Pop quiz: What do Jon "Bones" Jones, Bill Clinton, and I have in common?
Answer: A tendency to become assholes in the moment of our greatest success.
I honestly can't decide if this is a universal human trait or not - it certainly manifests to varying degrees in different individuals - but I've seen it in plenty of people. I don't know where I read this analysis of Clinton (I certainly didn't make it up) but the gist of the theory is that every time he'd experience great success in some area of his life he'd get arrogant and cocky and do something stupid to screw it up. I've done this myself, plenty of times, though with much smaller consequences - I get that feeling of success and invulnerability, push the envelope a little bit, then some more, until everything pops and I wind up acting like an asshole. If you know me, you might think that this is my natural state of being all the time, but the painful fact is that when I get high on myself my behavior actually gets much, much worse.
In martial artists this leads to some weird behavior. You might think that the arrogant among us would ease off on training - but the opposite usually occurs. After all, the arrogant karateka know how they got so good - by training - and they don't want to let that slide. So they keep training very hard, but, they stop really learning. They''ll correct mistakes pointed out by their seniors, but they won't really try to understand the mistakes or develop new insight into their technique. The feeling of accomplishment fills their heads like wax.
Plus, they become assholes. In a way that is usually tempered by dojo etiquette, which makes it subtler, but still present. Even if it's just the way they look at the lesser mortals around them - they're still being assholes.
There are several cures. One is to be around much better karateka than yourself - this helps cure our overconfidence. If that's tough to find, try YouTube. If you're really one of the best in the world, and can't find anybody more skilled than you to temper your arrogance... then kudos to you, sir, and may I ask why you're reading my blog? In all seriousness, however, I don't think anyone is so skilled in all areas of martial arts that they can't find someone to look up to in some area or ability to make them feel humbled.
I had a moment like this last weekend - for about 90 seconds I was pretty happy with my skill as a karateka (this was after promotion). Luckily, I was alone in my room, so I didn't get a chance to do anything super obnoxious before snapping out of it (if I was obnoxious to you last weekend, I apologize, but that was just my normal personality, not the super obnoxious me I can become when I'm feeling cocky).
Moments to be careful of include (but are not limited to): achieving new ranks, mastering new kata/ techniques/ skills, winning competitions, and successful sparring sessions.
The annoying thing is that walking around all the time feeling down on yourself because of how much you suck at martial arts, comparing yourself to the great masters and always feeling like a loser, is equally counterproductive. Being too humble can be demotivating, and giving your own opinions too little weight can make it very hard to advance in your understanding of martial arts. The trick seems to be finding a happy middle ground, and if I knew exactly how to manage that I'd absolutely tell you.
Bottom line: try not to be an asshole. When you're feeling best, and most accomplished, is exactly when you are most likely being the biggest jerk. If you're reading this and think I meant you, I didn't - I really wrote this about me - but if you think I meant you then maybe you have some self examination to do.
Osu!
Showing posts with label rank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rank. Show all posts
Monday, July 18, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Countdown to Promotion: Penultimate Week
My promotion for sandan (third degree black belt) starts next Friday (July 8). I wish I had another six months to prepare, or better yet a year, but I don't. If you're new to the blog, here are the important details: Promotions in my style are fairly rigorous physically (but not insanely so - we don't regularly hospitalize people during promotions or anything) and are taking place this year over a three day weekend. I've been training since 1988, but I took a 12 year break from 1994 - 2006, and another year from late 2008 to late 2009, so I'm nowhere near as skilled as I should be.
Assuming you're trying to peak for an event like a promotion, a major tournament, or whatever kind of karate event you're participating in, there are a few things you should be doing. Note that I'm going to assume that you: a) are not a professional athlete - no 3/day workout schemes here, I assume you have a real life that can't be put totally on hold; b) not a beginner - if you've been training for 3 months and you're testing for your first yellow stripe or whatever in two weeks, you need to just keep on training, not peaking; and c) not injured. If you're hurt then you need to be dealing with that injury.
The first thing is to come to terms with what you can and cannot do in the last two weeks before a promotion. If you've been training for years you're not going to get siginificantly better, skill-wise, in two weeks - you're not getting any better at kicking and punching. You might be ablea to fix some technical errors of memory - for example, suppose you tend to punch with the wrong hand at a certain point in a kata - that's something you can work on, but if you just suck at something, you're probably still going to suck when the test date arrives.
