Black Belt Standards

[Mike Oliver]

Tom Callos recently posted this essay on raising the standards of the black belt within the martial arts "industry" and I thought it was very applicable to what we are doing here at our school.

The white belt starts here ---- and here is 1st degree black belt.

The time between those two ranks, in my opinion, should be 4 to 8 years.

I don’t believe there is a valid reason to award students a black belt until they’ve been seasoned with enough repetition and experience to do the rank justice. While there are many fine black belts in the world, there’s also an army of students who have earned that rank that hardly represent the technical, attitudinal, emotional, or educational standards the martial arts community has the capability to pass on.

If an automobile manufacture, for example, turned out 1000 cars, of which 50-percent were shining examples of their product --and the other half flawed, they would not stay in business. The martial arts community has done serious damage to the rank of black belt by steadily lowering its standards to the point where we have 6, 9, 10, and 12-year old black belts who not only can just barely, if at all, execute their technique with any substantial authority or expertise, but who have no training whatsoever in any number of subjects that relate to self-defense, to spiritual or emotional training, or any of a hundred other things we could and should ask and expect of someone who represents the rank. There are just as many adults earning the rank of black belt who don’t genuinely represent our potential as teachers.

Are we awarding black belts to people so that they won’t quit paying for our lessons? Are we awarding black belts because the “school down the street is, and if I don’t offer it, I’ll lose students?” Are we awarding black belts because we lack the creativity or leadership skills to create viable alternatives? Are we awarding black belts because “the industry” has promoted a sales/marketing tool where we sell “black belt club memberships,” and we now have commercialized ourselves into compliance with that idea?

In my travels, I would estimate that about 50-percent of the 1st degree black belts I have met represent the rank with some degree of noteworthy skill. The other half do not --and in fact, a good number of that 50-percent are tragic examples of a lowering of standards for the rank that I consider completely unacceptable. The good news is we can do something about the problem.

Just as we (the “industry” in general) have let our standards erode, so too can we begin to raise them. Here are some of my suggestions on how we might do that:

• Fitness is a prerequisite for earning a black belt. We cannot allow students of any age to pass to the level of black belt without being remarkably fit. What “fit” is can be determined by health-care and fitness professionals, but the bottom line is that the training to black belt should “boot camp” our students to a level of fitness that sets an example for what “fitness” is. In addition, black belts of all ages should be taught about all the basics of diet, training, and fitness so that they know the how, why, what, and when of being physically healthy. When I walk into a martial arts school, I expect the upper ranks to be role models of fitness, of lean muscle mass, of sensible dietary habits, and of all the other essentials of fitness. Most of the top killers of adults in the western world are related to diet and exercise, so there is no reason we should, as a community, not be deeply engaged in the “business” of turning out black belts who are fit --and who KNOW what fitness is.

• Every student should have training in anger management, non-violent conflict resolution, and peace education. In today’s world, the teacher needn’t be an expert in any of these subjects, he or she simply has to know how to bring the experts into the discussion. Even if the topics were covered in short 4-week sessions and delivered on the Web, it would be far more than we provide today. In addition, every black belt, regardless of age, should be taken through basic educational courses in issues relating to prejudice and bigotry, bullying, patriarchy and women's issues, date-rape issues, basic self-defense, domestic violence, suicide, diabetes education, environmental self-defense, hyper-masculinity, and truth in media. The respect we would earn from embracing “self-defense” from this perspective --and the help we would provide to “the village” of people in our communities working to raise competent and educated adults, would earn us a new and more valuable “role” in the world.

• Every student who graduates to the rank of black belt should bring with them a “Project Portfolio” of between 50 and 100 community-based projects that represent their work outside of the dojo. The concept is defined as taking their martial arts “out of the dojo and into the world.” While this is a radical departure from the status quo of today, it would create an explosive revolution in methodology, in the actual evidence available that the martial arts are not “just” about kicking, punching, and grappling, and a radical leap in the skills black belts would have to develop on their journey from novice to expert.

I am deeply involved in the redesign of the role of the Master Teacher of the Martial Arts --and the martial arts school --in today’s world. To learn more about this work, visit www.tomcallos.com --and/or phone me at 530-903-0286.