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Blackbelt is certainly a notable accomplishment but it's not an end or something you hold on a pedestal. Different arts have different grading system which makes not all belts the same either.
The black belt is a symbol of maturity, skill and strength, but mostly nowadays it symbolizes having knowledge of the very basics.
I agree with this. When I first started I thought that earning an "entry level" BB symbolized that I had achieved my ultimate goal. I see now that it will mean I have a good grasp of the basics.
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"Only by making our beliefs into a living faith which guides us from day-to-day can we maintain the moral strength to overcome the obstacles and hardships which lie ahead." --- E. Turner
The common situation, almost an infinitive amount of punches, kicks, form practicing, belt promotion, tournaments, and finally, the coveted black belt. Maybe a dan (degree) or two added to that same black belt. Two questions of a dilemma; How to maintain the desire of martial art training after obtaining the rank of black belt? What more can one achieve in order to continue training? Something happens to a martial art practitioner that deep embedded in their mind is the only foreseen goal-the black belt. The practitioner did not come to fully realize the art of the martial arts. The common motivation is to obtain that coveted black belt rank and certification. In the same analogy as a high-school diploma, the teenage scholastic student is anxious to get that diploma in order to retire from the arduous procedures from learning and study. Some of these students (as martial artist-black belters) will realize the need for further education, and go on to college (dans-degrees of black belt). After graduation from college, the student will start their career practices.
For a martial art practitioner, teaching is the next level after the accumulation of a few dans (degrees). From teaching, it is not realized from the common black belter, which different abilities will surface. Such as: a clearer understanding of a particular move or technique. People have come to a crossroad that their instructors had not prepared them for: continued martial art practice. This was not a preparation that an instructor had also been trained in. One of the points of this preparation is that a martial art instructor should have knowledge of other martial art systems, styles or studies. Maybe not on their actual physical practice, but at the very least of that from a scholarly approach. In other words: the acknowledgement of the very existence of other systems or styles and their fundamental methods.
If this were presented to students, especially black belt candidates or black belters, the motivation of continued study would become that of curiosity of other martial arts. Then again, some study as a part of peer pressure, remote curiousity, and strange tangent notions. Some realise it is too much work or effort and lke a hobby, drop it to go onto other things of interests.
I'm somewhat against belts, for one they were based off english prep-school jakets to prove grade. I know first dans who can tear apart some higher grades simply because they stopped learning at one belt and kept training on their own.
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My Personal Mantra:
Where I walk, I walk alone...
Given unto the winds, I am free...
And yet a slave to my own soul...
I'm somewhat against belts, for one they were based off english prep-school jakets to prove grade. I know first dans who can tear apart some higher grades simply because they stopped learning at one belt and kept training on their own.
sure about that?
training on their own after 1st dan is almost like training at school with 1st dan. why not do both?
I quit grading after red belt (my styles equivelant of a black belt) in Silat but still continued to attend classes. If I wanted to grade higher, then I had to give up training in other martial arts. Fortunately for me, Silat had system whereby you could learn techniques for higher up levels or even from other styles through the favour of your teacher, a "gift technique". Also, my school had become a belt factory and I no longer saw belt rank as being very significant. It took me close to four years of training 6 days to get my red belt but now you train for two days a week for two years and BAM you're a red belt. The other styles I've practiced had no belt systems, you were taught what the instructors believed you could understand.
black belt then quit?
I'll Still Kill!
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