Am I a total jerk?

[andym]

I'm similar to you, I travel around a couple of times a year with work. Spending a week or so at a site. I take this as an opportunity to train with the best i can find in that location. Be it Karate, Kung Fu , MMA anything. I was in St Albans in November and visited a TKD club. I can honestly say I've never had any problems or trouble when visiting. Even coming from traditional Karate and going to an MMA club. I always carry a white belt with you and ring the club prior to visiting . I ask them would they like me to wear it. Very few do I have to say. I must say I find it strange that a Goju Ryu Dojo would tell you to wear one. So, I can understand your reaction.

[kensei]

If you go to a club that teaches a different style, then you wear a white belt. If you go to a club and you have not trained in some time...then you wear a white belt....however, if you go to a school that teaches the same style and you are continuously training in that style, then the guy that asked you to wear the white belt has issues!

for me any visiting student that is our style wears the rank given to them. If they are from a different style of Karate then I would insist they wear a white belt as they are training in my school, in my style and have no idea of the style! It would be the same as going to a Judo club and being a black belt in Karate...and insisting you wear your black belt while training in Karate...you dont know judo in this case and theirefore you should not be wearing the belt of a senior...you are a beginner!

Now, if you insist on wearing your belt to the new style...then the answer to your question is yes, if its Goju...then no!

[GojuRyu Bahrain]

Thanks for your replies! I suspected the issue to be controversial because to be honest, I was a bit surprised about my reaction as well.... Thought it wouldn't matter, because I wore a white belt so many times when visiting other martial arts. But it does in my own style.

In my own tiny Dojo I welcome all martial artists with whatever they come with. The more versatile the mix - the better for all of us. We are respectful, courteous, and polite when we hit each other. We laugh and joke, too, because we enjoy what we do.

Here is more food for thought: In the prelude to that situation, if I had humbly suggested to wear a white belt, would they have humbly allowed my real belt? And what would that mean about my humility?

Also, hypothetically, what would happen if - lets speculate wildly - Mr. Higaonna visited in the same manner? Ask him about a white belt, too? What applies to one should apply to all? Or where are the separating lines?

[Harkon72]

This is it! Where do you draw the line? Is it right to have one rule for one and another for another? At the end of the day, do what makes you happy. If you came to our Dojo, I'm sure the color of your belt would be the least of our issues. My Sensei is as open as any to learn from anyone, and I take his example.

[kensei]

If Sensei H had come to our Dojo to TEACH Goju then I would expect and request he wear his correct belt....however if he were to show up at a Judo club and wanted to learn...white belt!

[bushido_man96]

Recently, I contacted another Goju Ryu school and they invited me to train with them - if I would wear a white belt. Now I should explain that my main style is Goju Ryu (since the beginning in 1989), I've practiced continuously. My bunkais work. So, I tied this white belt around my waist, looked at myself in the mirror, and took it off. I am not going to visit this club. In any other martial art, absolutely. In my own style - no. Not for anybody. Not in Goju Ryu!

Finally, back to my original question: Have I become an arrogant douchebag? I hope not, but I'd like our thoughts and comments.

It does kind of scream "ego" to me. If you want to go train, then go train, and don't worry about what's around your waist. Worry about what's in your head. Are you going to learn, or to show them what rank you are?

I started over in my current TKD school as a white belt. I was a 2nd dan in a different TKD school. No big deal. I was there to learn. Remeber, its not what's around the waist, but what's in your head that matters.

[cheesefrysamurai]

Come on guys, he has been living goju for close to a quarter of a century!

Many of us only know what its like to own a technique, only very few knows what it feels like to reach that level, goju is in his blood. Shodan shows significant dedication in the right school, He probably showed that level of dedication 20 years ago.

