The Personal Touch in Martial Arts Promotions
For many years I was the President of the largest Judo
organization ever formed in our country. Founding and building that
organization was a long and arduous 50 year struggle. Every skill I
learned during those 50 years of building Martial Arts leaders and
champions is being used right now to build our United States Martial
Arts Association.
The results have been greater than even my always
enthusiastic and optimistic expectations. In 13 years we have grown
to over 1,500 clubs administering the ranks and other services of over
1,000 different Martial Arts to nearly 10,000 members in 23
countries. We have a winning formula going,
and personal attention to every member is at the heart
of it all.
I continually apply the personal touch with every one
of our members I work with. The personal touch as far as Martial Arts
promotions are concerned means that the national leader must know
where every one of his club instructors stands for promotion. The
national leader must be the Sensei for thousands of club leaders
(please see my essay, “The Collapse of the Sensei System”). Frequent
review of individual records, discussions at meetings and tournaments,
and constant personal attention are required. The leader must truly
be a Sensei, watching over every one of his people. The personal
touch must be used!
I do this by attending our USMA International Training
Camp each summer, by traveling all over the country on seminar tours
during the year, and by a constant flow of letters, email,
newsletters, and phone calls to our club instructors and members. My
only regret is that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do more.
It has been my custom for many years to work long hours seven days a
week. I still do, it’s a part of running our Association.
The biggest battle we had in former years was getting
our teachers up to the rank they deserve. In some cases, especially
in Judo and Aikido, customs for promotion are totally unlike the
homeland of these arts, Japan. In Japan, in 1951, when I started
Judo, there were 2,700 Judoists of 6th Degree Black Belt
rank under the age of 30! And mind you, that was 54 years ago.
The custom in Japan is that every teacher should hold teacher’s rank,
which is 6th Degree or higher. By contrast, in America it
is not unusual for a teacher who has been training and teaching for 30
or even 40 years to be a 2nd or 3rd Degree, a
real injustice.
This is a truly ridiculous and distressing situation.
Therefore, we worked very hard for many years to correct this
unfairness. One of my methods in the old Judo association was to
promote members of our old national promotion committee, the
politicians who always seek and gravitate to national positions, to 7th
and 8th Degree. Some of them were less than well
qualified, but I felt that if I could get them up high enough, then
they wouldn’t resist promoting deserving teachers to teacher’s rank.
This may explain to you why some of those people, who haven’t done as
much as you have to develop the Martial Arts, hold such high ranks.
Although this was partially successful, there was much bitter
opposition to fair promotions. Often, politicians who have attained
high rank don’t want anyone else to be promoted. They always harp on
“standards” although for the most part not one of them has ever taken
an examination. In this regard, please see my essay “The Story of
Martial Arts Rank Standards.”
The tradition of the Martial Arts, and it is a good
one, is that no person should ask for promotion in rank. At the same
time, no Martial Artist should attempt to refuse to be promoted by his
or her teacher. The ideal situation exists when every person is
carefully watched over by their teacher and promoted when they are
ready. The main criteria for promotion should be time in grade, years
of service, and of course other technical requirements. In another
essay, I have described the meaning of the numbered ranks. Generally,
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Degrees are
students, 4th and 5th Degrees are skillful
practitioners, 6th and 7th are teachers, 8th
is an important leader, and 9th and 10th are
masters. Usually, but not always, a person who has worked 30 years or
more should hold teacher’s rank, 6th or higher, especially
if he or she is in fact a teacher.
To be sure, these customs vary a greatly among the
thousand Martial Arts practiced by USMA members today. Some arts
don’t even have numbered ranks (the numbered rank custom is only about
120 years old). In many other cases a leader will start his own
Martial Art, and will designate himself as 10th degree when
he does. This is certainly understandable and acceptable. The
granting of high ranks varies greatly. Some systems of Karate have
many 10th degrees. In the case of Judo, on the other hand,
there are only six living 10th Degrees in the entire world
(Anton Geesink of Holland, Henri Courtine of France, Ichiro Abe,
Toshiro Daigo and Osawa of Japan, and myself), and only about 50
leaders of 9th degree rank, as far as I know..
You should also understand fully that we will never
permit Martial Artists of any other nation to dominate our unique USMA
promotion system. Just as the days of the single Martial Arts
organization are numbered, so is foreign control of American Martial
Arts and Martial Artists. In the past, American Martial Arts have
been famous for being subservient to oriental teachers. This
situation has been commercially exploited for the past 50 years.
Often, oriental Martial Artists receive what we call “airplane
promotions.” They climb on a plane in the Far East as 3rd
Degrees, and land in American to seek their fortunes as 7th
Degrees or even 9th Degree Grandmasters. The fact is that
we have leaders in this country in many Martial Arts who have worked
harder, studied more, and know more, after 40 or 45 years of training,
than foreigners who have very high rank after only 25 years of
training. We respect all Martial Artists, the world over. But we
accept domination from no one. We have come of age, period.
With this explanation, it may be easier for you to
understand our totally unique USMA promotional system. I believe that
for the first time in American Martial Arts we have a fair and
equitable promotion system, totally free of politics, because our
Association does not have a political structure. We respect every
leader and student of the Martial Arts, regardless of their rank. We
also intend to stick very closely to our personal touch program of
promoting people for long service to our Association and the Martial
Arts.
In your own case, think back over your Martial Arts
history. Have you been treated fairly by your Martial Arts leaders?
If you have 25 or 30 years in your art and are a teacher, do hold
teacher’s rank of 6th Degree or higher? If not, you have
been short changed. The USMA was created to help you. I invite you to
study our materials, especially several of the essays I have written
on Martial Arts ranks, and join with us in the growth of a unified
system for American Martial Arts. The future is indeed bright. Thank
you for your work in our chosen field, the Martial Arts. Please call
upon me at any time for information or assistance.
You are always in my heart.
O-Sensei
[Go Back to Top] |
[Home]
