A Diploma From The School Of Hard Knocks Is Required.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3041856/earn-your-black-belt-through-free-training.html

Full Disclosure: The school I am an instructor at teaches kids and teenagers, and we do have a Junior Black Belt grade. A retest (with additional material) is required at age 16 to receive a full black belt. The opinions expressed here are my own only, legal mumbo jumbo, yadda yadda yadda.

Youngest Black Belt in Europe?

There is an article in the Telegraph celebrating the achievement of a young six-year-old girl who has achieved the rank of Black Belt. It’s made its way through the internet with a quickness and has caused quite the debate in my own limited circles. From the article, I freely admit I am assuming that this exceptional young girl has a full black belt.

I’ve sat here trying to find a defensible way to state my position without either sounding like a hypocrite (which I try not to be), or a crabby old man (which I certainly am).

I could stake my position on many fronts. I could state that kids aren’t good at material retention, that their physical development is incomplete; therefore they don’t have the power generation that an adult has, that they lack maturity.

For every one of those items, someone can find an example where I’m wrong. Kids can learn languages better than adults. In some arts, footwork and balance are a higher priority than power and brute force, and we all know someone in their 40’s that still acts like they are 5.

What a rank means

From teaching kids, I can tell you that giving them achievable goals is important to keep them around. The belt ranks give the kids goals to reach for. It just makes sense that there is a plateau for them.

To bring in an analogy from my field of work, think of an Electrician with a journeyman’s license. You know some of the code, you have an understanding of the principles. That’s something anyone of any age can achieve. When anyone that has that license comes to me I know that they can size a circuit, they can size wire for what the power draw is. For electrical it is math, for martial arts it is kicks, throws, blocks, and strikes.

Masters have learned from their mistakes

The step above, the Master’s license, is only achieved by experience. When people of a generation younger than me come to work for me, they gasp when I tell them it’ll be years before they reach the Master’s level. It’s not the ability to read a blueprint, it’s the experience from all of the mistakes I have made in 20 years that colors how I use the same formulas and methods they already know. Yes, by the book the wire should only be this size, but if you look closer, you see that that wire runs over an oven, and it gets really hot above that oven, and that affects how much current that wire can withstand. If you just go by the book you’ll be back out here in 3 months replacing it at your own cost. I know that because I did that. If I add up the costs of all the mistakes I have made professionally I could have had a full ride to Harvard. However, that depth of knowledge only comes with experience.

Similarly, without that well filled from the school of life, you don’t have the knowledge to draw from. Is this really a fight or can I talk it down? Should I focus on my self-control to defuse this? Have I gotten in an actual fight and lost? These are things that only time can give you. The mistakes I’ve made are not from an error in method or technique. A mistake made due to the conditions of life. That is something I can pass on.

Kids know everything?

I have had 12-year-old critique and help me on my kicks. I’ve had my seven-year-old son correct me on my Japanese (in class mind you; that was fun). Those are static things. A six-year-old can correct my Japanese, but they can’t give me advice on alertness and readiness in real life situations. They can’t speak with authority on why the difference between a good and sloppy horse stance is the difference between someone knocking me over, and me standing on my own two feet. If they try to push me over, regardless of how good my stance is I’m not moving. No matter how good their stance is, I could push them over easily. I could go on and on.

The girl in the article should be proud of her achievement. Even for kids, there should be a symbol of reaching the upper level of achievement. With that said, without the experience of life, that level of mastery of application isn’t there.