You're also not going to get significantly stronger in two weeks. Unless you are brand new to strength training (which you shouldn't be) neurological adaptions are slow to come by, and you can't build much muscle tissue at all in such a short time. Getting stronger takes years, not weeks.
Your'e also not going to get much leaner in two weeks. If you still have bodyfat to lose it's not going to happen now - putting yourself into a serious energy deficit at this point in time will leave you depleted and weak for your test, which is NOT how you want to present yourself. If you're competing in a weight class event that's another story, but otherwise don't run yourself down by cutting back on food.
What you can do is improve your conditioning. Maybe not by miles, but you still have time to add a few extra percent to your endurance while maintaining your skill and strength. Here's what you have to do:
This week do some planned overtraining (sometimes called over-reaching). Here's how:
Assuming you're trying to peak for an event like a promotion, a major tournament, or whatever kind of karate event you're participating in, there are a few things you should be doing. Note that I'm going to assume that you: a) are not a professional athlete - no 3/day workout schemes here, I assume you have a real life that can't be put totally on hold; b) not a beginner - if you've been training for 3 months and you're testing for your first yellow stripe or whatever in two weeks, you need to just keep on training, not peaking; and c) not injured. If you're hurt then you need to be dealing with that injury.
The first thing is to come to terms with what you can and cannot do in the last two weeks before a promotion. If you've been training for years you're not going to get siginificantly better, skill-wise, in two weeks - you're not getting any better at kicking and punching. You might be ablea to fix some technical errors of memory - for example, suppose you tend to punch with the wrong hand at a certain point in a kata - that's something you can work on, but if you just suck at something, you're probably still going to suck when the test date arrives.
You're also not going to get significantly stronger in two weeks. Unless you are brand new to strength training (which you shouldn't be) neurological adaptions are slow to come by, and you can't build much muscle tissue at all in such a short time. Getting stronger takes years, not weeks.
Your'e also not going to get much leaner in two weeks. If you still have bodyfat to lose it's not going to happen now - putting yourself into a serious energy deficit at this point in time will leave you depleted and weak for your test, which is NOT how you want to present yourself. If you're competing in a weight class event that's another story, but otherwise don't run yourself down by cutting back on food.
What you can do is improve your conditioning. Maybe not by miles, but you still have time to add a few extra percent to your endurance while maintaining your skill and strength. Here's what you have to do:
This week do some planned overtraining (sometimes called over-reaching). Here's how:
- Every day do a hard session of skill training. Don't focus on any one thing - remember, you're not going to improve much. Do a few reps of everything in your syllabus - every kata, every combination, etc. This is the time to make sure there aren't any kinks in your skills. You're not going to develop wicked spinning kicks now, but if you haven't done any in three months you can sharpen them up quite a bit. If you want to devote some time to really focusing on one thing, like your punches, do it after the test. If you are sparring keep the pace high but the contact very controlled - this is NOT the time to do hard full contact sparring (because of the injury risk).
- Follow each skill session with a serious conditioning session. As always, think in terms of doing high intensity intervals - work very hard for 10-45 seconds, rest, repeat. Jump rope, sprint, do kettlebell swings, air squats, thrusters, burpees, bike sprints, etc. Rotate your efforts - don't choose the same thing every day. And don't do exercises that you've never done before - the soreness from starting swings for the first time can really hamper your efforts the rest of the week. Also, do more than you think is probably good for you - really toast yourself. And DON'T use karate skills for this part of your workout - don't do kicks until you're gasping for air. It's bad for your kicks.
- Do just enough strength work to maintain your strength levels. Maybe twice this week do an even more abbreviated session than usual - and follow it with skill training and more conditioning.
- If you can handle it, add a second conditioning session in the morning. I try to get in a 4 minute workout - Tabata style sets of swings and thrusters with a kettlebell (Tabata protocol means 20s work/ 10 s of rest/ repeat).
- Do light stretching every day. You're not going to work yourself into a split for the first time, but you want to work near the limits of your range of motion for all your muscles every day to stay limber and help with recovery.
