RE Blackbelts
Hi guys, I hope everyone is keeping well. I have a question for some of the past instructors: What was the deal with awarding students black belts? When we signed up we had a program that indicated when we could expect to complete a black belt (or was it brown) within a certain amount of time. I've since tossed my book etc in the recycling. I'm curious because in a style like Goju Ryu karate you could reasonably expect it to take 5-6 years. I trained at TKF for approx. 9 years and only saw 1 black belt awarded and that was near the end of my tenure. There was no test. Sparrow just announced it at the end of a PHS class one day, much to the shock of the student who received it and all those around him. We all just kind of looked at each other and said "What the hell was that?" It seemed really subjective since no test was ever taken by the individual. On top of that there were people who were far more skilled and had a longer tenure than this individual. No slam on him and I'm not suggesting he didn't deserve it, because he did train hard and is a nice guy. I realize all styles are different with separate criteria. My current style of kung fu has no belts and it's easy to see why. I ask because I went to visit a club the other day and when I looked at the credentials of the sensei I noticed he had been training less time than myself (although I did leave TKF quite a while ago) and he was a 2nd degree. His tenure today is equal to my tenure at TKF, 9yrs. After I had left Troy Sparrow implemented a black belt program in Ontario and it was 10k. Each degree after that was a big chunk of change. I know of 1 person signing up and then Troy had left within a year (Sorry if first names offend the traditional TKF'ers here but I can't buy into that formality anymore). In the end it doesn't really matter, just interested in your take on the matter. Cheers Dave
Hi guys, I hope everyone is keeping well. I have a question for some of the past instructors: What was the deal with awarding students black belts? When we signed up we had a program that indicated when we could expect to complete a black belt (or was it brown) within a certain amount of time. I've since tossed my book etc in the recycling. I'm curious because in a style like Goju Ryu karate you could reasonably expect it to take 5-6 years. I trained at TKF for approx. 9 years and only saw 1 black belt awarded and that was near the end of my tenure. There was no test. Sparrow just announced it at the end of a PHS class one day, much to the shock of the student who received it and all those around him. We all just kind of looked at each other and said "What the hell was that?" It seemed really subjective since no test was ever taken by the individual. On top of that there were people who were far more skilled and had a longer tenure than this individual. No slam on him and I'm not suggesting he didn't deserve it, because he did train hard and is a nice guy. I realize all styles are different with separate criteria. My current style of kung fu has no belts and it's easy to see why. I ask because I went to visit a club the other day and when I looked at the credentials of the sensei I noticed he had been training less time than myself (although I did leave TKF quite a while ago) and he was a 2nd degree. His tenure today is equal to my tenure at TKF, 9yrs. After I had left Troy Sparrow implemented a black belt program in Ontario and it was 10k. Each degree after that was a big chunk of change. I know of 1 person signing up and then Troy had left within a year (Sorry if first names offend the traditional TKF'ers here but I can't buy into that formality anymore). In the end it doesn't really matter, just interested in your take on the matter. Cheers Dave