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Diminishing Black Belt standards in America


This has been very hard for me to watch over the last 30 years of running Gold Dragon MMA.

At one time a Black Belt represented an extraordinary person of impeccable character with great physical fitness and extreme fighting skill. Most people would never reach this rank in my day.

Today in as little as 3 years black belts are awarded to children resembling little of the skill and qualities that it took to achieve that rank. These places are commonly referred to as "Belt Factories" or "McDojos"

I believe that several factors have created this upsetting trend. Lack of a true governing body, money (greed), and the era of participation trophies.


NO TRUE GOVERNING BODY: Sure there are many organizations and affiliations that martial arts schools can be a part of.  It tends to be just a "clique" way of giving money to these groups to make it seem like the school has some credibility.  They have literally nothing to do with the day to day teachings.  They collect your money and give you a certificate to put on your wall making it appear that you have extraordinary credentials.  The standards for belt promotion is strictly up to the discretion of the instructor. 


MONEY (Greed): Belt promotions are good for business.  Most schools charge belt test fees. Money tends to corrupt peoples standards.  Imagine if you are the instructor and you charge the parents of your student for a belt test and you see that the student doesn't  quite do as well as you would expect, it would be a lot harder to fail that student. Because monetary compensation has infiltrated the process, you would probably look the other way.  After all, a happy parent means the likelihood of them continuing to pay their tuition in addition to the big boost of income belt testing a group of students brings.


THE ERA OF PARTICIPATION TROPHIES: I remember as a kid how much I looked forward to "Field Day" at school. The kids would compete in a series of events and after it was over 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place ribbons were awarded.  We took this very seriously,  There were no participation ribbons, you really wanted to place in the top 3.  If I didn't place, it motivated me to practice even harder until I was able to win. The fire that  ignited it is a very important quality that is often lost today.  Often in today's society the belief that everyone should get the same result regardless of how much work is put in. This trend is very dangerous in my opinion and steals the drive in people to achieve extraordinary things.












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