The Myth Of Cross Certification

4/15/2020

Author: Bret Gordon

As you progress as a martial artist, it is inevitable that your circle of affiliation will grow. You will develop a network of training partners and associates. You will grow strong bonds and friendships. You may even be asked to serve in an official capacity on the board of someone's organization. All of these are normal parts of being a martial artist, especially as the world continues to grow smaller thanks to high-speed internet.

Now as these connections grow, we begin to see another phenomenon: cross certification. What most people consider as cross certification is simply trading rank. Johnny has master rank in one style, Bobby has master rank in another style, and the two award each other black belt rank in their various styles to pad their resume. I think we can all agree this is simply bullshit. Rank itself serves only as recognition of one's progress according to the requirements of the system/organization, so receiving rank in something you have never studied is beyond pointless, not to mention outright fraudulent.

However, just because you have developed a close relationship with someone, and later go on to earn rank from them, does not mean it was cross certification even if you are affiliated in other areas (including if they are learning one art from you). The higher caliber of a martial artist you become, your circle of friends will inevitably also be of high caliber. One of them may even teach an art you are interested in learning, and so you ask them to teach you. Now, based on your current and past experiences, the learning process will almost certainly be different than the average beginner walking in off the street and it would be asinine to think it would take you the same amount of time to progress up the ranks as someone with no experience. Let me be clear, this does not mean you should expect any sort of special treatment or privilege. There is nothing more relaxing to me than throwing on a white belt, visiting another school and lining up behind everyone, and just getting to learn and train. But as you grasp this new art, depending on how closely related it is to your previous training, you will inevitably reach a high level of proficiency. And sometimes, that level of proficiency will be rewarded with an official certification of rank, a practice that has existed for literally as long as rank itself.

One of the earliest examples of a student earning high rank in multiple arts is Tomiki Kenji, the first to ever earn an 8th Dan in both Aikido and Judo directly from the founders of each art. When Tomiki first began studying Aikido in 1926, he'd already had a substantial amount of experience in Judo and progressed quickly through the ranks to become the first ever 8th Dan in Aikido history (actually, he was the first to be awarded a Menkyo/license in the early years before Dan ranks were implemented, and in 1940 all Menkyo were automatically converted to 8th Dan). Clearly this rapid progression was due to his prior training in Judo, and none of the other students under Ueshiba questioned his decision to promote Tomiki quickly. That is because rank and license have always been directly correlated to skill level and understanding, not time as many modern teachers and organizations will try to falsely profess.

So what makes this rapid progression possible? The truth is that martial arts are not as different as people may lead you to believe. All martial arts are built around using the body in the most efficient manner to execute physical combative techniques against another human being. While there are absolutely stylistic differences, often times an adaptation made by the founder of a particular style to best suit their personal body type and not necessarily meant as a one-size-fits-all mechanic, there are only so many ways to move your body in such a way as to inflict pain or damage to another person. Styles themselves are all just variations of the same physical movements. If we stop looking at "techniques" and start understanding principles of movement, every style has the capacity to encompass any technique. A Taekwondo axe kick is a Judo outer reap, a punch is a throat grab, etc. This is clearly demonstrated when you begin the process of bunkai and oyo (analysis and application). Quite frankly, they're not moves, just movements. How we apply those movements is shaped by our stylistic understanding, but when we strip away the confines of our style and start to connect the dots of basic human movement, you start to see more similarities than differences. In fact, at that level, the differences between arts really amount to strategies and tactics versus technical descriptions.

The learning process is always built upon having a frame of reference, allowing you retain large amounts of information quickly by building on and relating back to a foundation of pre-existing knowledge. When you strip down physical techniques to their underlying principles of movement, you understand that you're not really learning 3,000 different techniques. You're really learning 12-15 core body movements that can be applied 3,000 different ways, and the more arts you become exposed to, the faster you'll be able to adapt and pick up the information. You'll notice that the highest level of practitioners with experience in multiple arts can actually transform, almost like a chameleon, and express each art's individuality through body culture and movement when practicing that style and than completely switch gears when moving onto another.

