Author: Bret Gordon
Question: How long does it take the average person to earn a black belt? Cliché answer: The average person doesn't earn a black belt. This old adage circles around social media every few months, along with "statistics" claiming that only 1-5% of all those who start martial arts training will make it to black belt. That may be true, but there seems to be an awful lot of people sporting that dark piece of cloth.
In the "old days," earning your black belt was perceived as mastery. You were now entitled to call yourself a bad dude (or dudette), and it was a sign that you could kick some serious butt. Ironically, this was also when everyone cross trained, traveled to work out with whoever would share knowledge and earned their stripes through blood, sweat, tears and broken bones. The myth that all black belts have to register their hands as deadly weapons stems from this perceived status of invincibility, along with the elitist mindset. It's human nature to want to belong to a special club, to obtain something that very few people have, so we have elevated the rank of black belt to the pedestal of things nearly impossible to obtain. But then, there's that other cliché saying that black belt is just the beginning, so which is it?
In the "old days," earning your black belt was perceived as mastery. You were now entitled to call yourself a bad dude (or dudette), and it was a sign that you could kick some serious butt. Ironically, this was also when everyone cross trained, traveled to work out with whoever would share knowledge and earned their stripes through blood, sweat, tears and broken bones. The myth that all black belts have to register their hands as deadly weapons stems from this perceived status of invincibility, along with the elitist mindset. It's human nature to want to belong to a special club, to obtain something that very few people have, so we have elevated the rank of black belt to the pedestal of things nearly impossible to obtain. But then, there's that other cliché saying that black belt is just the beginning, so which is it?
