Earning a Belt....

Higher Learning

Higher Learning

Brown Belt
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
2,987
Reaction score
1
I had a good laugh at our lunchtime training session today and I thought I'd re-tell the story here to get some opinions.

My instructor has several affiliate academies in different locations with a variety of belt ranks teaching under our club banner. One of these affiliate clubs recently had a group of whitebelts fly into Melbourne (I won't mention from, where but its a decent flight of 5+ hours) to do some classes, get some privates and hopefully have the most senior of them receive his Blue Belt.

During their time here (a week or so) they turned up to around 2 classes and 1 private (they neglected to turn up for their second booked private due to being hungover) they spent most of their time drinking & shopping etc.

When it came time for the more experienced of them to test for his Blue my coach made him roll against one of our blue belts (10kg lighter than the white) and a 3 stripe whitebelt for his chance to earn his blue belt.

Side note:This is normal at my school as we usually have to either win in competition or win one (sometimes several) in class rolls when our coach decides we're ready to maybe move up a rank. Sometimes guys get graded sometimes they don't and they have to wait a little while until they get another chance.

Anyway this guy got tapped twice and therefore my coach did not award the guy his belt.

Fast forward a week and they'd all gone home only to email my coach and say they're cancelling their affiliation due to that guy not getting his belt... apparently they were really angry that they had spent the money flying over here and for privates (that they only attended 1 of) and did not get a new belt to show for it.

I had a good laugh at this as it seems hilarious to me they would prefer to have a head coach who likes to give out rank based on financial contribution rather than skill level.

What are your thoughts on this?
 
I think the right choice was made. If they didn't meet the standards and really showed more an interest in getting a belt rather than taking advantage of all the knowledge they could have gotten....it sort of shows where their heart really is...on themselves.

This was equally made evident by the fact that they broke affiliation over a blue belt promotion....that's really weak.
 
Expose them. Sounds like a Mcdojo in the making.
 
Yea the people he promotes reflects on him, some instructors would have gave that guy a blue belt thats the sad thing. I am never afraid blue belts because you never know if they got it in 3 months or 2 years.
 
i dont think anybody has the right to 'expect' the next belt
 
raines513 said:
Yea the people he promotes reflects on him, some instructors would have gave that guy a blue belt thats the sad thing. I am never afraid blue belts because you never know if they got it in 3 months or 2 years.
Click to expand...

Very true. You should be proud that your instructor stuck to his guns and didn't feel any pressure of promoting a student despite whatever distance they had to travel to get there. Also, it was very telling that they didn't hardly show up to train and even missed a private!
 
I heard that some Gracie has an online belt program. They could look into that.
 
Higher Learning said:
When it came time for the more experienced of them to test for his Blue my coach made him roll against one of our blue belts (10kg lighter than the white) and a 3 stripe whitebelt for his chance to earn his blue belt.

Side note:This is normal at my school as we usually have to either win in competition or win one (sometimes several) in class rolls when our coach decides we're ready to maybe move up a rank. Sometimes guys get graded sometimes they don't and they have to wait a little while until they get another chance.

What are your thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

I actually disapointed with this story.

I did not expect Rob to run his club that way. He did the right thing but the wrong way.

A white belt from an affiliate program flies in from 5+ hours.
He had no chance to ever succeed against your blue belt or even a white belt 3 stripes. even if you put the 10 kg difference.

I actually surprised to hear from the must win competition requirement as well!

I can already guess wich affiliation they are going to!
 
fricking awesome part on your instructor. where do those other guys live that a blue belt promotion is that big a deal? if there are no black belts around their area, are you saying they flew all the way to where you were to miss classes and privates so they could drink and shop? those guys also sound retarded and big headed and they were counting on them already good as promoted.
 
ASiAnVaLEtUDo said:
fricking awesome part on your instructor. where do those other guys live that a blue belt promotion is that big a deal? if there are no black belts around their area, are you saying they flew all the way to where you were to miss classes and privates so they could drink and shop? those guys also sound retarded and big headed and they were counting on them already good as promoted.
Click to expand...

You know that he is talking about Australia!
 
lechien, why do you think that it was an unfair way for this guy to earn his belt? don't you think a blue belt should be able to bet blue belts or at least survive without getting tapped for 5min against a whitebelt..?

oh and i sh9ould mention that occasionally even if the guy loses his match for grading, but puts up a tough fight or shows something special over 2-3 matches he'll get belted anyway...
 
Where did they fly in from?

Also, bit of a douche move from your instructor. So he has affiliate schools, and people are forced to travel, and spend lots of extra money simply to get 'promoted' by your man. Then he doesn't promote them because they enjoyed their holiday a bit too much? So what if they didn't turn up to both privates? They guy probably got pressured into staying out on what might be his only holiday for a long time? He went to the first one, so might not have thought it's a big deal. Obviously showing up hungover is another matter, and disrespectful.

As for the skill testing, obviously its hard to promote someone you never actually trained with, so a skill test may seem like a good gauge, but because he got tapped? So what? Maybe the other people had more experience, stronger, or just better skilled than him. Does that mean they deserve a blue belt more than him? I don't. If the guy put in his dues, and then your instructor gave the impression he would promote him if he was ready, then expect the guy to travel all that way under the impression he was getting a promotion (which to me is a terrible way of promoting, as things like this shit happen), this impression given by your instructor should have also stated that he be better not get tapped, or have some fun on his trip and miss a lesson or two.

But if he was a complete dick head to you and your club then disregard that, but still a rejection after money like that has been spent under a certain impression given is not smart. If he just came over on a whim, for fun, no biggie. But if your club and his arranged a belt promotion, of course he will expect one. Hopefully the guy can find instruction where he lives.
 
you're making a lot of assumptions...

they came to train with us because this guy thought he was ready to get graded, they are not required to fly in rob will go to see them at least 2x a year

the match system is just a chance for someone to show their abilties under pressure, if the guy was ready for his blue he either would have won or shown enough in the matches (and his time here) to be worth the belt...
 
Presuming your instructor made his expectations clear, then he did the right thing.
 
Sounds like the guy expected his promotion and didn't have his priorities right. I've traveled about the same distance and trained harder with no expectation of promotion.
 
Sounds like they do it to have a chat up line more than anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,907
Messages
55,454,506
Members
174,787
Latest member
Gladiator47

Share this page

Back
Top