2022-05-18

2022-05-18, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

For the first time in a long, long time, I grabbed two pairs of gi pants on my way out of the house and showed up to the dojo with no gi top.  So I taught “out of uniform” last night, but I used it as part of the lesson. We’ve been training for about three months now, and I’ve let everyone know that I’d like to have a small kyu grading for the students who’ve been with me from the beginning.  That means everyone has belts on the brain.  But is that a good thing?

Belts are a way to measure progress, and a good motivator, but sometimes it goes too far and the goal shifts from gaining the skills to getting the belt.  Since I wasn’t wearing a belt last night, I took that as an opportunity to talk about this and set expectations properly. I told the students, “I’m not wearing my black belt, but does that mean I forgot how to punch?”  They knew it didn’t.  “Does that mean I forgot how to teach?”  Again, they knew it didn’t.  Then I ased, “If I let you wear my belt, will that make your kick awesome?”  Again, they knew the answer.

This led to a discussion about the difference between learning skills, measuring those skills, and not putting the cart before the horse.  In karate, if you learn the skills, the belts will come.  Then I compared this to something more familiar to them: school. I told them that getting an “A” is great, but I’d rather know how to do math than get an “A” in math.  Likewise, I’d rather know how to play the guitar than get an “A” in music class.  The skills are what’s important.  The belt is just a tool to motivate and help reward the attainment of those skills.

Over the years, this has been a constant battle, not only with students, but with parents.  Parents often want us to teach their children patience and humility, but then want their children to be black belts immediately.  Things just don’t work that way, and teaching that, both to students and parents, is part of karate’s lesson.

A few years ago, I remember having this kind of conversation with a parent after class.  A father asked me how soon his son would be a black belt.  I told him that, since his son was only 8 and had only been training for a few months, it was going to be several years.  He was dismayed and told me that several of his son’s little friends at school were black belts at another school.  I refrained from rolling my eyes, but continued the conversation. I asked him where he went to college.  He told me.  I asked him what he studied.  He said it was computer science.  Then I asked him how long it took him to get his degree.  He said it took him four years.  Then I dropped the bomb on him.  I pointed to one of the other children in class and asked, “If I told you that 8-year old kid has the same degree you have, and he got it in six months, what would you say?”

Silence.  He got it.  Anything worth having is going to take time and effort to attain.  In other words, it’s supply and demand.  If everyone is a black belt, then the black belt has no value.  It only has value because it’s hard to earn.