- Eat plenty of clean food. DON'T cheat by chowing down on ice cream and candy - instead eat plenty of protein and carbs in the form of meat, protein shakes, and starchy root vegetables - think lots of steak and sweet potatoes - to keep glycogen stores high and to improve muscle recovery. This is NOT the time to try to trim off some excess weight - for two reasons. First, cutting calories will hamper your body's ability to adapt to the training and make it more likely that you stay sore or get some mild injuries. Second, if you managed to change your body composition now you'd throw off your balance and technique and you won't have time to adjust before the test.
- Make a special effort to cut back on possibly inflammatory foods. Even if you think you're okay with dairy, this is not the time to push it. Cut back on dairy, grains like rice and corn (you shouldn't be eating wheat ever anyway), vegetable oils (again, you shouldn't ever eat them, but...) and peanuts.
- Do a TON of recovery work. Foam roll yourself, use a self - massaging tool on sore spots (even better, get a massage or two, if you can afford them), sleep extra, eat more often (this is the week to be less than strict on your intermittent fasting schedule).
- Supplement with creatine, beta alanine, and acetyl-l carnitine to improve endurance. Will they help? Maybe, maybe not, but if you have the money this is the time to splurge. Remember, we're peaking!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Spirit Training
I"m not sure how common this is (though I suspect it is pretty common) but my style tends to get together for extra - intense workouts every so often in a large group setting. We do it for the new year (Kagami Biraki), an annual beach training, an occasional black belt only training - maybe 2-4 times per year. Not every person attends every workout, but if you're in the area you're expected to make it to most of them.
The workouts are ineveitably preceeded and postceeded by some social interactions, as people are gathering who don't normally train together, and usually some meeting type stuff - announcements, administrative stuff, etc. Then the workout.
These workouts are not very technical - there are usually a lot of people involved with a broad cross-section of skills, and communication is often difficult due to the size of the group. The goal here is not fine tuning anybody's technique. We're also usually packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, so nobody's going to do much in the way of moving - think lots of punches, lots of blocks, lots of squats/ knees, lots of pushups and crunches, and lots of kiais.
If you're not a martial artist you might not appreciate how taxing it is to, say, throw a thousand punches into the air, but if you're really executing with full force that's quite a workout. Obviously it's possible to pace yourself and kind of half-ass the whole thing, but we try not to. After all, you're surrounded by your senpai - your seniors - and you don't want to be the guy slacking off in the middle of the group when everybody else is giving 100%.
Now if you're a regular reader of this blog you know I'm not a fan of marathon workouts. Long workouts lead to two results - either you pace yourself, which means spending a lot of time practicing half speed techniques, or you don't pace yourself and wind up exhausted, which means spending a lot of time practicing sloppy techniques. Either way it's the wrong kind of neurological programming.
So why do I go to these events? There are a few reasons. There's a social dimension to them, of course (funny story - I'm lined up, randomly, next to this guy who seems familiar. I vaguely remember him having been around when I went for my nidan promotion four years ago. I talk to him, and he agrees that we saw each other then, but he knows me from elsewhere. Turns out he was a year ahead of me in high school and we were on the football team together!) There's a certain amount of social pressure to show up - the seniors like it when you attend these events. But there's also a useful training aspect to the workouts.
Training to exhaustion, if you do it right (and by "do it right" I mean put real effort into every technique - I mean don't pace yourself) you're going to get a few benefits. First, you're going to practice executing technique while exhausted - there are compensations you have to make, and it's not going to hurt to be familiar with them. Should that be a primary focus of your training? Of course not. But once in a while you should remember what it feels like to throw a knee when you're exhausted, and practice mustering up force in your techniques while gasping for air.
This kind of training has an effect on your spirit - your will. Think about the euphoria people express after finishing their first marathon or climbing a mountain. Some of it is probably endorphins, sure. But you also gain confidence in your ability to push through adversity, to push your own body to extremes, to work at your limit. Most of your training should be done when you're fresh, in short bursts, which is great for developing skill, but it doesn't tell you anything about your ability to push the limits of your endurance.
Making it through these workouts is a bonding experience and a confidence building experience. There might be an endurance training effect, but I wouldn't swear to it - not if you're doing these things infrequently, which is all you should be doing.
Here are the secrets to benefiting from spirit training:
Osu.
The workouts are ineveitably preceeded and postceeded by some social interactions, as people are gathering who don't normally train together, and usually some meeting type stuff - announcements, administrative stuff, etc. Then the workout.
