Black Belts & Teaching in Martial Arts

                Yesterday I read an essay on another blog and thought that the author, Aric A. Gibson, a practitioner of Cooper Ryu Vee Jitsu, was on to something.  He entitled his essay “Martial Arts: Myths and Etiquette”.  He wrote in part:

>The Black Belt

>    There is a certain amount of mysticism in the black belt.  The general public assigns the >symbolism of a black belt to mean “expert.”  I think most martial artists would agree, however, >that this just is not the case.  Some students beginning martial arts practice look at the attainment >of the rank of shodan as the end of a journey.  Quite contrary, earning the rank of shodan, or 1st >degree black belt, is the beginning of the journey.  Be earning this rank, it has been recognized that >you are competent enough in the basics of your art to begin “real” learning.  The analogy of >mudansha rank being like >undergraduate studies in college and yudansha rank as graduate >studies was offered by a sensei many years ago and has stuck with me.  To quote author and budo >man Dave Lowry, “In other words, the black belt is a sign that you have walked through the door >and little else.  You are not an expert.  Not a teacher.  You are not even someone who can >adequately represent the art.  The belt means you have stuck it out long enough to warrant some >serious consideration as a student, period.”  Keeping that idea in mind lends to the virtue of >humility that >has come to be associated with traditional martial arts.

                I’m interested in knowing what others associated with this blog are thinking in regard to the ideas that Mr. Gibson has written?   Since I have not been part of a traditional martial arts system I can’t comment authoritatively on the idea that Shodans / 1^st degree black belts are not teachers.   My own impression is that Mr. Gibson and Mr. Lowry are correct based on my own observations of various people who have earned black belts in a number of martial arts systems.  In fact I would suggest that the problem is not confined to just traditional martial arts systems.  During my 30 years of training in Modern Arnis I have known only one teacher who opted to teach his students how to teach while they were still underbelts – my own teacher, Sifu Don Zanghi.  It appears to me that most martial arts students regardless of system or style they are learning are not given any sort of formal, organized instruction in the art of teaching.  Those students who do go on to open their own schools merely mimic the lessons as taught by their instructors.  These people are engaged in ‘on the job training’ within their own schools. 

                When I was studying Kenpo-Arnis under Sifu Don Zanghi, I was assigned the task of “showing” new or younger students various aspects of the basics on a one to one basis from orange belt through green belt.  These were the 2^nd and 3^rd belt colors in the Kenpo-Arnis System.  The term “show” was used by Sifu Zanghi when made the assignment.  I should also point out that I was already an experienced professional teacher when I joined his school, “Fight Back Institute”, so taking on a coaching assignment as soon as I finished my white belt wasn’t too difficult.  On the other hand, that early coaching experience reinforced my understanding of the basics and sharpened my skills as a teacher in both the martial arts as well as sociology.  In turn I’ve used Sifu Zanghi’s  method with my own Kenpo-Arnis students. Having the students coaching one on one, two on one and still later four on one, the coaches learn the basics in depth themselves as they learn through guided experience how to teach.

                Mr. Gibson’s essay is very interesting to me and I hope that everyone will share their ideas and experiences with regard to teaching with us.

Sincerely,

Jerome Barber, Ed. D.

Collecting Titles and a lot of ’staged dialogue'

           

The following essay has been a long time in the making.  Then genisis was actually a year ago when several friends and I attended a weekend arnis camp in Washington, DC.  We got into a conversation with a couple of people over lunch and the topic drifted into awards, titles and rank inflation in the FMA.  As we talked a couple of names came up and comments were made that got me thinking about the Sokeship Council and a particular internet forum which featured a number of threads that were less than flattering to that organization.  The conversation continued after I got back home and I made upo my mind that I would attend the next gathering of the sokeship group.  As discussed below, I did attend the gathering this summer.  My friends have been after me to follow-up my visit and publish my observations which I have done and present below. 

Over the weekend of, June 1st and 2nd, I had an opportunity to attend the World Head of Family Sokeship Council’s annual awards celebration.  The key word here is “celebration”!  The feeling and mood running throughout the weekend regardless of whom I met or just by watching others, was that of a celebration among friends and family.  Everywhere I went throughout the weekend, people were celebrating.  They were happy, they were laughing, they were talking, and hugging, shaking hands, smiling and catching up with one another as they greeted old friends and made new ones.

The seminars and demonstrations were spot-on beautiful, informative and instructional without being rigid, mirthless formalities, devoid of imagination.  There wasn’t a dud among the 15 or so seminars that I attended.  The Sokeship gathering is really a grand place to see the “world of martial arts” for the most part.  Of course the obvious truth is that not every martial art style in existence was represented, however I doubt that any program could make such a claim and it really is not all that important as far as I am concerned.  This essay is about who was there and what they accomplished.  The Eastern or Oriental martial arts were well represented in the general categories of karate, kung fu, kenpo, ju-jitsu, aikido, hapkido, aiki-jitsu, judo and arnis.  Given the diversity represented in the various arts, one can easily imagine that there could be some tensions generated among some of the participants.  It didn’t happen.  Everyone was very mellow and highly supportive of one another.  I believe that the diplomats at the U. N. could have used the Sokeship meeting as a role model on how to get along with others who have a different approach and ideas.   Black, white, yellow and brown got along and really  got down with one another.  It’s too bad that the political parties in Washington can’t do as well as the Sokeship membership.