Take Oyama Masutatsu for example. In just seven years of martial arts training, he was able to earn high ranking in Shotokan, Goju Ryu and Judo, not to mention a Menkyo from Yoshida Kotaro, the man who introduced Ueshiba Morihei to Takeda Sokaku, in Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu... All by the age of 30! Now, we can say that he was just an extraordinary martial artist, which he definitely was above the norm and I don't mean to take away anything from his accomplishments, or we can stop putting our Asian counterparts on a superhuman pedestal and admit that once you have a strong foundation, learning other styles just isn't that hard. I highly doubt he started at white belt, and worked his way up through every kyu and dan rank with commonly accepted time-in-grade (actually the fact it took him a total of just seven years proves he didn't). The other option is to say that Funakoshi, Yamaguchi, Yoshida and the Kodokan all sold him his rank and he was a fraud. How'd that work out for the bull?

What about Hatsumi Masaaki who earned Menkyo Kaiden in nine styles from one teacher in just 15 years of training? Or Tanemura Shoto who has inherited or earned Menkyo Kaiden in not one, but 23 different arts? Oh wait, I forgot. They're Japanese... The hypocrisy of rank in the martial arts is one I will be happy to see die out, as it seems no matter what piece of paper you hang on your wall someone will always have something to say about it. Some of the most common paradoxes include:

If you paid anything for testing or registration fees, they'll say it was bought and not earned
If it was free, they'll say it was so worthless that the instructor couldn't even charge you for it
If you earned it faster than normal, they'll say people are just giving rank away
If you earned it slower than others, they'll say you're an incompetent student
If you only trained in one art, you're closed minded and inexperienced
If you train in multiple arts, you have no loyalty or patience
If your certificate is from your instructor, they'll say it's just a club rank and holds no weight
If your certificate is from an organization, they'll say it's not the same as earned rank
- To clarify this point, let's look at Kukkiwon. Unless you fly to Korea to test at the Kukkiwon, you do not actually earn your rank through the Kukkiwon. You earn your rank from your instructor, and for a fee the Kukkiwon will send you a certificate recognizing that. But that's not buying a certificate...

How about we stop worrying about what colorful piece of cloth people tie around their waist and what fancy wallpaper they hang in their schools, that you probably can't read anyway, and go back to judging martial artists based on who they are as a person? Are they skilled and knowledgeable? Do they have valuable information to share with you? Are they a good role model for their students? Are they honest about what they are teaching their students?

If you really want to know if someone is a competent martial artist, go and train with them! All of the trappings and spiritual connotations aside, let's not forget that martial arts training is a physical endeavor built around skills of war and combat. How can we judge someone as a martial artist, without experiencing their physical application of those skills? At the end of the day, someone's rank, title or license is none of anyone's concern. Titles and licenses only exist to establish one's authority in the heirarchy of the system, and rank is simply an acknowledgement between student and teacher of progress made and requirements met. Someone's rank, title or license in a different organization or style from you really has no bearing whatsoever for you. A 5th Dan in Shotokan doesn't outrank a 4th Dan in Goju Ryu. But that being said, if what someone is wearing bothers you so much, go take it off them!

P.S. - Just to show this concept is not unique to the martial arts, let's look at universities. When you transfer schools, or go back to school after earning one degree to pursue higher education, you do not start back as a freshman having to repeat your general education classes. Depending on how closely related the area of study is, some or all of your previous credits will transfer with you. You don't need to re-earn your Bachelor's Degree before moving onto your Masters. Your experience does not disappear because you start learning under a different professor who may do things differently than your past professor. A college degree is very similar to earning martial arts rank. You meet the requirements, you get your diploma whether you complete them in 4 years or 20. And that piece of paper means absolutely nothing in the real world either...

6 Comments

Richard link

4/15/2020 04:04:54 am

I've said this for years. You have laid it out so clearly that even a monkey can understand. Well done!

Bret Gordon

4/15/2020 04:55:05 am

Any physical skill is transferable to a related endeavor, and sometimes there are rewards for the ability to do so. Michael Jordan got a contract playing professional baseball... He didn't exactly make it into Cooperstown, but high level athletes can pick up any sport and completely outshine someone who couldn't make the junior varsity team.

Lordus Sapiens link

4/15/2020 12:05:06 pm

Bret,

I can agree with about 90% of what you say here. The issue is not so much with the idea that people can take what they have learned in one martial art and applying it to learning another. That is simply common sense and perfectly legitimate if you are meeting the same standard as everyone else. If you meet the standard, you are entitled to the qualification.

