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- Oct 17, 2007
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You're looking for a set of qualifications for each belt. It's not so complicated. Just from a teacher-student interaction its easy to tell who are dicks and who aren't. And I surmise that with all the BS that is spreading throughout the BJJ world these days, more and more instructors are going to be wary about who they promote to advanced ranks.Again a standard hasn't been defined here about how we determine if a person has character or not.
Just comes up in conversation. I admit this would be difficult at a much larger school, but even then whoever puts you up for promotion probably knows you well enough.I've watched a lot of bjj classes. At what point is the instructor supposed to talk to someone and find out their goals? Is this part of the regularly scheduled class? Is this an extra-curricular activity. Its been 14 years and I have never heard an instructor ask me what my goals are. Frankly its none of his business as I'm just there to learn jiu-jitsu. Thats my goal.
You can usually figure out that the guy working a 9 to 5 with two kids and another on the way is probably not gunning for the Mundials, while the gym rat who is planning on going to every tournament he can afford has different aspirations. Human interaction. You can get to know a person pretty well that way. Again, doesn't have to be so rigid with the "give me a list of your goals."
People with all walks of life train. If an instructor tries to force his own agenda on people, probably won't have many students left after awhile.And speaking of goals what if my goal is to do something that disagrees with the instructor? Does this mean I then don't have character in his eyes?
Actually no. It's more than just showing up to class. It's seeing how someone deals with failure. When they get tapped do they allow ego to get in the way? Do they ask questions about what they can improve on? Do they continue to try whatever they're screwing up, in free rolling, giving up positions to actively work on something they're bad at?One can certainly see a student persevere. But that's really a no-brainer. If the guy keeps showing up then he passes that character test.
Are they boisterous and swearing in the gym? Do they waste time on the mat talking about latest tuf? Do they stay after to help mop up? Do they leave their empty water bottles around? Do they push around the white belts during rolling or do they help them out? Again, it's simple observation. You don't have to know their personalities in great detail, it's just getting to know someone.Observing their attitudes? About what? Jiu-jitsu, getting beat, winning, etc. Sure you can see some things fairly easily but really a majority of most students lives will not be observable unless you decided to follow them around 24/7.
If the student has a problem with the instructor, he can talk to him about it?What if the student thinks the instructors character is in question? Then what?!? Maybe there is an aspect of his instructors life that the student thinks needs improving. Does this mean the student is right and the instructor is wrong. Or does the instructors "character" trump the student's?
I'd mostly agree. I think belts should be about skill representation, period. But again, with all the BS thats spreading in BJJ, I wouldn't disagree with an instructor who wants to get to know what kind of person he's promoting. What's the first thing BJJ folks ask each other when they meet? "Who/where do u train under."I don't see a way that this can be resolved but then I don't think it should be an issue. I don't go to jiu-jitsu for character building or some such tripe. I go to learn jiu-jitsu. Period.
And really, it's not an intricate process. It's just getting to know someone. Again, human interaction. I don't think you can know a person simply by rolling with them once. But you can learn alot from someone from watching them train, training with them, and talking to them every now and then as you form a bond over time.