I‘m posting this essay because I recently learned that someone who has trashed the Sokeship Council and the entire concept has recently accepted yet another Hall of Fame induction and I find that person’s behavior to be contemptible and highly misleading.  In the past I had come across some negative statements made by people when the issue of the Sokeship council came up, particularly in relationship to the FMA.  A good deal of this negativity is tied to the idea that the word “soke” is a Japanese term and some folks deem the word to be inappropriate for use within a FMA context.  The general gist of these nay-sayers is that the Sokeship idea is simply a way for less qualified and under-skilled martial artists to artificially boost their credentials without having the physical means to support their title claims.  For example, I read one statement that said:

“04-24-2005, 10:56 AM – Poster #1

In Tang Soo Do, it takes 5 years to reach chodan. 2 more years to reach Eedan. 3 more for samdan...ect. Eighth dan is the highest rank in TSD and I know of only a handfull of people who can claim this. As far as I know, this ranking structure seems to be prevelent among many other martial arts.

With this being said, if you add up the minimum time requirements to reach this highest of rank it equates to a minimum of 40 years of hard training. Therefore, I expect to see an old man claiming such a rank.

Some of these "soke" don't look too much older then me (I'm 28 and I came across a few that were 35-40 max). Moreover, they are claiming rank that if actually earned, it would take hundreds of years to accomplish. This is rediculous. Even if you take cross training into account, these claims are impossible.

                I’ve edited out several paragraphs that restate the same essential point, that the Sokeship concept is  a fraud being perpetrated on the American martial arts community by people who have not earned their ranks through training time in the arts nor have they acquired the requisite skills to support their title or rank claims.  I also omitted the screen-name the author used on the forum, since the site operator does not require posters to use their given names.

                Another writer posted the following comment which again raises questions about honesty, training and skill development:

“04-24-2005, 10:57 AM – Poster #2

Well I really don't think this is about Japan at all. Yes, I have ended up living in Japan and studying here because of my drive to improve myself. But I have also flown back to the states to train with American martial artists who have actually faced knife attacks multiple times- which is rare in Japan.

This is a very good point. There's wisdom and experience--experience from training, and from fighting--to be had wherever you go. Training in the States probably has some advantages, as does training in Japan--or rather, it makes sense to keep your eyes open and learn wherever and whenever you can. I'm sure there are places in Japan where you could get that kind of experience too; and I know there are excellent, traditional martial artists here.  It's not about Japan. It's about authenticity and honesty.”

                As a young martial artist and someone whose father was “badly burned” by a martial arts instructor after putting in and paying for 11 years of training at this particular dojo.  I was somewhat inclined to read comments like those cited above more favorably and less objectively than I should have.  In addition I had an added piece of information that the above posters probably didn’t because my dad’s instructor was a certified member of the Sokeship Council with the designation, “Head of Family”.  My dad had helped his instructor by teaching (for free) the new beginning students the basics of the system for 8 years.  His negative experiences at the hands of his instructor were so serious and painful that he never allowed me to join a martial arts school during my high schools years, even though I had several close friends training in karate.  I started my formal karate training in college through the campus karate club program.  The cost of the instruction was nominal and took place in the basement of my dorm.  I had gotten some previous training under my dad and an uncle for 3 years during high school so that I could keep up with my friends.  No teenager likes being out of the loop and dad recognized that reality, but was totally adamant that I was not going to become a dojo student, particularly at his former school or under his former instructor.  The whole formal martial arts package for my dad centered on disloyalty, disrespect, inflated rank and out of control ego on the part of his instructor as he explained the situation to me on a number of occasions.  So when I read comments such those posted on the forum :

04-24-2005, 10:59 AM – poster #2

I realize that this is a separate issue to some, but every single "soke" I've looked at also claimed bogus rank. In my opinion, the issue of bogus rank and the bogus use of the term "soke" are inseparable.

Those comments found a receptive reader, after all, my dad had direct experience with a person claiming an inflated title and rank from the very organization being panned by those folks posting on the forums.  I’d heard numerous times about the bad treatment that my dad had experienced as a student and assistant instructor at the hands of a person claiming to be a “soke” so I was open to the idea that “sokes” were fakers.  My dad’s experiences were so horrible and humiliating that he couldn’t go back to the dojo or allow himself to become a student of anyone else, even though my uncle was having a great time working with and learning from his instructor.  At the skills level, my uncle actually passed my dad and we all could see it.  When I read the following comments from a FM artist with an impressive title:

11-17-2005, 02:55 PM – poster #3

I'm currently away for the weekend teaching seminars this weekend so I'll keep this short. I've been inducted into several Halls of Fame and after going threw this process I think they're mostly crap! As far as the Grandmasters in the Soke council I see 3 that barely deserve the rank of Black Belt let alone GM!