Practically speaking, however, are you meeting the standard? In such a situation, you would obviously be allowed to ignore time-in-grade and progress on an accelerated timetable, but how accelerated a timetable? What’s appropriate?

If someone is a 2nd dan in Taekwondo, is a one-year path to 1st dan in Shotokan Karate appropriate? Sure…I would say they are so foundationally similar that that could be appropriate.

But what about other styles of Karate? I have a very good friend who is a Goju-Ryu Karate black belt who trained at my school for two years, and I myself trained in Goju-Ryu Karate for a time. I can say, with good authority I think, that Taekwondo and Goju-Ryu are so fundamentally different in philosophy and approach, that a one-year path wouldn’t cover it. It’s not enough to simply learn a new form set. There’s a lot more to Goju-Ryu than being able to memorize kata and perform a passable Sanchin.

And what about transitioning from a kicking and punching style to a grappling style? I’ve studied Judo, and while the above might apply to a Judo player wanting to learn Aikido, my experience coming from Taekwondo to Judo was that extremely little of what I’d learned in Taekwondo applied to learning Judo, thus I would argue that I should get virtually no “credit” for my Taekwondo black belt at all.

But let’s look at your academic analogy. Earning multiple bachelor’s degrees would actually be a more accurate comparison. It takes 120 semester credits to earn a bachelor’s degree, of which half must be specific to your major. Your 60 electives can be applied to any BA (arts) or BS (sciences). If you decide to pursue another BA/BS, there may be some overlap in the major-specific credits, or none at all, depending on how similar they are. Liberal arts (the BA) often overlap, so if you’re going for another BA (one style of Karate to another), you might only need thirty credits. Going from a BA to acquiring a BS (Taekwondo to Judo) there would likely be very little to no major-specific overlap, so you’d need to take 60 credits. All this can be seen as analogous to striking styles vs. grappling styles.

Practically speaking, this then must be translated into training hours (that’s what academic credits are, after all, they represent “credit hours,” the time spent in class learning, but not the expected time studying on your own outside of class). So, if we assume 600 hours to earn a 1st degree black belt from scratch (three one-hour classes per week for four years, and also doesn’t include expected training on your own outside of class), we can knock off 300 hours for having a qualification as a martial artist (a black belt in a legitimate style) and then adjust the remaining 300 depending on thoughtful analysis of the differences.

So, let’s say your honest number is 150 training hours to acquire a new 1st degree black belt after applying your “credit” for already being a black belt. What about instructor-led training? At minimum a significant portion of this training should be in the presence of and led by a qualified instructor. How does that work if your instructor is 1,000 miles away (as is common in these situations)? Training on your own should be separate from actual training hours under the watchfulness of a qualified instructor.

On top of all that, most serious martial artists have jobs and families on top of running schools and teaching classes. Working a 40 hour per week job plus attending to family matters plus running a school and teaching, say, fifteen classes per week…it doesn’t leave much time for hooking up with your instructor for real instruction for a few hours per week if you have to drive twenty hours one way to do it.

It’s not that it can’t be done…it’s that it’s extremely unlikely, especially when people start claiming handfuls of master-level grades in different martial arts.

All that being said, my biggest problem isn’t so much the idea of someone holding multiple qualifications (beyond whether they were ethically acquired). My problem is with all these federations, the intent behind creating them, and all the abuses surrounding them. If I add up all the claimed federations just between you and the members of your USAMA board, I get close to 20.

Why?

Okay…so you guys like creating these groups. It’s America and you can do what you want, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of groups and legitimate NGBs for all this stuff. Do we

Bret Gordon

4/15/2020 06:46:15 pm

The best way to find out if someone is meeting the standard is to either speak to the issuing body/instructor who awarded the certification or get on the mat with them. Someone claiming a 4th Dan in Goju Ryu should be able to demonstrate such proficiency, etc. That's really how to find out if someone's rank or standing holds any weight, if they can back it up. Paperwork + verifiable skill/knowledge = legitimate.

