"Learn your art, don't collect belts."
I agree!!
Stop looking at what someone has or has done. You should only be concern with you doing your best. The color of your belt means very little. having skills and being able to apply what you are being taught is what matters. Take your time. You should not be in any rush to get a promotion or belt. You should try to learn all you can.
When I began learning karate I was a brown belt in another art. My instructor said I could wear my brown belt, but I have to learn everything needed to know for the next rank before I would be able to test for my next rank. I told him I am happy wearing a white belt. The rank is not important to me. I only want to learn. He insisted that I wear my brown and I further insisted that I wear a white belt. He didn't have any white belts m size. He had me put on a green belt for that day until my white belt came in. I wore a white belt for years until one day he and his assistant instructor came to me and told me not to wear that belt again.He then had me put on a brown belt. I became a brown belt in karate. I kept that belt for years before being promoted to black. I could have been promoted years prior but having a belt didn't matter to me. Apparently I was a portion of the talk within our organization. I was invited to functions and training were only black belts were invited or participated, but I didn't have a black belt. They all talked about me not caring about rank. They put pressure on my sensei to promote me.
Even today rank means little or nothing to me. I am invited to teach in other people schools and to teach those that are higher in rank because of my knowledge. I enjoy training and sharing and learning. I don't care if you are a white belt and you have something you can teach me I will listen and learn.
There will always be people with a higher rank than you.
I've had folks get promoted faster than me, and some much slower.
Most of the folks that I've trained with have quit. So only a handful are left that began around the same time as me.
In the big picture it really doesn't matter.
Now I will say that it is a bit of an ego thing and we all have times we feel we should have more rank than others. But the important thing is to try to clear those thoughts out of your mind and just train your best. Become a mature martial artist and know that you'll reach a point where it becomes about learning and how you are as a person, not the color of your belt or what rank your certificates say.
As an example in our style once you get your black belt you get limited by time restrictions anyway. So unless your sensei can justify promoting you early, all one can do is train, learn and get better.
After 7 months of training I was awarded an orange belt. Seven years later I was awarded a brown one. I wore that orange belt for 7 years, gaining skill the whole time. I was an orange belt with black belt skills. the higher belt rank never did get me out of trouble, but the skills sure did.
My suggestion is to be the best martial artist you can be. Put on a white belt, it won't diminish your skill.
Learn your art, don't just collect belts.
“A black belt only covers two inches of your ***. You have to cover the rest.”
― Royce Gracie
Basically a belt means nothing except a way of recognising levels. This does not mean a lower ranked student is inferior to another student and the fact that your instructor said that is quite unbelievable. So what, seriously there is more pressure on you the higher your belt is in rank.
Martial arts is not about collecting rank, its about gaining skills, discipline and self respect. The belts are nothing to do with you honestly, they are only there for the instructor to recognize the level achieved and understand where his/her student are at.
I feel you are still to young and inexperienced to realize what martial arts is about because you are still too focused on the belt. If you stick with this then one day you are going to realize how ridiculous this is.
Learn to have some humility, it makes for a better martial artist and more importantly, a better person.
Hello to all, I am currently an orange belt. I have been doing karate for about 4 yrs and I am only an orange belt. It am disappointed in that aspect myself. I have been on and off the dojo floor mostly because I always have to get into some argument with my parents so that way they can let me go to classes. While I know that is not an excuse, I am currently trying to swallow my tiny pride about being outranked. One of my senseis once said that was the worst thing that could happen to any martial artist. He, himself, was once outranked but he still continued with karate. I do not want to seem like a child because I cannot deal with being outranked. Instead, I am using that as motivation to practice and train harder. Unfortunately, the person who outranked me is a stuck up girl. Ever since she sarted traing she rubbed every little achievement in my face. :( So I always tried to use control when sparring and tried to keep my emotions away from my sparring. I know when I meet her with her blue/ green belt she is going to rub it in my face. Obviously. Have any of you been out ranked? If so, how did you deal with it? Thank you for all that answer. Take care. :)
