I feel like if somebody calls themselves a 10th dan and is just some guy teaching a school, it's usually BS. There's one guy around here that made himself 10th (or maybe it was 11th?!) Dan Grandmaster of a martial arts style that he made up himself.... that he teaches 2 nights a week at a community center. :lol:
WTF 7th Dan?
- Thread starter Earl Weiss
- Start date
I feel like if somebody calls themselves a 10th dan and is just some guy teaching a school, it's usually BS. There's one guy around here that made himself 10th (or maybe it was 11th?!) Dan Grandmaster of a martial arts style that he made up himself.... that he teaches 2 nights a week at a community center. :lol:
In many regards, unfortunately, that isn't a lot different than what some of our seniors have done in the past. And in some cases, are still doing. Technically speaking, if he created the system then he could consider himself a 10th Dan in it. Whether or not it is the right move can be debated. A lot would depend on how old he is, how long he's actually trained and what he has to offer and of course if it will stand the test of time. We had a good discussion on this here around ten years ago or so. No martial art is 'pure'. What I mean is that all martial arts come from something before it, usually a combination of arts influenced by the particular 'creator'. And many martial arts are less than 100 years old. Somebody, at some point had to start the art in question. So they have limited choices if they are going to use a Dan rank structure. One is to declare themselves a 10th Dan (or whatever the highest is in their system). Is this wrong? Well, if it is then a lot of martial arts seniors/creators have some explaining to do. Simply put, there is a plethora of martial arts precedent already set for doing this. Second choice, have a group of peers in related martial arts rank and/or recognize you at that level. Again, this has martial precedence. Some purists will claim you can't get rank from those outside of your art. But they don't have a leg to stand on since there are no hard and fast universal rules. Thirdly, take your highest earned traditional rank and use it as a cross over to the new system and then advance from there, even if your ranking yourself at specific TIG junctures.
It's all fluff really and the determining factors are; do you have something of value to teach that people will benefit from? Do you have the ability to teach it? Is it usable for the intended purpose i.e. if it is a martial art designed for self-defense...will it work on a violent, non-compliant and aggressive attacker in a real world setting? If the answer to those questions are 'yes', then for all I care you can call yourself a 30th Dan. It's the schmucks that self-promote at the airport, or get rank due to ethnic favoritism or those that suck up to them for rank that are just in it for the money that I can't stand.