                It turns out that poster #3 had by that time been inducted into 5 halls of fame and he had also received an award, but not Sokeship status from the Sokeship Council.  Yet here he is trashing members of the very same council that had positively recognized him.  Wow, what in the world was that all about?  

11-29-2005, 03:56 PM – poster #3

First off I would like to apologize for my delay in responding to your post. I was teaching ******* and when I got back there was backlog of work for me to do.

As far as my bio goes, I didn’t put it up… someone else posted an outdated bio. At one time I did claim my hall of fame awards, but since I was exposed to the inner workings I no longer do so.
As far as my comment goes I may have missed communicated my feelings in haste. What I was referring to was the quality of some of the inductees to the Hall of Fame. I don’t know the quality of the orgs training. There are many high caliber inductees, but there are those who barley rate as Black Belts.

Now my post was almost 8 months ago, so my thoughts aren’t that fresh on this topic. I also had a couple beers in me at the time. I’ve had a couple interesting experiences with these kinds of Hall of Fame which has left me with a less than favorable impression for the whole thing.

                Now that statement got me really thinking… there is clearly a mixed message being delivered by this poster and he had already accepted a number of inductions.  Could it be that I had been too quick in adopting my dad’s position?  Had I refused to look beyond his very narrow range of experiences?  Maybe I was not looking at these posts in an objective manner, nor was I seeking 2nd opinions or data to support the allegations being made?  Was I really reacting emotionally and not working toward finding out the facts for myself?

11-29-2005, 04:51 PM – poster #3

I would have to say that after being inducted into 5 different Halls of Fame, it seemed that only one of them wasn't about the money.

               The above statement really made my day.  The fog of emotion was lifted and blown away by the sweet, strong winds of reason and research.  Reading through all of those posts again, I finally saw the obvious things that had been there the entire time.  These people were jealous and committed only to themselves.  They were not posting to help or warn people about some kind of farce.  These people were engaging in a staged dialogue primarily to promote the virtues of one person.  This person was being presented as someone who was now above the fray and no longer engaged in the search for cheap easy low hanging fruit.  This person had seen the light.  This person after five bites of the rank/title/hall of fame nominations apple, now knew that ALL halls of fame and sokeships were mere shams.  If you are willing to pay enough money then you too will be issued some worthless pieces of paper denoting you as a “recognized master” of all that you survey in martial arts land!  With one grand sweep across the keyboard this person (poster #3) announced that he did not need any more of that shady stuff!

                It was an epiphany moment for me when I reads that statement, but I didn’t have any sort of concrete or circumstantial proof that these posters were in collusion with one another or who was working hand in glove with whom; however, I could very easily connect several of the posters to one another by way of friendships and/or membership in the same association.  And by some amazing coincidence, the newly enlightened poster #3 just happened to be the association’s founder-chief instructor.  But as fate would have it the newly enlightened one was “honored” yet again recently with two (read that again, 2) more hall of fame nominations in 2012, which he has so graciously accepted.   And this is the very same person who posted on 11-17-2005:

“…I'll keep this short. I've been inducted into several Halls of Fame and after going threw this process I think they're mostly crap! As far as the Grandmasters in the Soke council I see 3 that barely deserve the rank of Black Belt let alone GM!”

                And let us not forget that he also wrote:

“I would have to say that after being inducted into 5 different Halls of Fame, it seemed that only one of them wasn't about the money.” 

                So given the above quotes, why would this newly and positively enlightened person (2005) readily accept two more halls of fame nomination this year (2012)?  I know that I’m asking a highly rhetorical question, however, when I found out more about his latest “awards” that really tripped the ‘hypocrisy switch’ in my mind.  It was the circumstantial proof that I was hoping to find.  I felt like a cold case investigator who finally found that critical piece of evidence that allowed me to solve the riddle with regard to their trashing of the Sokeship Council awards.  The only thing left to do was to go to the Sokeship Council Awards Celebration and see for myself if the forum trash-talkers have any merit what so ever.  The confirmation threshold for the trash-talkers was actually quite low.  I just needed to find 2 or 3 presenters who were sub-standard in terms of their demonstrated skills.  Best of all, I was the sole person who was going to make that determination based on my very own empirical observations of the seminar presenters.  My comparative standards were my dad, my uncle and my system GM, plus my own 18 years of martial arts training.  I had seen enough excellent masters and grandmasters during my training time to have a very good sense of when someone knows their stuff and when someone is simply ‘skating through’ the motions without a clue to reality.

                As I stated at the top of this essay, the Sokeship Awards Celebration is exactly that, a celebration of skills, brotherhood, friendship and mutual respect.  These folks know what they are doing.  The members of the Sokeship Council are talented and highly skilled martial artists.  Obviously I didn’t see or meet every single person who has been recognized by the WHF Sokeship Council, but the people that I saw doing demonstrations and conducting seminars are the real deal.  I will be going back for years to come to witness and participate in this celebration.  No one has to give me an award in order to get me there, again.  The members in action that weekend have given me all the reasons that I need to return and learn.

Most respectfully yours,

Jamie Binjara

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