Black Belt Factories

[Bill Pensy]

I understand that Martial Arts School are businesses and people pay good money to learn your art, but I think there are far too many schools out there that give black belts to anyone just because their Kata's are pretty or their check is good. I have met a lot of black belts that can not use their art for what it was intended, to protect them and their family's. When an average Joe off the streets can beat up a trained black belt there is a problem!
I know it's too much to ask for these people to spend at least a little time trying to learn how to apply their art and not just look good at a "competition". Point sparring is not real fighting and if you try to apply point sparring in a real life situation you will get hurt.. Also the point of Kata's are to introduce new techniques to you and demonstrate their use not to win trophies.
Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am just one minded and can not see the whole picture. Someone Please Let me know if I am alone on my thoughts....

[Anesti Vega]

I understand the point you are trying to relay and agree with your disgust of cookie cutter schools, however...

"When an average Joe off the streets can beat up a trained black belt there is a problem!"

If you feel the point of having a black belt is so that you can take on an average Joe off the street, then you have veered off the path of a true warrior my friend.

Also, "factories" is how it is spelled when you pluralize factory.

[Bill Pensy]

No the point was that if you are confronted by someone who has no training and can not defend yourself then there is a problem. That's all, not sugesting getting into fights with people for no reason....

Anesti Vega said:

I understand the point you are trying to relay and agree with your disgust of cookie cutter schools, however...

"When an average Joe off the streets can beat up a trained black belt there is a problem!"

If you feel the point of having a black belt is so that you can take on an average Joe off the street, then you have veered off the path of a true warrior my friend.

Also, "factories" is how it is spelled when you pluralize factory.

[Paul Coleman]

I have seen this time and again. Though people take martial arts for different reasons, I will admit that black belts are being thrown around. There was one school I used to go to in my town, and the instructor first told me "It takes AT LEAST 5 years for a person to earn their black belt". Though I was kicked out, I noticed that one of his students that started after me (I started in 2005) had a black belt, as well as some of his other students. I went to a tournament last year and saw his school participate, and many of his black belts were quite sloppy in their technique (they were making mistakes I hardly make, and I'm technically only a yellow belt). Then, to top that off, the instructor would argue with the judges if one of his students lost their sparring match, sloppy as they were, and were very discourteous to people who had traveled from Colorado to participate (I live in New Mexico).

So yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

[Carlos A. Morales, Jr.]

A Martial Arts school has to be a school first and a business second! The belt around the person's waist shouldn't be for show but to hold the gi together. It can also have many more meanings personally, but in the real world, doesn't mean much. The person wearing the belt is what is important. Has he/she been training to their capacity? Have they simply trained their muscles to kick and punch or taught themselves the importance of not kicking and punching? A great way to think about this is to remember the old classic, "The Karate Kid" where Mr. Myagi (don't know how to spell that) registers Daniel-Son for a tournament and says he's a Black Belt. (Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmwR94DFEes, it's at around 7 mins.) When the person is well trained, they neither worry about their belt or what color it is, just how well they train in the Martial Arts. My sister is a Green Belt and mentioned to me that she wants to start getting ready for a promotion. I told her that I thought that was great news but that it would be a while since I honestly don't see her ready for a Purple Belt. We are here to produce Martial Artists, not belts and certificates that don't mean a thing. Sorry for the rambling, its late.

[Jason Hedrick]

Well, being a school owner myself. I have to say you are backwards. Unfortunately the nature of the beast means, it has to be a business first, and a dojo second. Without it being a business there would be no dojo.
Now I do agree with you that its about how well you train. My students know that I have very high expectations and promotion only happens when it happens. I do not believe in formal rank tests. I promote when and only when the student is ready. I test them in the course of a normal class, usually they do not realize they are being tested, and because of this I do not charge testing fees. The only formal test I have, is for Dan grading because I have my sensei come in and do the test, not myself, this way it is unbiased.

[Michael Ray]

Definately not alone! I believe that too many people are awarded for showing up and learning moves. In my particular Style Ving Tsun, Their are no belts you progress by learning how to fight. You judge someones
progress and how good they are by What form they have mastered because in this particular martial art there are only three open hand forms but they are so difficult and detailed that we recognize where others are because we have been there. We fight free sparring and some lineages with points. after the three main forms it is required to fight even in between forms, for some lineages mine one of them. I think less emphisis should be placed on a piece of cloth and more on real in combat skill. That is what matters anyway!

