The Black Belt Promise...do you use it?

Recently we lost a subpar student who has trained with us for about two years because he thought he should be a black belt like his friend who has trained for two years at a local ATA school in my area. His parents came in and were told that the ATA offered them a "special" black belt program (which is double the cost of our advanced karate classes) in which they could make their child a black belt in two years.

I have heard that many schools are beginning to sell programs like this or promising unrealistic belt levels without even knowing the person who they are going to train. This bothers me, not because I lost a student who barely made it to class and never really tried, but because I can't believe that schools would be doing this. It is not just the ATA schools but I heard of others in two of the bigger cities near us that are doing the same thing.

My question is why bother? Parents ask me why we do not have a black belt club program like the other schools and I explain that we have our advanced Karate program which is basically the same thing but I will not promise to promote anyone to any rank in any certain amount of time...ever. To me this what that BBC program does. You sell it as such with a certain time frame and even if you do not promise that rank to them they assume they will get it in that time frame hence the name Black Belt Club.

How in the world do people fall for this? I have seen some good black belts come out of the ATA...but most of them trained longer than two years and several had other training. It just shocks me to no extent that people are being sold a black belt today. I would have thought that we, as martial artists, who talk about the benefits of our arts would be honest with them and let them know that it is the attainment of knowledge and skill that are the true goals of martial arts training versus the color of belt around your waist.

So I am curious...even though you may not promise a black belt in xxx number of years do you use the black belt as the ultimate symbology for your upgrade programs? Do you misrepresent the true meaning behind it to make more money? I know some of you may get offended but that is not my purpose. I am simply stating that I do not understand why in the world you market something as an end goal or an ultimate thing to achieve when in fact that would explain why so many people get a black belt and quit... thinking they are some great martial artists...but in reality they have just grasped some basic fundamentals and in no way are to be considered an expert. This is perplexing to me.

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Permalink Reply by Sensei Nick on November 3, 2009 at 5:35am

Shihan,

I understand your frustration. In my opinion all you can do is focus on your future black belts.

True story-A few years back a parent came in and said there was a schools that was offering a program that you could get you black belt by the end of the summer. I thought it was a joke. However, this school really advertised that. I went by myself and took a look. I even talked to the instructor, he was dead serious that he could train someone in the summer to make black belt. After meeting him and listening to him, I felt really bad and realized there may have been something wrong with him.

Anyway, focus on your product and do not let other schools no matter what they are doing take away from the focus of your students.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Malach on November 3, 2009 at 12:17pm

I can appreciate the frustration around the BBC being marketed as a promise program where the promise should not be made. Totally.

However, I have witnessed several schools position their "Black Belt Clubs" as a group of people who have the mentality of not quitting, no matter what, before they get their black belt, and after. They focus a lot less on whether or not you get the belt within the term of the agreement, it's more about the concept that this is a more focused and serious group of martial artists than the regular group of students who have not yet decided to make that kind of commitment to their training.

It's really easy to play devil's advocate to that and simply say

"can't they make their commitment by, well, just showing up to every class? Can't they show their commitment with actions vs. signing a long term contract?"

- To to which I have to agree - of course they can, but that's where we do have to remind ourselves that many schools are run as a business - they have to run this way or they will close down.