Would you stay or go ?

[yamesu]

Rankings serve ego only temporarily.

 

Knowledge is ongoing, and serves us for the rest of our lives.

 

OSU.

 

Although i have to agree w/pineapple, If you want your own MA school.....................

[Killer Miller]

What, do you mean to test and not indicate the result? That's what the kyu/dan grade is all about. Also, would you have a senior in high school compete with a kindergarden...? There are lots of reasons why grades are necessary.

 

- Killer -

but a pass/fail grade is good... One whom would say that testing or getting a higher grade is not important is not one I would ever train with or suggest anyone to train with.

 

Dont you think its possible to still be tested without the need for a increase in rank afterwards?

[Souldburned]

Ranks don't matter anything at all....at least I believe that..

[Son Goku the monkeyking]

i say one to five only because of the fact that most tournaments and compitions only let u in according to belt rank so if it ment that i could never fight at full potential because i could never go up in belt level than hell no

 

PEACE

[AnonymousOne]

Grades are really irrelevent in my view. It never reflects the skill level of a student. The same rank of 10 students will reveal 10 different skill levels.

 

I would prefer the old days with no ranks and advancement only comes when one has fully mastered a particular kata, and the advancement being the learning of a new kata.

 

But I am an old fashioned kinda guy

[Killer Miller]

Well then if you master a Kata, then someone will have to test you and grade you up to the level of going on to the next kata. Sounds like moving up a grade to me... Even still, if one passes the test of moving up a kata, neither does this reflect their skill level either.

 

There always has to be a measurement of improvement of whether it is via a grade, a belt, or moving on to the next kata. This argument is based on the "ego" factor which is NOT what MA is about. It's about learning and measuring what you learn. Even in the old days going from White to Black and further, there are different levels you still have to complete in both colors. To say it doesn't matter is not seing the big picture.

 

- Killer -

Grades are really irrelevent in my view. It never reflects the skill level of a student. The same rank of 10 students will reveal 10 different skill levels.

 

I would prefer the old days with no ranks and advancement only comes when one has fully mastered a particular kata, and the advancement being the learning of a new kata.

 

But I am an old fashioned kinda guy

[AnonymousOne]

In Okinawa, pre belt days, the master constantly watched every movement of the student.

 

There was no formal test moment because the master saw as the student progress step by step.

 

Ranking only came into Karate when Funakoshi came to Japan in 1921. The Okinawans saw no need for it....

 

So I guess the masters of old, for hundreds and hundreds of years were stupid and didnt see the big picture either.

 

Man it must have been horrible being so dumb for so long

 

[ovine king]

what i see here is the same old mistake of seeing the grade/belt as the thing you are gaining instead of the knowledge and experience that it represents as the thing you are gaining.

 

you can gain belts/grades without gaining knowledge and experience.

 

you can gain knowledge and experience without gaining a grade/belt.

 

belts and the like are a means to aid organised teaching within a mass system (like schools).

 

it doesn't and shouldn't mean a thing (unless you're a twelve year old kid who still can't see past the pretty colours)

[Killer Miller]

Ah hog wash... I don't care if an instructor is watching every step you make and says ok, it's time to learn the next thing. This is still a form of testing and promoting to the next grade. And, this is how grades, belt colors, promotions should be looked at - nothing less or nothing more...

 

- Killer -

[searcher]

I am currently at the rank I wish to stay at. I once though that I would like to advance as far as possible. Then one day I read something that Mas Oyama had written concerning rank. He said that up to and including 5th Dan it is what the system has done for you. Any rank over that is what you do for the system. That is the best advice I have ever heard concerning rank.