One of the first things you will discover is that the art is quite complex, you will not have to go from school to school to get more sophisticated arts to study. This school teaches the highest level of both the Japanese arts and the Chinese arts as well as the weapons training. Yet, the belt ranking system is quite simple - white, green, blue, brown and black. There are no stripes of white or degrees of green. This is the same ranking system that was devised by the Saito family before they began teaching outside of the family.
Small arts make themselves appear bigger by chopping up their programs into ever smaller pieces.
This is much like rationing food or water in small increments when the rations are low. The arts taught in this school are broad and deep, they cannot be exhausted in a lifetime and therefore there is no need to chop them up into small pieces in order to make someone feel as though they are getting more than is there. We do not charge for belt testing nor for the new belt earned. The student and the parents are counseled after each exam on exactly what we want to work on before the next test which normally takes place within 2 or 3 weeks. Real positive reinforcement is a product of knowing that you performed up to your own standards which are normally just as demanding as the instructor's.