Does being a Black Belt= Made Man????

[Himokiri Karate]

In the mob world when someone joins the mafia they go from associate to made man/soldier after paying there dues and making there bones.

Now this is obviously a fun non-serious thread.

I want to know what does it mean being a black belt??? Does it make you special? Confident, responsible and how much mental value is there in having the title of being a black belt???

Also what are things in life that can make people feel like a black belt and how rare are there??? Like becoming CEO or getting an amazing job or stumbeling in to a gold mine after digging for many years.

This is kind of a mental thing I thought I should ask the traditional martial artist and karate guys to get your opinion in it

[Throwdown0850]

In the mob world when someone joins the mafia they go from associate to made man/soldier after paying there dues and making there bones.

Now this is obviously a fun non-serious thread.

I want to know what does it mean being a black belt??? Does it make you special? Confident, responsible and how much mental value is there in having the title of being a black belt???

Also what are things in life that can make people feel like a black belt and how rare are there??? Like becoming CEO or getting an amazing job or stumbeling in to a gold mine after digging for many years.

This is kind of a mental thing I thought I should ask the traditional martial artist and karate guys to get your opinion in it

It means nothing to me to have a black belt. does it mean I am special? of course!!1! confident? yarp. make me responsible? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA nope..

In all seriousness.. It means nothing for me to be a black belt. Sometimes thats all you see people talk about is "I cant wait to get my yellow or blue etc etc.." I bet if you take the gi and belt system out and went no-gi on ALL martial arts.. you would lose students. Liar you say? thats like saying you want to be a cop and could care less about the cool swat car, gun and badge.

[sensei8]

I want to know what does it mean being a black belt???

The fancy answer is that it represents a certain level of skill or a certain set of skills; for example, respect, strength, control, responsibility, cooperation, determination, persistence and concentration.

The unfancy answer is that I achieved a goal, one of many, in my martial arts journey.

Does it make you special?

No! In a room full of martial artists, I'm the most least special person. Why? The most important/special person is the White belt because without White belt, the black belt is unattainable.

Confident, responsible and how much mental value is there in having the title of being a black belt???

Confident? Yeah! Responsible? Yeah! Mental value? None that I'm aware of at this time. Black belts aren't the only ones that can focus in varying situations. I'm quite sure that Doctors, construction workers, and a more vast other people that are equal to the task of focusing when needed.

Also what are things in life that can make people feel like a black belt and how rare are there??? Like becoming CEO or getting an amazing job or stumbeling in to a gold mine after digging for many years.

There's nothing in the entire world, imho, that can make people feel like a black belt unless one IS a black belt. As I can't feel like a CEO unless I've been a CEO before. Other than having have been there before or having have done it before; it's just an assumption. I just hope that I get it right when it counts. Rare? Not as rare as they should be!

Good topic!

[Blade96]

black belt to me mean that you've completed basic training.

[Lupin1]

No! In a room full of martial artists, I'm the most least special person. Why? The most important/special person is the White belt because without White belt, the black belt is unattainable.

And as a white belt in a class of almost all black belts, I have to say I get the most attention

[MMA_Jim]

In my opinion, anything that a black belt was supposed to represent has been watered down severely over the years- everyone's a black belt that I speak to, and the majority of them know nothing (like how to throw a simple job cross properly, for example).

[Sibylla]

I would argue that traditionally (in Japan) a black belt ment some grasp and understanding of the basics. It didn't make you an expert or master. For some reason though, in the West, it at one point and especially to the public, it started to mean master/expert. Which made those arts that stuck to the Japanese model sometimes look bad. And which also made some arts give out black belts on different basis than skills, because of the percieved desirability of the rank. To summarize, black belts can have greatly varying meaning.

Imho one of the few arts that have some consistency and where the black belt can be said to mean master, is BJJ. From what I understand it takes at least ten years of consistent training. But it doesn't mean that your special anymore than someone working consistently at something for a long time is "special".

[Dr. Frank]

Like most things it means different things to different people. To some it means "expert." To traditional martial artists it simply means "serious student."

Remember that in Japan before the 1970s, attaining black belt took 1 - 2 years. They saw it as nothing more than having learned the basics. It was American karateka returning from Asian military service where they were trained and promoted who started raising the standards in their dojos even though they had earned rank much faster. My first instructor was awarded shodan after 11 months of training. He was a sandan 5 years later. Yet he insisted that his students train for 5-7 years to make shodan and after 20 years he still had not promoted anyone to sandan.

I vividly recall passing my shodan test even though it was 31 years ago. I was euphoric for weeks.

To me the belt is a symbol of time and effort. It represents commitment.

[Montana]

In this age of belt factories, 8 (or younger) year old balck belts and 20-somethign year old "masters", I don't feel that a black belt means nearly what it did in the '60's and '70's.

When I got my first BB in 1978 from the head of the system, I joined a rather elite group of individuals in the US that attained that rank "legitimately", and to this day the vast majority of sensei that are testing their students in THIS system still maintain a very high level of standards to reach that level.

In my own dojo, I have been teaching since the Fall of 1978 and have promoted only 3 people to black belt. It's not that I'm a task master and hard core, but rather I seek that unique individual that is going to impress upon me their willingness and desire to rise above the average individual in the work ethic, training, diligence and perseverence to meet the standards that I set for my students. My own sensei has only promoted 2 others to black belt when he retired from the arts in 1980.

Today, there are dojo's that promote students to black belt in as little as a year, master level in 5. Total crap if you ask me. And child black belts...BAH! They can have it!

An exceptional student can realistically attain their black belt in this system in as little as 3 years, but very few are willing to do the work that needs to be done for it. The 3 people that I've promoted to BB were dedicated and worked hard inside, and outside of the class. They earned it.

[Lupin1]

Wow. Just three? Do you have really small classes or something? My instructor's been teaching about the same length of time as you and he teaches only two classes-- a kid's class that's limited to 15 students at a time and an adult class that usually has six or less and he's promoted 11 people to black belt in all those years. You must be very demanding.