Regarding our organizations, the "legitimate NGBs" you speak of are established for sport purposes. They are not martial arts organizations with any authority over what is taught, or what standards are set. Like, while it's a service they provide, you don't need to go through USAT to get Kukkiwon certification. USAT is an avenue to join the national team to compete (plus they now issue their own rank certifications, but that's another story). Myself, Hatfield sensei and Sharpe sensei each were the respective heads of our own organizations. When we became affiliated, we developed a professional partnership while wanting to remain independent rather than combining memberships into one large group. That is why you will see the three of us on the boards of each other's organizations. Those three major governing bodies are:

US Association of Martial Arts
Ryu Sakura Do Karate Federation
World Organization of Mixed Martial Arts

Over the course of the last few years, multi-style organizations (which really exist primarily as training networks rather than certifying bodies) have fallen out of favor and people are looking for system-specific affiliations. So if we have the credentials in a particular art, why not establish an avenue for such affiliation? That is where you see the American Jidokwan Association pop up, as well as the Hikari Tenshi Budo Kai (jujutsu) and Dento Senshi Kobudo Kai (weaponry). But realistically, the goal has always been to use those sub-branches not as separate entities but to expose people to what we do and bring them into our training network.

As you know from trying to join both the USAMA and AJA (under more fake names like Bob Wilson and David Anderson, that all trace back to the same IP address as your Lordus Sapiens email in Chesterbrook, PA although this comment came out of Post Falls, Idaho), membership is not given freely. Anyone wishing to become a member in ANY organization overseen by myself or Hatfield sensei must meet us in person and train. Not even a welcome letter is granted to, nor a single dime collected from, anyone we have not physically met and trained with. Period. Any certifications we issue are solely in arts we are licensed to do so in. We do not give anything away, just as nothing was given to us. So if the question is whether or not we earned what we claim, how can anyone profess to know one way or another unless they see for themselves by sharing the mat with us?

Lordus Sapiens

4/15/2020 08:05:03 pm

Okay, Bret...

You win. Your logic is perfect in its circularity...there are only two options here...either you are a sociopath and a complete and utter fraud with no ethical and moral foundation whatsoever, or you actually believe everything you are saying in spite of all the self-serving and inappropriateness in evidence and your history. Both options are equally disturbing.

None of this matters. It's a mere mental exercise. You're going to keep doing what you do. Maybe I'll check back in 10 years to see how things have continued to "evolve."

At least do me the courtesy of posting my entire reply (since I don't censor your posts on my blog).

Good luck with your version of the WBBB. If nothing else, you've inspired me to reconsider my retirement plans. I've decided to start a federation and sell fake rank certificates. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

It's going to be awesome.

Keep your eye on the monkey blog...big announcement coming soon. You're gonna love it.

Bret Gordon

4/15/2020 08:21:25 pm

For the record, I have not censored anything. I don't even have the capability to cut down comments. I think Weebly, which we use to host this site, limits the length of blog comments. Otherwise, I don't know why your first comment was cut off.

Now, if you truly believe what you say, I'm sorry you feel that way. But your right, the opinions and superficial "investigation" by a nameless computer screen won't do anything to stop me or my affiliates from teaching our arts, traveling to both train and share, and running our organizations. That is because every ounce of respect we've earned was done so through our skill level, knowledge and character. Baseless accusations and misinformation won't do anything to change that.

In any other endeavor, if you wish to publish something you need to attach your name and credentials to it. Otherwise it is meaningless, as you've already admitted your opinion is to those who matter. Not to mention that in a court of law, you are entitled to face your accuser.

I have provided copies of all of my credentials and/or a way to verify their legitimacy with those who have issued them to me, and I have even explained the process of how I was able to acquire such credentials in what is perceived to be a short amount of time. The entire argument against us is based upon some affiliations I made when I was 16, which I readily admitted were mistakes and things I no longer claim (my WBBB certificate you found in the internet archives was thrown in the trash where it belongs 10 years ago), a well-meaning web designer who built a site for Hatfield sensei without correct information, and the fact that Hasaka Yutashi led a low-key life and wasn't arrogant enough to plaster his life story online for you to see (and I won't do so now). Hardly the basis to continue such a crusade... To continue posting the same opinion that I am a fraud or somehow unethical is pointless, but if that's what you need to make yourself feel better, go for it. I have better things to do...

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