MY BOTTOMLINE

Any respectable instructor (IMO) would allow him to not only wear his rank but not make him line up with the students, He or she would see you as a peer. I do not worship my sensei but if he went to visit a goju school and they told him to wear a white belt, I would lose any respect I had for them. He has been training since 1993

My Sensei always says that what he loves about goju ryu is that you can take it anywhere. Though there are slight variations goju is for the most part goju.

I don't blame Bahrain one bit. After 20+ years, goju is his system as much as anyones. I know it sounds like ego but its not, its more like pride, he earned the right. He may hold no rank in TKD or pancration but in goju, he's earned his rank. He should have been introduced an an honored guest visiting from another school.

I know many of us like to think putting the whitebelt back on is a form of humbleness - it is, but not in this case. Its like Michael Jordan trying out the highschool team, or a professional writer in an intro literary course,

I am pretty good at my job. . . once in a while someone questions my skill, or knowledge and I have to teach them a lesson, usually by the end of the day they are picking my brain about what stumps them. The dojo is supposed to be above this petty nonsense.

Someone elses wise words - "proof is on the floor"

[andym]

Come on guys, he has been living goju for close to a quarter of a century!

Many of us only know what its like to own a technique, only very few knows what it feels like to reach that level, goju is in his blood. Shodan shows significant dedication in the right school, He probably showed that level of dedication 20 years ago.

MY BOTTOMLINE

Any respectable instructor (IMO) would allow him to not only wear his rank but not make him line up with the students, He or she would see you as a peer. I do not worship my sensei but if he went to visit a goju school and they told him to wear a white belt, I would lose any respect I had for them. He has been training since 1993

My Sensei always says that what he loves about goju ryu is that you can take it anywhere. Though there are slight variations goju is for the most part goju.

I don't blame Bahrain one bit. After 20+ years, goju is his system as much as anyones. I know it sounds like ego but its not, its more like pride, he earned the right. He may hold no rank in TKD or pancration but in goju, he's earned his rank. He should have been introduced an an honored guest visiting from another school.

I know many of us like to think putting the whitebelt back on is a form of humbleness - it is, but not in this case. Its like Michael Jordan trying out the highschool team, or a professional writer in an intro literary course,

I am pretty good at my job. . . once in a while someone questions my skill, or knowledge and I have to teach them a lesson, usually by the end of the day they are picking my brain about what stumps them. The dojo is supposed to be above this petty nonsense.

Someone elses wise words - "proof is on the floor"

I agree with cheesefrysamurai in this very good post. This is within the style, never mind the art of karate. So I repeat, I find it strange. I'll tell you what a ju-jitsu instructor said to me, when telling to wear my black belt and not a white belt. When one of his lower grades comes to train with me, I'm like a 'booby trap'. I might not know all that the lower (kyu) grades knows, but I know a load more about things that that lower grade hasn't learned yet. The belt is a warning. So I think GojuRyu Bahrain is with his rights to feel put out by this request to wear a white belt when visiting a Goju Ryu Dojo, when he is a Goju Ryu black belt.

[bushido_man96]

"Proof is on the floor," not necessarily around the waist.

Does this seem a bit eccentric in regards to this fellow making GojuRyuBahrain wear a white belt? Yeah, a bit. Who knows what the reasoning is.

I say, however, if wanting to go learn is the desire, then who cares what you wear. Go to learn. Why let a piece of cloth and some pride stop you from learning something?

[cheesefrysamurai]

It's not the belt- I agree with you, but to me it's more about aligning him in the dojo with the lowest rank, imagine your sensei wanting to get a work out in on vacation and they have him stand in the back of the rank with a whitebelt on. It would only be one step before they have him doing pushups because he crossed in front of sensei or something. Itsunnecessary, it's disrespectful.

There's no need for martial artists to treat each other that way. At most he should have told him "no coaching, no teaching, no correcting".

I have only had 2 real sensei's, I believe neither would have acted that way, especially regarding someone inthe same system.

Heck my teacher respects my prior training and treats me as a martial artist and I was no blackbelt and my training was in a different system.