In Martial Arts Is The Ultimate Goal To Get Your Black Belt?
There have been so many time that I’ve seen people go into the arts with one thing on their mind, how long will it be until I get my black belt. As if that’s the only reason to do the martial arts is to gain your black belt. I’ve also seen clubs and instructors do things like change their name to a black belt academy, advertise ‘gain your black belt in a year, heck, I belonged to one that did!
Personally I don’t agree with this approach, don’t take this the wrong way achieving your Black Belt is huge, it’s a massive personal achievement. Even that is not totally correct, it’s not just a big achievement for you the student, if your instructor has been working with you closely for those years it takes and has an interest in your development then it is also a big achievement for them. Watching my students gain their black belt have been some of the proudest moments of my life. However if you treat your training right then it becomes a by product of your ongoing development.
If you start your martial arts training right, with a good instructor, then you start to learn the basic principles of your art, start to understand body mechanics then put your own twist on to things, put your own stamp on your technique. It’s at this point you are starting to understand what you are doing more, it’s part of the development cycle. Somewhere in there you move up the grades, one of those is your Black Belt, It’s another stage that’s all really. I remember myself, going for that white belt grading, and the feeling was just the same as when I prepared to go for my black belt grading, you still had the butterflies in your stomach as you prepared to start.
In many ways you only actually start to really learn your chosen art after your Black Belt, up until then there is always thoughts of Grading, even if you do want to focus on your training then gradings are always there niggling away in the back somewhere. After the Black Belt, then the pressure really is off, you can go back to the beginning and start to break it all down again from the start, using the knowledge you have aquired since your first steps through the door to delve into the inner workings of your first moves.
That’s were it takes real committment, a real desire to better yourself, but all too often that’s when people feel they’ve got there and quit….Why? Or worse, develop a know it all attitude!
From the Instructors point of view, are these fast track Black Belts and Black Belt Academy’s valid? Are they money making schemes? Will the person who passes their Black Belt in a short period of time know the same as someone else who takes their time and understands the principles, rather than just doing the steps requires – simply because they are told to?
I’ve got to say a black belt academy, I don’t have a problem with, if someone has that goal then let’s help them to achieve it, so long as they are doing it for the right reasons anyway. How can fast track black belts mean the same to you as if you had put in years of training to achieve it, how can you develop that inner understanding, both of yourself and your art that can only come with time? How can you stand up there in front of a class, teaching, answering questions when you yourself have only been learning the art for a very short period of time? People devote their lives, and years and years to studying these things and don’t know it all, I certainly don’t and I’ve only been doing it for a fraction of the time of some people.
So in summary, the black belt is a big thing, but it’s not everything!