From: marcs@yang.earlham.edu (Marc Seebass(Thunderbolt))
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Black Belt time
Date: 20 Nov 92 02:16:23 GMT
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

In article <ygicuB5w165w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>, gbaker@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Greg baker) writes:
> hogue@cs.arizona.edu (Justin C. Hogue) writes:
> 
> -  Ouch! That sounds rude.  Give him a chance: some people don't "feel" the 
> - need for ranking or whatever.  Just because he hasn't tested yet, maybe he
> - doesn't feel ready, or doesn't feel the need to prove his ability.  If he
> - went to MA as often as I go to church, it'd take longer to get to 1st Dan
> - than it has already.
> - --Jowfus
> - 
> 
>  If that sounded rude, I appologize. I guess I should clarify what I 
> tried to say....Some people seem to forget the idea behind the ranking 
> system. If I used Mr. Seebass as an example out of turn, I'm sorry. I'm 
> not trying to hack up his accomplishments. One should never see, however, 
> testing as a forum to prove oneself to others. Testing is a system to 
> TEST oneself. The scale used to test yourself should always be...waht you 
> were against what you are.
> 
> case in point. I am a 1st dan, I know a second dan (no big surprise) who 
> is testing for his 3rd dan. In reality, he/she (to protect the innocent) 
> is not all that Physicaly adept. I am better physicaly than he/she. Yet 
> he, compared to what he was as a first dan, is truely a second dan who 
> should be testing for his/her 3rd. Testing is not a place to show off 
> your skill to impress other people, nor should it be a need to prove your 
> ability to others. Testing should be a personal accomplishment, a trial 
> to overcome.
Physical is not the problem, the mental attiude of a black belt is much 
more important in most ways. If the person has the right attitude, they 
will have worked hard enough to get a reasonable amount of prowess (this 
varries with the indavidual's natural skill.), but having physical tallent 
does not have anything to do with attitude. IMHO, I would be more worried 
about a good fighter with a bad attitude having high rank, then a 
relatively poor fighter with a good attidue and a high rank, because the 
latter is not as likely to get into fights and thus less likely to get 
hurt. 
> 
> did I make myself clear or only more confusing?

Well part of the problem was that I wasn't very dissiplend at the start, 
and I'd use any excuse not not go to class, and I also had periods where 
I was playing B-Ball and on the Swim Team, and these interfeared with the 
process; and then there were all the times when Grand Master Kang told me 
I was ready to test, but I was going on vacation at the time (usualy camp) 
and wasn't able to take the test. 
	But to use an analogy, the Martial Arts 
are like climbing a mountain, the time it takes to make it up really 
doesn't change the difficulty of the accomplishment. (Heck I'd like to 
meet a person who took seven years to climb a mountain. I would certainly 
respect him for his indomidable spirit). The poin being that I have seen 
people reach black-belt in a short number of years and quit because things 
weren't getting easier and advancment was getting much slower. People who 
want to rush to black-belt in three years are IMHO stupid. I took my time, 
I had a lot of obsticals to overcome, but I didn't quit because I wasn't 
advancing as fast as everyone else. And that is the real problem, too many 
people in martial arts think they can get "slam, bang, thank you mam" 
training in martial arts and then have it done with. 
	I didn't see the original post so I cannot comment on what he is 
saying about me but my main point in posting was time should not be the 
main chriteria for testing. 

PS: I would be third degree now if I had been able to make all the testing 
I was prepared for in the last four years, but I missed them because I in 
college and I am tweleve hours away from Kangs, and the timeing never 
works out.  

-----Marc Seebass 
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts