From: stark@dwovax.enet.dec.com (Todd I. Stark)
Subject: Rank-test ranting (was: years for black belt)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: 29 JUL 92 14:45:33    


stave@apollo.hp.com (Joel H. Stave) writes...

>In article <1992Jul29.164241.4373@PA.dec.com>, stark@dwovax.enet.dec.com
>(Todd I. Stark) writes:
>|> When it comes down to it, after all the reasons have been analyzed,
>|> I think it comes down to ritual.  The test is a ceremonial event,
>|> a rite of passage both public and private.
-snip-
>|> unless the test is for a license to be a demonstrator or performer.
>|> 

>One reason I have heard is to see how the student performs under pressure.
>Admittedly, spectators and masters staring at you shouldn't make any
>difference, but it often does (I know it does for me).

Must be pretty strange training that never puts 'pressure' on the student
until the day of a rank test.  The only difference is the pressure of
performing in a public spectacle, which is arguably a valid test of
martial arts skill, unless your art consists primarily of public
demonstration.   If the pressure is supposed to simulate the pressure
of a confrontation in some abstract way, I contend it is a poor substitute 
for scenario specific role playing work.

>Also, it isn't always one's own instructor that is doing the grading.  It
>can be thought of as getting a second opinion.

True, but you can always work with different instructors on an ongoing basis 
if you don't trust your own, or want more ideas, and then you'll get the 
benefit of their interactive feedback as well as their spot judgement.  This 
does not seem to me an argument for any value intrinsic to the rank test.

I probably missed most of the origin of the 'years to black belt' string, 
but I have to vent my spleen a little bit over this test thing.
I'm sorry if I seem to be overly argumentative over this point.  I hate those
tests with a passion.  I've paid a fortune for them over the years, had
a number of unneccesarily humiliating experiences and falsely prideful 
experiences with them, and never found much lasting value in them ... other 
than the aforementioned ceremonial value of the black belt, joining a new 
community of serious martial artists and so on.  And since I've done that in 
a number of different schools now, even that has long since lost its real 
meaning for me.  I wouldn't deny it to a student that wanted it, though.

I've never forced my own students to take rank tests as a teacher and I avoided 
them often as a student, once avoiding all but black belt, and never suffering
for the lack of tests.  And I don't particularly like rank belts 
in general.  But that's maybe another topic.  

These tests just remind me so much of mass production line standardized martial 
arts.  I need to know what the people training around me can do and I believe 
in small intimate trainer-trainee group environments.   I guess tests/ranks 
serve their purpose for large groups to tell people who they're working with, 
and to provide a rite of passage at important points.  But I don't understand 
the automatic acceptance that most people seem to have of the significance of a 
dozen different ranks in the first couple years of practice, each with its own 
public test, and belt color, and especially with the pyramid increasing fee 
that is associated in some schools.   

It's a shame to have a student come up to me all worried about performing
in some silly rank test, as the ultimate measure of their progress and their
source of personal pride when I know damn well what they can do and what 
they need to work on already.     That's my main job as a trainer.  If they
want a second opinion, they can always find another trainer and work with
them for a while.   In fact I eventually insist on it if they train with
me exclusively long enough.   You need another set of eyes eventually
to pick up and compensate for the first trainer's biases, unless they
are truly world class.

Whew, I feel better now.  Thanks.  :-)

						kind regards,
						todd
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts