I'm all for kids learning martial arts at a young age but to start showering them in dan grades is just daft and takes any meaning away from the achievement. A junior black belt should be sufficient until 18 or maybe even 16 but a 5th dan at 20? I'm assuming pretty much all the breaking had been taken out of the syllabus? My own son could have graded to 2nd dan at 13 and even he at the time thought that was silly. Shows more about the greed of the organisations than it does the skill of their students
I believe 15 for 1st dan is ok. It is the KKW standard. But those are minimum guidelines. In the USNTF you have to be 16. I have seen 8 yr. old black belts, no joke. It was in school rank, but come on.
I think he had just turned six when he started TKD. Muay Thai and jujitsu at 8. Wasn't until high school that he started judo and MMA.
I have seen this alot as well. I know someone who has a 5 year old taking MMA. He has regular promotion tests and I guess it is in a big building where they teach multiple arts with multiple instructors. He has to call one instructor sifu, one sensei, etc. Kind of confused me. But maybe it will turn out to be a good school for him and maybe a mixed curriculum will be good cross-training. And it isn't just traditional schools 'jumping on the bandwagon'. If you have a school you'll know you are constantly getting inundated by offers from MMA/BJJ schools to open a branch under their umbrella organization. I know there are others, but the one that I can think of that I constantly get stuff from is American Top Team. Basically it is the same model as the old days. They give you a basic curriculum, then they come by regularly on a seminar circuit and do promotions and such. For them they get revenue with no risk (no opening a school, no new lease etc) and for the instructor you get to put 'MMA' on your sign and get the 20 year old male demographic.
Tenets. Man, dont get me started off on tenets. (Sometimes used as a learning curve towards rank and fees. As for children not "understanding" them, many in the adult world dont either.)
I agree there are definately adults who don't conduct themselves according to the tenets but my point about children is that it is more reasonable to expect an adult to understand them than a child. Some of the kids I teach can tell me what the tenets are, what they mean and give examples and yet behave in a way that contradicts them.
More on jumping on the MMA bandwagon. Every year there is a martial arts trade show called the Martial Arts Super Show. I've never been, but get lots of advertisements to it. (http://www.masupershow.com) It is put on by the same people who publish the MASuccess magazine (http://www.masuccess.com). If you are a school owner they've probably found you and send you their magazine for free. The magazine is all about business and building your revenue (sell T-shirts, run kids day camps, do a 'Cage Fitness' program TM Matt Hughes, advertising tips, etc). Of course there is the promise of more ways to 'grow your school' if you join their trade org. You get the picture. At any rate they have this annual show and Dana White usually comes by and gives a speech, has some UFC fighters make an appearance, etc. At first I wondered 'Why does Dana go there?' I mean what does a trade org for the martial arts business really have to do with fight promotions? But then I realized what a fricken genius he was. Once every corner dojo has 'and MMA' tagged under their sign little Steve's dad and mom become more and more educated in it. This, of course, translates into PPV buys. There is gold in the commercial dojo/MMA marriage and everyone is scrambling for their piece of the pot. Me...I'm a dinosaur. I don't like change. I'll go extinct before I put an 'and MMA' under my sign (I have the day job so I don't have to scramble for room on bandwagons). But I can see which way the wind is blowing. And it might not be a bad thing. More PPV buys means stars like GSP, Machida, etc make higher purses get more advertisement contracts etc. Just business...
That's the human race for you. More chance of a child living by them than an adult given the right motivation
Some of the adults I met can tell me what the tenets are, what they mean and give examples and yet behave in a way that contradicts them.
Then the child matures and realises that his mommy paid all of those lessons to site and get tested-ranked-learning curve of these tenets, which are the same that most people follow without having to pay for martial arts
An interesting piece to the equation is this......A school brow beats the tennants, doesn't follow them. They quick promote people and to the school the MA is a social event. The parents and kids more likely than not will think so anyway. How many times have you instructors seen or heard, "If Johnny/Susie doesn't come then it isn't fun" It isn't only kids talking. The MA school that ad libs about enlightenment etc. is making a living and therefore letting standards down. Just a thought. I am no expert in what is right or wrong, however I know my own standards and only train around those that match closely to mine. Aka, I dont believe in a 15 minute red belt test.
The thread that will never die... At what number of pages will this start to crash the server? Well it's August, and I still haven't made it back to training! Blame, a major health scare, a family crisis and an first trimester miscarriage... Yes, all in all, in many respects it turned to be a very crap 1st half of 2010....
*BOLD* I like this. May I use it elsewhere whenever the subject of tenets come up? I like how many use tenants instead of tenets. Anyway, I have no real problem if a school uses tenets, or any other marketing ploy. Afterall, they are conducting a business, and they have to show value in so many ways.
I agree. Martial arts can be a good business. I only object to the marketing of some of the (all?) schools/gyms/clubs/dojo's selling there sport/pastime/keep fit class as effective self defence when it clearly isn't. Would I have the self defence banner above my semi contact, full of kids, parties on their birthday mcdojo? God yes! there's bills to pay
