Is it me or is their a since of entitlement among today's younger Martial Artists coming up through the ranks? When I started back in 1989, we were taught you had to work your way up the ranks in order to become a Black Belt or an Instructor which took years. I've noticed today's youth, the newer Martial Artists coming up walk in with an expectation that we owe them the rank of Black Belt, or that they should be a Black Belt or Instructor within a very short period of time. Or worst, they spend a couple years as a student then they go out, open their own school and start training others with only a couple years of training under their belts. I know of a Karate Instructor who only had 2 years of Karate training under her belt, then got promoted to 1st black belt and went out and opened her own school and started teaching without furthering her own training. I had 14 years of training before I was even allowed to assist in teaching classes. Has entitlement in Martial Arts among the newer and younger Martial Artists become worst?
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that - George Carlin This has always, and will always be the case. What you're seeing may advance slightly with the progression of instant gratification; the microwave, the television, the internet, the smartphone. Still I'm sure the generation before us and before them ad infinitum said the same thing.
Christ that's depressing. I need a drink. Or five. In the Republic, Socrates bemoans the access young Athenians have to books and written language. He thought it would make them lazy and neglect to memorize poetry. More things change, more things stay the same.
It's sad that instructors feel like that. Not all young martial artists are only interested in instant recognition and respect, I still consider my self young and I don't think I'm any where near ready to teach having studied various things in varying levels of detail for close to 2 decades (albeit with a few years out of training at various stages). I'm sure there are plenty of Young folks who are in it for the long haul who are willing to leave heir egos at the door and put the work in That said western culture these days does encourage instant results so it's hardly a shock if many young peoples attitudes are warped into thinking that way. With stories of people getting black belts in only a few years and creating their own styles and things it's easy to see how a child could think that was normal and expect similar results. The best that instructors can do is to try and encourage an ego free environment and try to mentor these kids into having a more long term attitude Dont hate on the kids help them lol
I also think the OP is not thinking about the young guys that don't grade. They train to learn Might grading be a unnecessary evil?
Even John Stuart Mill said something about every generation looking down on the one coming after it. Grades don't mean much anymore. That's not a problem with the "youth" that's a problem with schools giving them out easier. If you know someone who's been graded to dan within two years then either she deserved it, or that's a problem with her instructor for giving it to her.
funny thing opening post, I started my training in the bujinkan, which is renowned for bad quality in its teachers took me six damn years before i reached first dan, the baby of my dojo by an average of a decade or so the guys who were older than me/some of the oldest in our dojo who joined after me, got into cat fights and tantrums when someone else graded faster than they did. Don't think this is an age thing really, more how society has conditioned some to want instant gratification, and that is something humans can succumb to at any point in their lives because it's how our brains are designed to work: we work towards gratification, and the faster we get it, the faster we think we should get it. I'd rather train for the rest of my life and not how a fancy dan grade or wall of trophies and medals but have real skill than have a single rank that means nothing.
