New school / Same style / Keep or lose rank

[ninjanurse]

I have experienced both and feel that either way has it's advantages and downfalls. As long as you keep things in persepective you'll be fine; if you let your ego get in the way you will have difficulties.

 

[Akima]

He should hold his rank!!!!!

 

If the new school has highter standards, then he should work until he meets those standards. But to knock him down and then retest him (at a testing fee, I am sure) is Mcdojo-ish.

 

If they were totally differnt styles, like going from korean to Kung-fu or Aikido, I would understand.

[equaninimus]

Even within certain general groupings, i.e., "Japanese Karate" there are vast differences. Goju, Wado, Shoto, Kyokushin, Shorinjiryu, Shorinji Kenpo, etc.. all vary greatly from each other, often in manner of techniqe.

 

In Okinawan Karate, there is a big diffrence between the styles of Goju, Ryuei Ryu, Uechi, and the various branches of Shorin Ryu.

[kotegashiNeo]

Down ranking seems a little harsh, give the person a couple months then re-test for brown.

[hobo6]

I had a similar situation switching from one org. to another. I spent three years studying with a splinter group (I went through most of those three yrs not realizing they were a splinter group ) working my way up to ni-kyu, till I finally got tired of all the faux tradition and cult of personality crap. Looking for a new style/dojo (thinking there's was the only matsubyashi group outside of Okinawa) I stumbled upon a dojo affiliated with the honbu. I called. They said they would be happy to have me, but I had to wear a white belt till I was ready to test for my next rank (ik-kyu). Their reason for doing that: matsubayashi-ka from the splinter orgs were below par in nearly everyway. They were right I grinned and bore it because I wanted to learn from the "source." It was worth it!

 

Flash-foward a couple of years, I've moved, got injured and now that I've sinced healed (but woefully out of shape) I want to start traing again. Problem is, the only matsubayashi dojo close enough for me to train regularly is affiliated w. the group I started out with. Being an inward, poltical bunch I doubt they would let me train w. the dan ranks (while

 

wearing a white belt) let alone acknowledge my shodan. Life sukks!

[stl_karateka]

He should hold his rank!!!!!

 

If the new school has highter standards, then he should work until he meets those standards. But to knock him down and then retest him (at a testing fee, I am sure) is Mcdojo-ish.

 

If they were totally differnt styles, like going from korean to Kung-fu or Aikido, I would understand.

 

While I personally agree that he should have held his rank. I want to also point out that there were no testing fees until Black Belt at this school.

 

We only had to pay a small fee to cover the cost of the belt and S&H. And that was waived for him as well. ( I was on staff so I know all the behind the scenes)

[delta1]

He earned that belt...he spent 2.5-3years training....its not his fault our standards were different.

 

Whos fault any of it is is irrelevant. Your school has different standards, and he doesn't meet them. Droping to an appropriate grade is to his advantage and yours, and the rest of the students as well. He gets the instruction he needs to move on, and is not a brown belt stuck in the begginers group to do it. You deal with him at an appropriate level without a lot of special consideration and extra instruction. Other senior students don't have to stand around and wait until you bring him up to speed before instruction continues. Just a few examples of what I mean, I'm sure you can think of others.

 

You can put him on a fast track for promotion as his skills come up to par. This should help if he's feeling like he's been done wrong. But, frankly, he'll just have to get over that regardless.

 

Does your school have a written protocol for this situation? That would assure fair treatment for everyone, and would take the sting out of 'demoting' transfer students. Of course, if they are too ridgid they can cause problems of their own. But they are a good tool to have in this type situation.

[stl_karateka]

Does your school have a written protocol for this situation? That would assure fair treatment for everyone, and would take the sting out of 'demoting' transfer students. Of course, if they are too ridgid they can cause problems of their own. But they are a good tool to have in this type situation.

 

No written policy. In fact there was a similiar situation about a year before this guy came in. The other student was allowed to keep his rank!

 

What was the determining factor you ask --- the first student was a kid ---- about 10 years old I think. He was a green belt.

 

He came from a school that promoted based on time rather than skill. I really felt sorry for him but he was HORRIBLE. Wasn't his fault....but he was a green belt and did a Seisan that I could barely recognize, didn't know Seiunchin, Nahanchi ....but he started bo basics (which were also bad).

 

Now this kid had a heart of GOLD. Always smiling and willing to learn....so here is what we did:

 

He kept his green belt...but instead of getting blue stripes as if moving toward blue belt....we put three yellow stripes on his belt...as he met the yellow requirements we took them away. Then we put orange stripes on his belt...and took them away until he was an 'up to par' green belt.

 

His mother agreed to bring he consistently 3x a week so we put him with the beginners on Mondays and continued to let him work with the green belts on Wednesdays (he knew Wansu and some bo)

 

That was a couple years ago --- this kid is still at the school --- should be a purple belt by now....and he is doing great.

 

------------------------------------

 

So why wasn't the same done with the 16 year old?

 

2 reasons,

 

1. There was a new head instructor -- new sensei, new rules

 

2. He was older....more mature and expected to be able to abide by the new dojos decision

 

So what happened:

 

It was a rocky start at first. Here he was a brown belt....moved to a green belt, and being instructed by a purple belt ( mostly me)

 

Quiet kid....never gave me any problems but I could feel the animosity.

 

Over time we all gained his respect and trust (not before a couple conferences with his unhappy parents and head instructor)

 

Last time I checked in --- he was being trained as an assistant instructor. He should be testing for BB soon if he hasn't done so already.

 

So both stories have happy endings.

 

But keep the comments coming...what would you have done differently?

[blitzcraig]

At my old school, a guy came to take classes who was a black belt in I think TKD, It may have been karate...I dont remember, I guess I should have blocked all those head kicks better, anyways, the instructors let him keep his BB. Now, I dont know if there are different rules for BB's or they were just cool and leanyeant? (i cant speel eithere)

[Sasori_Te]

The instructor has the final decision. I'm sure he wasn't rude about it. I've had to ask students to go back to white belt from higher ranks because the style was totally different. Sometimes they stay and sometimes they go. In my experience the ones who complain about such things will go anyway for one reason or another.