Free your mind and dont care about belts

[Whitefeather]

I think a dojo without a ranking system is ludicrous. Just my opinion though.

Then I guess my dojo is ludicrous. There is no rank other than sempai-ship. The dai-sempai is the guy who has been continuously training the longest (30 years).

Having gone from a ranking system (reaching shodan) to one where there is no rank, I prefer the system without rank. My instructor stopped wearing his belt 20 years ago (long story) and has not given out rank since then. His students who still train with him gave up their belts as well. It is actually quite liberating on both a conscious and subsconscious level when we're all equals - my instructor says, "We're all just a bunch of guys who really love karate and like working out together. I've been training longer, so if you want, I'll show you what I've learned." It's a simple, realistic philosophy, and my training and growth have jumped leaps and bounds since adopting his idea and working with him to become better at karate.

Needless to say, we don't have small children in my class, nor do we attract younger people. I'm the youngest student (at 24), and the average age of these guys is mid-50's, and their average training duration is between 15-30 years. We are not part of any large martial arts organization; my instructor struck out on his own after his teacher passed away in 1969. I'm not sure how well our system would work with a younger, more impetuous demographic, or if we were under a large organization.

Wow, that is cool. That seems like what martial arts should be. It seems to me, from all of the opinions on this matter, that standard (modern, belt-system) dojos do definately have their place, but, at the same time, I think that there should be more dojos like that one, where it is much closer to how martial arts was back in the good old days. If I were ever to open a dojo someday, that is how I would run it. Props to your instructor, Skeptic2004.

David