These workouts are not very technical - there are usually a lot of people involved with a broad cross-section of skills, and communication is often difficult due to the size of the group. The goal here is not fine tuning anybody's technique. We're also usually packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, so nobody's going to do much in the way of moving - think lots of punches, lots of blocks, lots of squats/ knees, lots of pushups and crunches, and lots of kiais.
If you're not a martial artist you might not appreciate how taxing it is to, say, throw a thousand punches into the air, but if you're really executing with full force that's quite a workout. Obviously it's possible to pace yourself and kind of half-ass the whole thing, but we try not to. After all, you're surrounded by your senpai - your seniors - and you don't want to be the guy slacking off in the middle of the group when everybody else is giving 100%.
Now if you're a regular reader of this blog you know I'm not a fan of marathon workouts. Long workouts lead to two results - either you pace yourself, which means spending a lot of time practicing half speed techniques, or you don't pace yourself and wind up exhausted, which means spending a lot of time practicing sloppy techniques. Either way it's the wrong kind of neurological programming.
So why do I go to these events? There are a few reasons. There's a social dimension to them, of course (funny story - I'm lined up, randomly, next to this guy who seems familiar. I vaguely remember him having been around when I went for my nidan promotion four years ago. I talk to him, and he agrees that we saw each other then, but he knows me from elsewhere. Turns out he was a year ahead of me in high school and we were on the football team together!) There's a certain amount of social pressure to show up - the seniors like it when you attend these events. But there's also a useful training aspect to the workouts.
Training to exhaustion, if you do it right (and by "do it right" I mean put real effort into every technique - I mean don't pace yourself) you're going to get a few benefits. First, you're going to practice executing technique while exhausted - there are compensations you have to make, and it's not going to hurt to be familiar with them. Should that be a primary focus of your training? Of course not. But once in a while you should remember what it feels like to throw a knee when you're exhausted, and practice mustering up force in your techniques while gasping for air.
This kind of training has an effect on your spirit - your will. Think about the euphoria people express after finishing their first marathon or climbing a mountain. Some of it is probably endorphins, sure. But you also gain confidence in your ability to push through adversity, to push your own body to extremes, to work at your limit. Most of your training should be done when you're fresh, in short bursts, which is great for developing skill, but it doesn't tell you anything about your ability to push the limits of your endurance.
Making it through these workouts is a bonding experience and a confidence building experience. There might be an endurance training effect, but I wouldn't swear to it - not if you're doing these things infrequently, which is all you should be doing.
Here are the secrets to benefiting from spirit training:
- Don't pace yourself. Really work - put everything you have into the first punch, even if you know that you'll pay for it later.
- Focus on technique. Don't get too, too sloppy - you want to be sore afterwards but not injured. You're not going to be crisp on kick #273 - but don't throw your back out either.
- Sleep as much as you can the night before and after.
- Double your protein intake for the two days after the workout. I recommend my magic recovery formula - 12 oz. milk, 2 scoops MetRx chocolate protein powder (not the meal replacement, just the protein), Rice Krispies to taste, once or twice a day. Any animal based protein will do. Probably not a good idea long term, but for a day or two it really helps with recovery. If you normally do intermittent fasting, don't schedule any fasts for the days after the workout. You need to be in full anabolism to recover.
- Double your fish oil for the same two days to control the inflammation.
- A little bit is good; a lot is not. If you run a dojo and you try to do these, for example, every Sunday, you're doing the wrong kind of training. Your students will start to pace themselves, and if they don't, they'll deeply ingrain sloppy karate into their nervous systems. In my style we do these at most maybe 4 times a year - which seems about perfect to me.
Osu.
Friday, February 25, 2011
What should rank mean?
Before I start, let me just clarify that this post is purely my opinion on this subject and is not by any means the official position of Seido Karate or meant as a criticism of any style or person in particular. Having said that, I wanted to talk a little about what I think rank means, or should mean, in karate.
I distinctly remember many years ago hearing about a policy at a particular martial arts. This school awarded promotions, or new belts, automatically upon a student's completion of a certain number of hours of classtime. I don't remember the algorithm, but you can imagine what it looked like - take 50 hours of classes to go up a belt, maybe 500 total hours to get a black belt (I could be way off on the number, but that's not the point).
To put it simply, I was horrified. I felt that a rank - a color of belt - was supposed to represent a particular skill level. I imagined legions of students slogging away in class, barely paying attention to what they were doing, then beaming with pride as they accepted their undeserved black belts. It seemed like a betrayal of everything rank was supposed to mean - mastery of a martial art. I believed that rank ought to represent a pure indicator of skill.
