Belts are just a scam !!!!!

[Withers M.A.A.]

if you look on the other side of the spectrum. A Martial Arts school needs to make money just like everyone else. By charging money for a test an instructor can make some extra money. You are paying for his extra time and organization of the test itself. I personally think the ranking system is great so long as the prices are kept reasonable. I will charge $35 per test w hich includes the test itself, a new belt, and a certificate, and syllabus of the requirements for the next rank. Not a bad deal esp. since the test runs a minumum of 2 hours long.

 

 

[tessone]

What people can't forget is that martial arts teachers in America are not monks. Unless they teach in addition to a full-time job, this is how they put bread on the table. Not only would they like to eat, they'd like to be able to afford the same things everyone else does. Think about the number of students in your school. Multiply that by the monthly fee. Does it come out to a comfortable monthly income, after you take into account rent for the space, taxes, paying for utilities, weapons, advertising, etc.?

 

Sure, there are greedy martial arts teachers just as their are greedy lawyers, greedy doctors, etc. But just because you'd rather pay a bit less to train doesn't mean you're in a McDojo and your instructor is out to steal your money.

 

 

[Athorn4941]

IMHO belts in martial arts are a joke!

 

alot of martial artist that get belt rankings are in terrible shape. what counts is the application your using it for. if your learning ex... karate for street fighting what good is having a black belt if you can't do more than 3-4 moves and be tired. if your not in shape the person in better shape has the distinct advantage over you. if you trip up and use force against force and your not in shape your going to lose. what ever happened to the day when there was no belt rankings. you were only judge by your reputation to win the battle.

[ckdstudent]

I have to say that I've never met a black belt who can only do three or four moves before being tired. I can't imagine how they'd get through even our white belt grading at that standard.

 

 

[tessone]

On 2002-05-23 01:29, artoftheninja wrote:

 

IMHO belts in martial arts are a joke!

 

alot of martial artist that get belt rankings are in terrible shape. what counts is the application your using it for. if your learning ex... karate for street fighting what good is having a black belt if you can't do more than 3-4 moves and be tired. if your not in shape the person in better shape has the distinct advantage over you. if you trip up and use force against force and your not in shape your going to lose. what ever happened to the day when there was no belt rankings. you were only judge by your reputation to win the battle.

 

Read what I've said above. It's only because naive people look to belts as an index of ability that there is a problem at all. There isn't anything wrong at all with a school dividing up its curriculum and assigning belt ranks to various parts of that curriculum. In this system, holding a particular belt means you know the curriculum (techniques, forms, etc.) up to that rank. It doesn't say anything (or doesn't say much, anyway) about your physical abilities or your ability to apply what you know in a self-defense or sparring situation.

 

People need to stop associating black belt with comprehensive knowledge of an art or the ability to beat someone up. All a black belt means is that a person has gotten to a specific point in the curriculum. It's a useful device for setting goals and assessing progress inside the curriculum, nothing more.

 

 

[omnifinite]

This makes me appreciate my private instruction. My instructor knows what level I'm at just through our interaction during the lessons. In the 5 promotions I've recieved I've only gone through one actual test, and that didn't cost me anything besides the usual per-lesson fee.

[ramymensa]

In our dojo the examination fee is from 3$ to 30, depending on the belt. The belt itself is to be bought from elsewhere and it costs about 7 $.

 

Before you say it's great I must tell you the medium wage is 100 $ and the inflation rate sky high

 

So it's not that easy, but in comparison with other countries it's a bargain

[hobbitbob]

I came across this quote, whose source I don't recall, on another forum:

 

At the level of Shodan, one is finally accepted into the school as a beginner, and is no longer merely a guest.

[BlackI]

My school does not have a testing fee. I didn't know that this was such a wide spread thing.

[Radok]

I get charged 50$ a month. To test, it's 20$ for the test, new belt, and a test sheet for next time.