 months for each of the early belts to 6 or 9 months between 2nd brown and 1st brown (maybe longer for brown, I don't know). This makes the black belt wait times just an extention of the underbelt wait times: All have wait times, the higher you go the longer you wait in a steady progression.

Also, sorry for the distracting rant at the end of my post above. It's a huge disillusionment I've run into. Before taking martial arts, I of course never thought being a black belt made you able to punch through steel or jump over a house, but I did think one had to be humble. I actually thought it was a requirement or at least that humility lessons were built in along the way. I've been lucky enough to learn from some humble black belts, but most black belts I've met at seminars or dealt with online seem to be anything but humble. This has been a disappointment that keeps coming up in my posts.

Peace,
Scott

 

[roryneil]

I guess the problem I have is its getting new material. So if you are in 16 tech/belt, you have to be "IN" the art for 10 or so years more to get all the material? I like 16/belt, until I look at it this way.

 

[MJS]

Originally posted by roryneil
Going back over old material? We go through all the material up through our current belt for every rank. I do more yellow than my current rank.

Why not have brown wait 3 years per rank and be extra good when they get to black? Its somewhat artificial isn't it?

I guess what I was trying to say was, is to go back and really look at the material. Going over the tech. from beginning to end was not what I was referring to. Doing such things as performing the tech slowly to make sure you are exectuting the proper strikes in the proper place, making sure your footwork is proper, performing the tech with different resistance, and maybe even doing the tech left sided.

In book 5, Parker talks about the "Ideal Phase" This is referring to being able to do the tech. without any problems. Once you have done this, then look at the "What IFs" By doing that, it will open up many new things to look at.

MJS