Over the years my beliefs in this area began to shift. In college I trained with a wheelchair bound student - Kevin - who everyone should read about here and here. Seriously, stop reading this and read those two articles, they're more important than this one. You can come back when you're done. I'll wait.
There are many other examples that affected my thinking. My teacher, Christopher Caille, who is a fantastic martial artist, had some knee problems (this was a long time ago). He couldn't kick above his waist and his movement was somewhat hobbled (although he could still kick my ass at any time). If you walked in and, not knowing who he was, watched him perform a kata, especially one of the more athletic ones, you might think his skill less than it was. Despite that, it would have seemed ridiculous to reduce his rank. His situation was temporary, though - but what about aging karateka? Eventually all martial artists lose their physical ability to perform. Should they lose rank as this happened?
There are other examples along the continuum that made me think more. I'm not a physically gifted ahtlete. I can look okay doing karate, but I might never look great (in the sense of having really sparkling technique, etc.) What if I work much harder, for a longer span of time, than a more gifted student, and still fall short of their ability? Should I definitely be ranked below them? What about an extremely un-talented student who worked very hard for many, many years? For them to languish in the kyu ranks forever would seem unfair. On the other hand, promotions shouldn't be completely unconnected to skill, not if high rank is to have any meaning at all.
Recently I was thinking about this matter some more. What should the basis of rank be - work done or ability? Or something else? To answer that I backed up a little anad asked: what is the purpose of rank?
I am well aware that there are styles in which there is no formal ranking system. I have no problem with that concept, and I'm not interested in defending the idea that a formal ranking system is a good thing. But in a style, like mine, that does have a formal ranking system, what is its purpose?
First, rank serves an instructional purpose by conferring authority on a student. If you're a white belt doing something, and the yellow belt near you corrects your form, then a sandan comes by and corrects your form in a slightly different way, you should listen to the sandan. Is the sandan always right? Well, no - the yellow belt might be right in that particular situation, but in general you can count on the guy who's been training in the style for ten years to know better than the guy who has been there six months.
Who should have this instructional authority - the person who has worked more or the person who is more talented? I believe that the person who has put more work in - who has trained harder and longer - is usually going to be a better teacher, will have more transmissable knowledge, than a more gifted athlete who might have better technique. Why? Because the harder worker will have to learn all the subtle tricks and adjustments to technique that make them work, while a gifted athlete will often do them unconsciously. The best teacher I ever had, I think, in terms of teaching basic technique, was a guy who was an extremely poor athlete and very uncoordinated. He'd had to master every "trick in the book" to get his body to do anything that resembled karate, and so if you had any kind of technical problem you could be sure that he'd faced and overcome it.
Rank also serves as a cue for modeling. If you walk into a class and see two people you don't know doing something differently from one another - whether it be attitude-wise or technique-wise - you should probably imitate the one of higher rank. Now, do you want to model the more talented athlete more or the harder working athlete more?
Again, I think you'd be better off modeling the person who has put in more work. Why? I'll put it simply - you can try to mimic the attributes of a talented karateka, but you're never going to be any more talented than you already are. Talent isn't learnable. On the other hand, work ethic and dedication are things you can learn, or develop. You're going to be a lot better off following the hardest worker in class and doing what they do than following the most talented person - unless they happen to be the same person.
Rank also serves as a guide for respect. Take my style as an example. I know only a small fraction of the people who train in Seido Karate personally. When I meet new people in the style, I treat them all with respect (something I try to do in general with everybody), but when a higher ranking person says something I'll listen better. I'll listen to their stories, consider their opinions, and generally try to treat them in the classic way we're supposed to treat our elders.
Again, the question is, should this kind of deference be shown to the more talented practitioner or the one who has put in more work? Again, I think that the answer is the one who has put in more work, for two reasons. First, I think they will generally show more insight - understanding comes from hours of training, not an inborn sense of coordination. Second, in general we want to show that we value hard work so we encourage our juniors to work hard - showing the greatest respect for natural talent doesn't encourage beginners to work hard, it encourages them to wish they had more talent. Showing the greatest respect for those who have put in a lifetime of hard work encourages beginners to try to earn that respect - by working hard for a lifetime. That is something they can hope to do, talented or not.