[Stacy Hall]

Oh Heck No Your Not Alone. Yes there are a lot of School,Kwoons and Gyms that teach openly to any and all. But there should not be any diffrents between how they learned and how Real Martial Artists Learn. The same Principles we learned with the same philosophy we all structured our selves to learn to express our selves, Not with the art but threw the Art! To me a Black Belt is just a Sign of the End of the Beginning. In Jeet Kune Do and Wing Chun, no there ain't Belts Period, But even if there where, So what! it's not the belt that makes the Man/Woman, but the Man/Woman that makes the Belt. If you have one. Then that means you should know more then any body How to Move, Strike, Breath and Fight, Not show you know a few moves then say Hey I'm a Pro!

[Abraham Hardy]

No you are not alone on your thoughts. I am of hybrid martial arts background and i focus on self defense / preservation with any type of sport comming as an afterthought. To me, my arts are Warrior arts hence arts used for "war" or combat. Self protection comes first and foremost and if someon is studying a combat form that does not address this, then exactly what are thay studying ? I ahve trained in street arts as well as sport ones. I am not a competitive fighter, but grew up in the streets defending myself with what i know, hence me being a self defense specialist.
With the belt factory schools, they destroy the martial arts and wreck their reputation for purposes of profit. i am a buisnessman and have college education in buisness. I aim to open my own school soon too. But i will not sacrefice the qaulity of what i teach to make a few dollars, and no one else should either. When the next generation is taught, they pass on what the forebearers taught. Either there will be gradual improvement each generation, or if you teach a watered down product, it will become weaker each generation it is passed down to. In the end, there will always be those whom teach the truth and those who are out for profit. And it will show in the technique and quality of the student and the school.

[Michael Wagner]

I always thought it was funny that when I got to start sparring in TKD I always challenged the black belts. My thought was, they should be better then me, therefore by sparring with them, I will get better. There were only 4 blackbelts who could beat me on a regular basis out of 30. Of those 4, only 1 of them really mattered as the other 3 were only able to beat me because of the rules we had to follow. TKD sparring (when not for points) is simply a test of strength. The stronger person will win. I was simply way stronger then most of my opponents in that school. And I think of myself as weak in the world of true martial arts. The kung-fu school I was in, I was unable to even touch the higher ranking students. I really wish that school was still open locally. I have to drive to Morganton, NC to attend this school now which is about a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive for me coming from Charlotte. I have lost points for applying kungfu techniques in a TKD sparring match. The technique was to absorb a kick with my belly and then hip thrust forward to knock my opponent off balance and come in for the strike. I was called out as soon as my opponents foot and my belly made contact with eachother because my school mates could not understand absorbing a blow. All the understood was blocking.

Forms do have there place, as does board breaking, however, if you can not combine the power required to break a board into the sparring or fighting, then there really is no point.

[Eldrige Holloway]

I agree with most of the comments you made here. You are right to a certain extent about point fighting, however the same tehniques that are learned and used can be applied in the street. The practitioner has to be mature enough to know the difference in applying the techniques in the street verses in tournament competition.

When you are in a life or death situation the muscle memory developed from your training must kick in and if it does depending on the factors involved in the situation, ie. weapons, multiple attackers and location, the average martial artist should be able to size up the situation. The idea is to get away and live to fight another day. Most fights in the street will be over in 5 to 10 minutes and there is no such thing as a fair fight. We try to keep our students informed about these key points when sizing up a situation. Another key factor is explaining how to apply the techniques that students pratice in thier forms during and altercation.

[Tonya Davis-Miller]

I think I know what you are meaning here. The schools I looked at in North Carolina were all geared toward teaching children and while they called it self defense, they didn't really teach any of that aspect of it, just forms. While I love Kata, I think there should be more of a history lesson in the teaching. Where has the form come from, why are we doing it, how does it help you with your mental, as well as physical, well-being? I'm actually taking a college course in martial arts right now that is doing a lot of the mental portion that I really missed out on in the first martial arts classes I was taking in North Carolina. I'm loving it! I really can't wait to move to a larger city where there is a real Dojo where I can learn the true form instead of the watered down version I got before.