An apology and retraction......kind of

Folks,

You have all heard me rant and rave about how ridiculous " Black Belt and Jr. Black Belt" clubs are. As far as my understanding went, it was basically a way to milk the ignorant of their money. Something along the lines of if you sign up for ( insert ludicrously short amount of time here) you will be a Black Belt by the end of the program. That kind of nonesense has long turned my rage into a white hot boil, and led me to rail about the loss of bushido integrity in America.

Not long ago, a man name Greg Tearny on the East Cost gave me a bit of new perspective and insight into what he does. He spoke about how back in the "good old days" there was not a universal appeal in the martial arts. It was basically a bunch of men aged 18 and up who went into a dojo and unleashed shock and awe on each other. Now that makes me smile, because that is what I remember. What he mentioned about today's martial arts reality is that the martial arts now appeal to just about everyone for a variety of different reasons. So there is a lot more art and less martial for the most part.

Now Mr. Tearney said that he has a junior black belt program to account for the fact if some one begins at 6 or 7 years old, it is unlikely that they will wait until 18 to receive their black belt if they dont receive some kind of validation the whole way. I can agree with that theory, especially with the fast food, instant gratification culture that we live in. In his mind, he can maintain the high quality of black belt standards while making sure that an appropriate amount of time has been spent learning quality techniques and philosophy.

Now, while I disagree with a junior "Black Belt" program per se, most of the problem that I have with this plan is the nomenclature. I know that there is a such thing as a junior doctor(interns) junior lawyers(paralegals) and the like, but the martial arts go way beyond occupation. I apologize to Mr Tearney for blasting the idea of a jr black belt wholesale without listening to his particular interpretation.  I disagree with the idea of anything less than a full fledged black belt, but at least I can see that he is working hard to maintain the high quality of a legit black belt.