{"id":257,"date":"2020-09-02T19:51:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T19:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2023-04-18T21:05:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T21:05:50","slug":"promotion-and-what-a-black-belt-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/02\/promotion-and-what-a-black-belt-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Promotion And What A Black Belt Means"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Promotion in Kajukenbo Combatives is based on the totality of several factors to include knowledge of curriculum, participation, attendance and overall attitude.&nbsp; Promotion in Kajukenbo Combatives is earned; not given. Like anything in life that is truly worth learning, it takes practice.&nbsp; Just as a pianist may spend 30 minutes a week with a teacher, he\/she must spend hours on their own practicing to perfect their musical skills.&nbsp; While there is practice time during scheduled classes, efforts should be made outside of class to practice the curriculum. (To our younger students, school first then martial arts.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the big question everyone has on their mind when they start martial arts, \u201chow do I get a black belt?\u201d.&nbsp; I believe this is a fair question; knowing a path to take to achieve a certain goal helps drive motivation.&nbsp; But the answer to this question is not so simple.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, we have to look at what a black belt really means.&nbsp; There may be a misconception that wearing a certain color of belt automatically makes you invincible or able to overcome anyone and everything.&nbsp; In the words of BJJ black belt Kurt Osiander, \u201ceveryone gets got\u201d.&nbsp; Even extremely proficient black belts have been bested by lesser ranked students from time to time. Does this make a person not worthy of being a black belt?&nbsp; No.&nbsp; It simply means something was working in the other person\u2019s favor at that moment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are lots of martial arts programs out there that offer mail order black belts or promises of a black belt in two years.&nbsp; In my opinion, this threatens the legitimacy and overall meaning of the rank.&nbsp; To this end, I will not promote students under the age of 17 to the rank of black belt.&nbsp; This is in keeping with the high standards of my instructor and his instructor before him (late Sigung Trent Sera).&nbsp; Nor will I promote a person who has a bad attitude, lack of self-control, or intentions to use their knowledge\/skills in the unjustified harm of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understand that a black belt is a stepping stone on the martial arts path.&nbsp; It signifies a certain level of accomplishment which you should be proud of but does not mean there is not more to be learned.&nbsp; My teacher, Sigung Greg, always said, \u201cI will never be a master\u201d.&nbsp; I believe there is a lot of truth in this statement.&nbsp; Be confident in what you know but humble enough to continue learning more from others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A black belt is someone who has put in the long hours training, made the sacrifices to attend classes and has a good understanding of the curriculum and movement of the human body.&nbsp; He\/she can also take on a mentor and teaching role and above all else strives to be a good person.&nbsp; They also have the humility to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d on occasion and seek an answer from others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students who get fixated on chasing a black belt in their training will find the learning less enjoyable.&nbsp; Let go of the fixation, focus on the training and have fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Promotion in Kajukenbo Combatives is based on the totality of several factors to include knowledge of curriculum, participation, attendance and overall attitude.&nbsp; Promotion in Kajukenbo Combatives is earned; not given. Like anything in life that is truly worth learning, it takes practice.&nbsp; Just as a pianist may spend 30 minutes a week with a teacher, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-instructional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajucombatives.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}