Let’s face it. In the eyes of the uninitiated public, the karate black-belt is a joke, and for good reason.
For decades, martial arts school owners have gotten the advice of “industry consultants” that have prioritized profits over teaching. Some of these high profile consultants literally came from the auto sales industry and applied high pressure sales tactics to their business systems, systems that pressured parents into enrolled their child into a “black-belt club” and long-term contracts in order to keep them around for the optimal time. And what was the optimal time? Slickly presented research from these consultants showed that the average student stayed at a single martial arts school for about 3 years. So instead of looking at ways to keep them longer or to teach better classes, these consultants advised creating a system of regular promotions that would culminate in a student earning their black-belt within that time. The idea was to maximum the amount of money made on every student that walks into the dojo. This philosophy extended to a dojo’s children program as well.
In 2009, I opened Zen Martial Arts in Sacramento with two primary goals: to contribute towards helping the community and to raise the standards of what it means to be a karate black-belt. I originally learned from a Sensei that did give black-belts to youth, and I had awarded a “teen black-belt” myself to an extraordinary talented young student. But after thinking long and hard about our goals, I realized the entire concept of a youth black-belt just didn’t fit with our primary vision of raising black-belt standards
.It was a challenging divorce—one that forced me as a teacher to re-examine every bit of our children’s curriculum. You see, without the carrot of the black-belt, my focus now had to be completely on student progress. But not student progress as expressed through the external rank.
I looked to my friends in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and found a rank structure there outlined for youth that both acknowledged the progress of a child and at the same time preserved the integrity of the adult ranks. Our students aged 8-14 for example, would now spend upwards of a full calendar year before testing for a new belt and are thus not eligible to test for green belt until they are able to participate in our adult class, usually around the age of 15.
When I shared this plan, dozens of my fellow martial arts Sensei and a few mentors said, “you will lose students in droves. All your kids will quit.”
But the most extraordinary thing happened.
Not only did they stay, THEY GOT BETTER.
My young students (nor their parents) didn’t spend as much time worrying about testing, promotion, or belt colors. That all faded into the background while training, technique, and proper mindset was brought back to the forefront. As a teacher, I no longer felt obligated to shove new techniques down my students throat just so that they could meet the “requirements” for a new stripe or belt. It gave us room to breathe and time to explore techniques in more depth in a way that I found more effective for youth. It turned out to be one of the best decisions that I have made in our school.
I imagine there are some Sensei and school owners reading this now gnashing their teeth, assuming that I expect them to do the same thing. I don’t. You black-belts represent your school and their values and ours represent ours.
But I do want to encourage you to think critically about WHY you award black-belts to children. If you believe it is the best thing for your school and students, by all means continue. But if you feel like I did, yet are afraid to make changes, I hope you can see from our example that is quite possible to retain your students as well as embody your vision on what you a black-belt means to you.