What does it mean to be a black belt? Is this the end of the journey?
As you may have seen our grading preparation courses have been
in full swing again this month, and we also had a junior Black Belt grading at
the dojo.
Gradings are the stepping stones towards that big day, when everything you have learnt comes to be tested in one special event. However does this mean the journey ends here? Is a Black Belt truly something you can ‘tick off the list’?
When asked, CDMA founder, Ben Richardson sensei said, “I think that for a lot of younger children the journey begins because mum or dad wanted them to do martial arts. It offers a lot in terms of personal growth and development and teaches the student aspects of self-defence and resilience. We see a huge number of students start out, and as the years tick by fewer and fewer remain in that original group. Like with a triangle, the base is wide and it gradually narrows to a point the higher you move up the shape.
This is the perfect description of a student who reaches that grading day for Black Belt. When they look around they will find very few of their peers who started out with them 4 or 5 years ago. That student will stand there with a realisation that it is not the person most naturally talented, or the one physically stronger that has reached this pinnacle, but the person that persisted in their goal, that kept showing up time after time until success met them, and opportunity to do something special welcomed them.
Yes, being in that line on the day of a Black Belt grading is something special, and the life lesson in just being there let alone passing is profound. I can guarantee that the student has wanted to quit along the way, has lost interest, has questioned why they are on this journey, but they ultimately decided that achievement of this most difficult goal or task just needs to be completed.
They have learnt that persistence x effort = achievement.
What a fantastic thing to comprehend in a world where instant gratification is a growing pandemic in young people?
So, back to the original question - does the journey end here? Well if a student has been motivated by purely getting a black belt, then very rarely yes, they will move on to the next goal. But for most, they realised that the Black Belt, far from making them an expert, is a mark that they have mastered the fundamentals of their art and has put them in a unique position where they are now ready to start learning in earnest. This point in the journey really gets exciting as both mind and body are honed and adapted to being able to absorb information faster, develop technique more proficiently, and the student is ready to carve out their own path in the voyage of personal growth and self-expression.
Congratulations to our young Black Belts on an incredible achievement
and display of character, we look forward to seeing what wonders you accomplish
in the years to come.”