Black belt for black belt sake...
Submitted by
pckaratecenter on Sat, 02/13/2010 at 8:51pm.
Rewarding normal behavior is wrong, encouraging people to keep it up is right. I use to belong to a professional martial arts billing company. The owner/director use to send out emails stating that if your school wasn’t promoting students to Black Belt every month then you were not a Black Belt school. To me this was demeaning and encouraged comprising the standards I have set for my students. It took away from how hard others before me had worked to achieve their Black Belt. To me promoting to have a “Black Belt School” was pushing and rewarding normal behavior, just push them through attitude. I don’t reward someone for only completing regular tasks; I encourage them to do better. Punching does not a Black Belt make, being able to kick does not a Black belt make, going through the motions of a kata does not a Black belt make, you get the idea. It’s the heart you put into what you do, it’s being consistent in what you do, and it’s how effective you can become with that punch, kick, form, fight or challenge. It’s the intensity, the smoothness, the power. It’s not complaining at the menial tasks. Here is the thing, when you do a good job on the little things the big things will come. Rewards are in order for the big things you accomplish above and beyond not the regular things you should be doing from day to day. I believe that achieving the Black Belt should be above the norm.