I have fun with this topic. Taking on some personal meaning for me of late.
I was a 5th black when Mr. Parker died. I am still a 5th black. I think I was over-ranked then, so I'm glad I had a chance to ferment a bit. Been handed some "attaboy" 6ths, 2 by pretty big names, too...but just put 'em in the drawer, cuz I didn't sit a panel for them...I got too many men I respect who I would have to look in the eyes while wearing that extra stripe, and won't do it to them or to myself.
Since Mr. P passed, guys who didn't even take kenpo at the time have promoted past me...way past me. Funny thing is, I don't mind; they have to wear it, not me. I won't promote just for kicks and giggles, and there are a few reasons why.
- I have a crappy memory for dance routines. Testing requires I know everything on the tips of my fingers. I have a dickens of a time making associations between technique names, and the tech the name refers to. "Show us...Dancing Twirl of Storming Doom"...I go blank, until someone says, "It's the one where you go like this...". AHA!!! Lights go on, and I can move just fine. But try telling a room full of seniors "could you hum a few bars until I pick up the tune?"
- Guys like Rich Hale & Dennis Conatser. Old kenpoists, both. Rich just recently accepted a promotion from 4th to 5th, yet is arguably one of the more studied brains in American Kenpo, with a knowledge base that shames more than half the guys with twice his rank. Dennis Conatser is another one ... a true protoge of the old man, and only in the last couple years accepted a promotion from 5th to 6th; but you'd be hard put to find a 10th who owns a fraction of the understanding he does. Meanwhile, guys who were brown belts in 1990 and maybe met Mr. P. once or twice have shot on to 7th and 8th degree blacks; some who were 1st degrees have shot to 9th and 10th. Some of the famous 10th degrees were only 4ths in 90. Some guys don't mind having one of these cats (Rich or Dennis) out for a seminar, and being put to shame by someone with half the stripes. It would embarrass me, so I ain't in any hurry; don't feel like getting my backside handed to me by Rich while wearing a belt that outranks his, or made to look absolutely foolish in a Q&A with the Golden One, again while wearing something equal to or greater than the numerical value of his own. Tend to think I'm in good company here in the midlands.
- Testing: I'm an old, busted joint. Bad back, bad neck, SLAP lesions in both shoulders, pinched nerves all through my spine, list goes on; I don't wanna bore you... I won't go to a 6th without doing my thing for a panel of my seniors, any one of whom has full rights to veto. Getting ready for that panel would mean aggravating a bunch of old injuries...sleepless nights in pain, popping advil like M&M's on movie night. It would mean -- so I could remember stuff (see first bullet) -- doing the entire system every day, starting from about 6 months prior to the exam. So that when they say "menacing whirl of storming death", I can go "oh yeah...I know that one" and pop it off, no prob. The amount of physical discomfort that process would create? Nah. Let the young'uns have it.
Now, as an instructor evaluating and promoting my students, time in grade is meaningless. You know it, or you don't; you can make it work, or you can't. I inherited a 2nd degree brown student from another school a couple years ago; just promoted her to 1st degree brown/3 stripes prolly a month ago. Her prior instructor passes her the other night and says, "If you'd stayed at my school, you'd be a 3rd black by now". It was supposed to be an insult -- the implication being that I don't know kenpo, and can't teach her what she needs for her stuff.
I resented the implication, cuz the guy doesn't know bupkus about what I do or what I know, but feels snarky enough in his lineage-based arrogancia to make a comment of that ilk. But I couldn't help chuckle that -- to him -- rank was an issue of time, not development. The young lady in question? Learning the lethal applications of finger set, and developing the finger strength to make it happen; learning alternate variations of the sets and forms that engrain advanced movement patterns in memory and coordination; working BJJ, Hawaiian bone breaking, Japanese jujutsu, and Judo; working basics on heavy bags, focus pads, makiwara, and lead-shot filled medicine balls & buckets of rice, so she can take the resultant skills and abilities back to her kenpo to make it ever so much more nasty.
Oh...and we been doing more sparring and randori, too, along with the JKD, savate, and arnis.
When she shows the DEVELOPMENT to warrant first black, I'll put her throguh a crisis-&-observation marathon, and if she doesn't screw it up, promote her. Shhe may have all her techniques and forms, or she may lack a few; doesn't matter to me, becuase the purpose of the techs and forms is to foster skill development. She may have be early with not enough time in grade to make the critics happy, or she may not be ready in her DEVELOPMENT for many more years beyond that.
Thing is -- when she's ripe, I'll strap it on her without reservation. Not before, no matter how long it takes, or how many years she has put in. And in my pea-little brain, she'll be a lot better fighting artist when she finally straps on that 1st, than she ever would have been strapping on a dance choreographers 3rd, 4th, or even 5th.
D.
