Friday, May 9, 2014
Learning To Wait
My first black belts worked for 3.5 years (HARD) before I promoted them. The second group will be more like 4 years. I will keep expanding that, my end goal is to have a black belt at my academy take around 5 years. In the bigger picture of traditional martial arts that is not that long, but in the martial arts culture surrounding me right now I see children being awarded black belt-- SOLID black, not poom-- rank in as little as 2 years. In my opinion that makes a joke out of what earning a black belt means. I have students waiting even at intermediate belts sometimes as long as a year! Bottom line is they are promoted when the skill standard is met. I do take each individual’s development under consideration- but at some point, if there needs to be more work done on a skill before promoting, they will have to wait. They will need to wait, and work and show that they have the desire to improve. They need to show willingness to learn and work even if progress feels slow or frustrating. Real understanding, real teaching and learning is always a process of tearing down and rebuilding to make the whole stronger. You don’t find a weak spot and cover over it with flimsy reinforcements and compensations. You don’t walk around a hole in your floor, you repair it, even if it means more work than you intended. There is always more cost, more time and more work than it looked like from the start.
It is not only about developing real skill, that is the external measure. In our current world of fun, fast and easy this develops work ethic. This develops true self esteem. If a teacher in my position does not absolutely understand how to use positive reinforcement at some point those false “Good job!” praises become a lie. Eventually a student figures that out for themselves- or maybe they don’t and that is part of this entitlement epidemic we are facing- eventually they see that it not real, it is not truth, it is meant to make them FEEL good and not BE good. What is that teaching? Ask anyone that has excelled at anything if getting to that level of accomplishment always felt good. Ask them about fun, fast and easy. In our industry there is so much opportunity to develop these qualities in ourselves and in all of the people we serve. I will continue to make them wait. I believe that learning to wait and learning to work should be taught and that it is a skill to be developed just like a kick or a strike.
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I have had discussions about this topic with many people lately. Many of whom are school owners, and some just good friends who are not involved in martial arts at all.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to look around and contrast and compare black belts. I too have been very frustrated at seeing young black belts who, to me, have no business wearing a belt that I feel I worked so hard for. Heck, I have seen many not-so-young black belts and felt the same way.
I think what we, as teachers, have to do is determined what we want to see from OUR black belts. Maybe its not about time. If someone can do what we require in 5 years, great, if it takes 10, so be it. Forget what other people do, because in the end we have to be comfortable with our result and guide our students in the best way we know how. Delivery is key, and if we do it right, our students will understand our vision.
When all is said and done, people will recognize the difference. They will recognize the good schools from the bad, and the real Black Belts from the "others". When we show our community what our black belts can do and how they act, they will get it.
Paul, I absolutely agree. That 5 year idea is just that, an idea. Honestly I'm working to take the time frame out of it all together. When I first opened I was following the model that I knew was successful....for business. Around a year or so in I wasn't happy with the quality of my students and came to realize it was settle or figure something out to make them better. It wasn't their fault, I was responsible and my business model was to blame. So I have slowly revamped the curriculum over the past three years. I felt like I couldn't just pull the rug out from everyone, I was the one that set the expectations, they had no way to measure for themselves. The skill quality has dramatically improved, but the main measure I have is that no students or parents asking how much TIME until their next level. They ask questions about the future but mainly they focus on they need to work right now. They focus on the skill and not the time. I have a young dojang at 4 years old. It is like a student, I am planting seeds that won't bear fruit until there has been time to develop. I can imagine how great it will be when it is ripe but until then I'm doing my best to tend and water. The UBBT is going to help equip me to lead them to the next level.
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