Rank, a personal meaning

 

 

The concept of rank is an interesting illusion, which in reality likely means something very different from what most imagine.

 

Rank matters very little to me these days. I have acquired rank many times from my instructors. No one ever talked about what it meant, or explained it’s nuances. Rank was simply what they awarded to me.

 

As time passed I began to  understand it not as an accomplishment rather the assumption of newer challenges or burdens that they were entrusting me with.

 

Rank has a place for beginners to become status symbols for goals achieved, but in time they come to realize each rank really means they are ready to assume greater challenges.

 

When you think about the dojo in the abstract it is just a place for everyone to come and train. Within the dojo everyone knows where everyone is as far as those studies go.

 

When I began my adult program with the members being accomplished adults in their own lives, I came to see what was going on in a different light.

 

I focused their training, in part funneling them towards their black belt examination (the ‘only’ test we ever use). It was a defining moment in my own life and I wanted them to be prepared as I was.

 

What I discovered is that they could not have cared less about the examination. All they were interested in doing was to keep training.

 

They did test and as dan's their training entered a new level, but the accomplishment of dan grade meant less to them than the training continued. And in my program the average the shodan kept training was in excess of 17 years. Then there were those who exceeded 30 years in their study.

 

As I began to understand more within the dojo for dan level, a different idea began to take place within the school. Dan grade meant so little as opposed to continuing training. I found it became more of a tool for me to focus on what challenges they needed.

 

Within my program, a Sho Dan was simply a place holder for new dans to undergo a very specific set of study, the tool kit for more advanced studies.

The Ni Dan was a lifetime study focused on what the individual wanted for their art.

The San Dan was another lifetime study, a continuation of their Ni Dan studies for life and the assumption of greater studies to preserve more of the art than just what they required.

In content there was little difference between Ni Dan and San Dan.

 

Totally separate was instructor qualification. There the candidate had to have completed at least 15 continuous years of their own instruction, showing they were progressing in San Dan studies and then undergoing a 5 year mentorship working with actual students to move forward in their own studies. They would show their own contributions on how the art would be shared by them, within the framework of our art. Only then would they become a qualified instructor.

 

All dans just wear plain black belts. All knew what everyone was working on anyway.

 

The instructors wear a black-red-white obi with the black side on the outside, appearing most often as another black belt. The color on the inside is not for recognition of accomplishment, but to remind oneself that by donning the obi they were taking on the instructor’s burden each and every time.

 

I did not belong to other associations and rank for social purposes was not needed.

 

The instructors did qualify for standard Isshinryu rank through my instructors, should they ever find the need to operate within Isshinryu.

 

No doubt a different dimension from what others do.

 

This has worked for me.