Keep the faith, train hard, train consistantly, and care about the quality of your training. Just being there every day is not enough. ... or is it?
It is if you are there say 3,520 days, every day, and still refuse to test for Black. Maybe you have a home, but it is not the right home for you. Realize, I literally mean 10 years.
I know some really fine Brown Belts who will never strap on a Black. They have the ability, skills, attitude, are excellent teachers, but refuse the next step. They just can't see themselves in a Black Belt. These guys would never demean or ask the value of a Black Belt, or questions it's value the way some people have to. Rather they set standards for themselves totally unobtainable by anyones standards. They have been weighed, they have been measured, and they found themselves wanting (A Knight's Tale.) But the rest of us consider them some of the Blackest Brown Belts in the world, who should have been Black years ago. A couple I know are at 15 or more years of training. They for sure don't get why people think they have to have a Black in 4 years or 5. I don't either sometimes.
All instructors know there are plateaus when we risk losing, and do lose students. Orange Belt is a common one, as is Green. Then there is the Browns who are happy where they are. Another level is Shodan, or 1st Black. That was the goal, they got it, they move on. Some move "well" some don't. But what does it matter? You stay long enough, train hard enough, have the right teacher, and you will learn how to flow, rip, tear, and explode, with a relaxed power that is amazing to others. Just perserver, with the right teacher.
It comes when it comes and rank does not have anything to do with it, or it does not have to.
Oss,
-Michael
Kenpo-Texas.com
It is if you are there say 3,520 days, every day, and still refuse to test for Black. Maybe you have a home, but it is not the right home for you. Realize, I literally mean 10 years.
I know some really fine Brown Belts who will never strap on a Black. They have the ability, skills, attitude, are excellent teachers, but refuse the next step. They just can't see themselves in a Black Belt. These guys would never demean or ask the value of a Black Belt, or questions it's value the way some people have to. Rather they set standards for themselves totally unobtainable by anyones standards. They have been weighed, they have been measured, and they found themselves wanting (A Knight's Tale.) But the rest of us consider them some of the Blackest Brown Belts in the world, who should have been Black years ago. A couple I know are at 15 or more years of training. They for sure don't get why people think they have to have a Black in 4 years or 5. I don't either sometimes.
All instructors know there are plateaus when we risk losing, and do lose students. Orange Belt is a common one, as is Green. Then there is the Browns who are happy where they are. Another level is Shodan, or 1st Black. That was the goal, they got it, they move on. Some move "well" some don't. But what does it matter? You stay long enough, train hard enough, have the right teacher, and you will learn how to flow, rip, tear, and explode, with a relaxed power that is amazing to others. Just perserver, with the right teacher.
It comes when it comes and rank does not have anything to do with it, or it does not have to.
Oss,
-Michael
Kenpo-Texas.com