Ok, I sit here before you trying to get my ying and yang in balance with a sapporo. What have i learned....School x is the only one capable of producing true black belts, as they specialize in MDK, full contact, no hold back training and the right physiological age. Hmmm.
Credentials. Never mind that belt colors are purely symbolic and made up. I know, you got your belt through blah, blah, blah. I have seen and heard enough "old school gm" types or to have heard of them to know that you are not being taught super secret knowledge that no one else has studied or envisioned. I also know and realize that the belt has not somehow bestowed upon you nobility, wisdom or some super hero power. You needn't go far to hear about some story of GM abuse, corruption or what have you. Martial arts did not teach me to be a better person...strangely my parents had a hand in that and as i grew into adulthood i made some good and bad choices but i can't say that i ever sat with a life problem thinking about what my instructor would have me do. I dare say that there are some kids who have more sense than some adults so, once again, age requirements and poom/dan are just artificial markers which are general and do not hold true for all. Remember, you can be a poom one day and submit your fee to be a black belt when you pass that magic age. granted the KKW website lists the fee in korean currency so you would have to figure out the conversion but again, some adults might be challenged in doing that.
Please understand, i am not diminishing what a "black belt" or an instructor can do or does. The reality is that if you know what you are doing, you can make it look easy. Never mind the years of study and practice to get there. Are you able to convey your knowledge and ability...that varies. Again, simply being older does not make you able. the reality is though, that the student may not be able to take the "teacher" seriously if he is too young or looks it but again, that speaks less of the teacher and more of the student.
I have a friend who does gung fu and for his system, they don't use belts for rank, etc. After his years of being in the martials arts realm, he has found that some use the belt symbol to beat their chests about how great they are or as a convenient marketing ploy for their dojang and their belt mill. I learned a long time ago that whether they are a colored belt or a black to the nth degree it means nothing. the proof is in the pudding. what can they teach, how well can they teach it, how well can they do it, etc. I have seen some pretty amazing low belts that could teach some people a thing or two...or, quite frankly, should be admired for their plain ability.
Regarding training hard, not holding back, etc. Please. Unless your students are maimed or called left eye, for a reason, everyone is holding back in their school. In simplest terms it is all a sport because you have limits, rules, your holding back, you are working within a framework (holding back because they are young, old, a low belt, your friend, etc). This would hold true whether you are a white or a black belt. To not acknowledge this i would have to say your belt is on too tight. The reality is, if no one ever held back and your students could deal with it, take it, dish it back with no real long term injury, then they don't need you and you are not teaching anything of value. The flip side is that maybe despite your own beliefs, your training is really not that hard or as demanding as you would like to think if your students are not maimed, as would tend to happen with a no holds barred approach.
Regarding competition. Do i sit and practice with bob, whose moves i can predict because i have done whatever drill with him a 1000 times or do i move into the realm of the unknown with a new partner. For me, you can sit in your own school, proclaim that you don't compete because its for wussies -- which may be your belief and possibly true. You know what though, i may want to take this car out for a spin and see if its a ferrari (like my instructor tells me) or a ford focus. I really don't see why you can't do both. I can't tell you how many times i have seen people practice in theory and thought wow, only to see these same people choke or be unable to pull it off in a competition. To me, you can say what you want but a competion is a controlled environment and if you cannot pull it off there, all your chest banging about being a true black belt is for nothing. You may have then sold someone a false sense of security.
Regarding ability. I have seen some really sad black belts through the years. People who can't kick a ball, let alone someone, to save their life. However, when you see true ability, with speed and power that few could contend with. To see that in a competition is truely spectacular. That is a chess game with a true athelete and ability. I would speculate that many who consider themselves true black belts would probably not survive the cardio demands of sparring one competitor for the required rounds, let alone going up the brackets to a possible gold. Cardio aside, when you see some real ability, i would also guess that many true black belts on this forum as readers or posters would be knocked out before their egos could stop or counter the blow. Yes, i know, you could have been in the olympics, MMA or whatever but you were teaching that night.
What is it about martial arts that makes a lot of people think that they are the true ones, the chosen ones, the only real ones. You know, if we were talking about anything else...say higher education in english, mathematics, physics many of these same chest beating types would be easily rocked out of their delusions. The difference here is that there are different teachers, different organizations (wtf, itf) and the ability for every yahoo to proclaim himself as a martial arts messiah or having learned from the one true messiah. If you were involved in any other field or hobby, many of these same messiahs would just be that wacky neighbor bob that no one talks to and has not otherwise distinguished himself from the hundreds or millions in his city.
With that said, my name is bones and i am a tkd addict.