I can't think of a sense of rank in martial arts that ought to be based on proficiency as opposed to time and effort. The harder working, more experienced karateka should be ranked as high or higher than the more talented, less experienced and less hard working person who may show more proficiency due to having more talent.
All of which means that, in the end, I think rank should be given according to something very similar to the formula that used to horrify me. Hard, consistent training should result in promotion - even if the student isn't as talented or can't move as well as their more talented peers. I'm not sure the policy should be so cut and dried - maybe not a specific number of classes - and I'm all in favor of some allowances being made for people who train more often on their own (as opposed to classes in the dojo) and for really gifted athletes who master the movements and syllabus very quickly. But, overall, I think that hard work repeated over time should be the basis of rank.
What about the student who trains consistently but doesn't improve? That's a problem - not with your ranking system but with your teaching. How can a student show up class after class and not get better? If they show up and don't work hard then perhaps you should be encouraging them to find another hobby. If they show up and work hard yet don't improve then their instructor needs to figure out the problem.
This summer I hope to test for my sandan. Should I get it, that extra stripe on my belt will mean something - it means that my lower ranked classmates should pay attention when I give them advice, listen to my war stories, and treat me with a (small amount of) deference. They should do so not because I have extra yellow threads stitched into my belt or because I coughed up the promotion fee, but because in order to get that stripe I had to spend many, many hours working at karate, and while doing so I've hopefully figured out some things they don't know yet. Will it mean that I'm a better fighter than every lower ranking student? Not by a long shot. But it means I should know enough to teach them all a thing or two, even if it's while I'm getting my butt kicked by a younger, stronger, more athletic student. And in just the same way, while I listen to everybody and try to learn from everyone, I pay extra careful attention to my seniors, and indulge them longer if their stories seem boring (which is very rare anyway), and know that they all have more than a few tricks they can teach me if I'm lucky during any given sparring session.
Osu.
I distinctly remember many years ago hearing about a policy at a particular martial arts. This school awarded promotions, or new belts, automatically upon a student's completion of a certain number of hours of classtime. I don't remember the algorithm, but you can imagine what it looked like - take 50 hours of classes to go up a belt, maybe 500 total hours to get a black belt (I could be way off on the number, but that's not the point).
To put it simply, I was horrified. I felt that a rank - a color of belt - was supposed to represent a particular skill level. I imagined legions of students slogging away in class, barely paying attention to what they were doing, then beaming with pride as they accepted their undeserved black belts. It seemed like a betrayal of everything rank was supposed to mean - mastery of a martial art. I believed that rank ought to represent a pure indicator of skill.
Over the years my beliefs in this area began to shift. In college I trained with a wheelchair bound student - Kevin - who everyone should read about here and here. Seriously, stop reading this and read those two articles, they're more important than this one. You can come back when you're done. I'll wait.
There are many other examples that affected my thinking. My teacher, Christopher Caille, who is a fantastic martial artist, had some knee problems (this was a long time ago). He couldn't kick above his waist and his movement was somewhat hobbled (although he could still kick my ass at any time). If you walked in and, not knowing who he was, watched him perform a kata, especially one of the more athletic ones, you might think his skill less than it was. Despite that, it would have seemed ridiculous to reduce his rank. His situation was temporary, though - but what about aging karateka? Eventually all martial artists lose their physical ability to perform. Should they lose rank as this happened?
There are other examples along the continuum that made me think more. I'm not a physically gifted ahtlete. I can look okay doing karate, but I might never look great (in the sense of having really sparkling technique, etc.) What if I work much harder, for a longer span of time, than a more gifted student, and still fall short of their ability? Should I definitely be ranked below them? What about an extremely un-talented student who worked very hard for many, many years? For them to languish in the kyu ranks forever would seem unfair. On the other hand, promotions shouldn't be completely unconnected to skill, not if high rank is to have any meaning at all.
Recently I was thinking about this matter some more. What should the basis of rank be - work done or ability? Or something else? To answer that I backed up a little anad asked: what is the purpose of rank?
I am well aware that there are styles in which there is no formal ranking system. I have no problem with that concept, and I'm not interested in defending the idea that a formal ranking system is a good thing. But in a style, like mine, that does have a formal ranking system, what is its purpose?
