TKD/HKD - Childs Play

[SmellyMonkey]

As we can see, if you ask 20 martial artists from difference schools what a black belt "means", you will get 20 different answers. If you ask 20 martial artists from the same school what a black belt "means", you may get 15 different answers.

So how can we apply meaning to something that nobody agrees on?

I bet that in the past, people didn't care so much about what a black belt meant. The only thing that mattered is if you survived a battle. Therefore, you didn't train to obtain a pretty belt. You trained to survive. If you beat your opponent, you were deemed the better fighter (for obvious reason). Therefore, the martial artists who survived to old age had to be the best fighters.

In today's world, most martial artists never enter life-or-death struggle with another martial artist. Therefore, the way we determine our skill in "battle" is to be given a belt of different colors and stripes.

I personally don't believe belts and stripes matter. Does this mean I believe we should all fight to the death to prove our skills? Of course not. I believe we should train for the love of the art and forget silly things such as belts. A 5th degree dan martial artist who trains 20 years gains more of my respect than a 9th degree grandmaster who has trained 15. Also, a 2nd degree martial artist who has trained 15 years and is a great teacher gains more of my respect than a 5th degree martial artist who trained 20 years and is a poor teacher.

My two cents...

 

[kwanjang]

A 5th degree dan martial artist who trains 20 years gains more of my respect than a 9th degree grandmaster who has trained 15. My two cents...

Right you are. I think we can safely assume that the 9th dahn will have trouble "selling" us on the idea s/he has earned the rank

 

[Han-Mi]

Dear Folks:

I was musing to myself over this string when I happened to remember a comment made some time back regarding a child prodigy who at a very tender age was graduating college. Despite the accomplishment on a technical level, a number of folks voiced concerns that the young graduate was not actually a college grad in the full sense of the word. The reason given was that though he had used is enormous intellectual ability to pass the classes he was too young to avail himself of the interpersonal and social development of the college environment. I believe that the same can be said of many of the pre-mature promotions in the KMA. Becoming a BB carries with it responsibilities to the community and ones peers beyond being able to do an acrobatic kick or well-timed throw. If a person is not able to meet the demands that dedication to a particular value system entails seems to be that person is just playing "dress-up". FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

Well said, good analogy.

 

[bignick]

to bring the perspective back to it being about child's play...there's a korean that started training at our club at the college...i was having a talk with him..he wears a white belt but i found out he earned a black belt as a kid...he said almost every kid does it...but once they hit high school....most quit...too much time taken up by schoolwork...he said the normal schedule for him was...school, eat, homework, sleep
no time for anything else

he also said that the only adults that practice are the ones that do it for a living...there are no casual twice a weekers...that compose the majority of practitioners in the u.s.

 

[glad2bhere]

I would like to put a word in for what I call are the "in-betweeners", then. On the one hand we certainly have the folks who make class maybe once or twice a week. On the other hand we have people who run a school and train and teach almost 7 days a week. What about the people who train as an avocation--- a hobby? By this I mean they train maybe three or four times a week--- perhaps an hour a day. When not actually in class they are mulling over this move or than move, sorta like the way a golfer will muse over a swing, or a bowler will consider a particular approach on the alley. They follow various competitions, and keep up on whats happening in the chat rooms and in the press. They are constantly picking up odd bits and adding them to what they know or comparing--- looking for clues to make their skills better. They have their day-job, and their family, and their kids and other responsibilities, but they are often musing over martial themes the way some people chew-over baseball scores or football stats. Aren't there folks like this in Korea? Is there a place for these folks in the MA community? Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce