This weekend, we had the delightful honour of welcoming eight new black belts to the GRKC yudansha club. Every single time we do it, our hearts fizz with joy and pride as we watch them reverentially take their shiny new black belt and put it on. It's the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new, better, and much more interesting chapter.
That black belt may cost physical money, sure. Grading isn't free (and there are costs beyond our control), but what is a black belt really worth?
They say you don't know true wealth until you have something money can't buy. The black belt we give out comes at the end of years and years of training, a pre-test to weed out those that aren't ready (a 3.5 hour test), finally capped by a grueling 24 hour test that demands everything our candidates have to give. Our belt is not given cheaply, or easily, and we are confident that our Shodan grading is one of the hardest out there.
Any chop can walk into a sports shop and buy a black belt, and wear it. That's like wearing camouflage and pretending you are a storied veteran. No one who knows anything is going to believe you earned it.
An earned black belt is, essentially, priceless. What price can you put on all those weekends spent training? The gashuku, the evenings at the dojo? The sweat, the tears, the doubt? Having to miss out on fun things because you had committed to a training seminar? The inevitable injuries (because we run a dojo, not a daycare), the frustration of training plateaus when nothing is improving and your body isn't responding to what you're telling it to do. Years and years of training – driving to and from the dojo, the critique from Sensei and your seniors. The endless repetition – again, again, again. One more time. Mo ichi do. A thousand kata, two thousand kicks, three thousand punches. In the cold, in the heat, because Joburg can go from -2 degrees in the morning to 22 in the afternoon and back again.
Ah, but that's what makes our black belts so special. It means they are tough – resilient in mind, body and spirit, without being hard. They have been helped, and have learned to help others up the mountain. They have learned to be teachable, able to take in feedback and apply it. They have learned confidence in themselves, as we add more responsibility to their plates as they go up the belt ladder. A brown belt should be able to confidently take warm ups for their peers and juniors. We expect a black belt to be able to handle a class for a few minutes while Sensei steps out for emergencies etc. A senior black belt, 2nd dan and up, is expected to be able to teach a whole class on their own. As Sensei Chinen taught Ché, “more rank, more responsibility”.
Now, our new black belts, ranging in age from 14 to 48, shine with the potential we have always seen in them. The black belt means entry into a rarefied club, for many begin this journey, but so few finish. My estimate, and general consensus, is that 95% of people who start karate won't see black belt. Honestly, 50% of them don't make it through the first year. Karate is hard, and hard is what makes it great, but most people just aren't built for this journey. And that's okay! We can't really have a thousand black belts in one dojo, after all.
Well done and congratulations to the black belt class of 2024. We have watched all your journeys with great pride, and we know that you have such an exciting new mountain to climb. The colour belts were just warm-ups, the walk to base camp. Now, the journey truly begins in earnest. We can't wait to walk it with you.
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