First, rank serves an instructional purpose by conferring authority on a student. If you're a white belt doing something, and the yellow belt near you corrects your form, then a sandan comes by and corrects your form in a slightly different way, you should listen to the sandan. Is the sandan always right? Well, no - the yellow belt might be right in that particular situation, but in general you can count on the guy who's been training in the style for ten years to know better than the guy who has been there six months.
Who should have this instructional authority - the person who has worked more or the person who is more talented? I believe that the person who has put more work in - who has trained harder and longer - is usually going to be a better teacher, will have more transmissable knowledge, than a more gifted athlete who might have better technique. Why? Because the harder worker will have to learn all the subtle tricks and adjustments to technique that make them work, while a gifted athlete will often do them unconsciously. The best teacher I ever had, I think, in terms of teaching basic technique, was a guy who was an extremely poor athlete and very uncoordinated. He'd had to master every "trick in the book" to get his body to do anything that resembled karate, and so if you had any kind of technical problem you could be sure that he'd faced and overcome it.
Rank also serves as a cue for modeling. If you walk into a class and see two people you don't know doing something differently from one another - whether it be attitude-wise or technique-wise - you should probably imitate the one of higher rank. Now, do you want to model the more talented athlete more or the harder working athlete more?
Again, I think you'd be better off modeling the person who has put in more work. Why? I'll put it simply - you can try to mimic the attributes of a talented karateka, but you're never going to be any more talented than you already are. Talent isn't learnable. On the other hand, work ethic and dedication are things you can learn, or develop. You're going to be a lot better off following the hardest worker in class and doing what they do than following the most talented person - unless they happen to be the same person.
Rank also serves as a guide for respect. Take my style as an example. I know only a small fraction of the people who train in Seido Karate personally. When I meet new people in the style, I treat them all with respect (something I try to do in general with everybody), but when a higher ranking person says something I'll listen better. I'll listen to their stories, consider their opinions, and generally try to treat them in the classic way we're supposed to treat our elders.
Again, the question is, should this kind of deference be shown to the more talented practitioner or the one who has put in more work? Again, I think that the answer is the one who has put in more work, for two reasons. First, I think they will generally show more insight - understanding comes from hours of training, not an inborn sense of coordination. Second, in general we want to show that we value hard work so we encourage our juniors to work hard - showing the greatest respect for natural talent doesn't encourage beginners to work hard, it encourages them to wish they had more talent. Showing the greatest respect for those who have put in a lifetime of hard work encourages beginners to try to earn that respect - by working hard for a lifetime. That is something they can hope to do, talented or not.
I can't think of a sense of rank in martial arts that ought to be based on proficiency as opposed to time and effort. The harder working, more experienced karateka should be ranked as high or higher than the more talented, less experienced and less hard working person who may show more proficiency due to having more talent.
All of which means that, in the end, I think rank should be given according to something very similar to the formula that used to horrify me. Hard, consistent training should result in promotion - even if the student isn't as talented or can't move as well as their more talented peers. I'm not sure the policy should be so cut and dried - maybe not a specific number of classes - and I'm all in favor of some allowances being made for people who train more often on their own (as opposed to classes in the dojo) and for really gifted athletes who master the movements and syllabus very quickly. But, overall, I think that hard work repeated over time should be the basis of rank.
What about the student who trains consistently but doesn't improve? That's a problem - not with your ranking system but with your teaching. How can a student show up class after class and not get better? If they show up and don't work hard then perhaps you should be encouraging them to find another hobby. If they show up and work hard yet don't improve then their instructor needs to figure out the problem.
This summer I hope to test for my sandan. Should I get it, that extra stripe on my belt will mean something - it means that my lower ranked classmates should pay attention when I give them advice, listen to my war stories, and treat me with a (small amount of) deference. They should do so not because I have extra yellow threads stitched into my belt or because I coughed up the promotion fee, but because in order to get that stripe I had to spend many, many hours working at karate, and while doing so I've hopefully figured out some things they don't know yet. Will it mean that I'm a better fighter than every lower ranking student? Not by a long shot. But it means I should know enough to teach them all a thing or two, even if it's while I'm getting my butt kicked by a younger, stronger, more athletic student. And in just the same way, while I listen to everybody and try to learn from everyone, I pay extra careful attention to my seniors, and indulge them longer if their stories seem boring (which is very rare anyway), and know that they all have more than a few tricks they can teach me if I'm lucky during any given sparring session.
Osu.
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