Monday morning message
December 29, 2014
“Circumstances? To heck with circumstances. I create circumstances!” – Bruce Lee, American-born Chinese martial artist, founder of the Jeet Kune Do, considered the most influential martial artist of all time
“Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.” – Bruce Lee, American-born Chinese martial artist, founder of the Jeet Kune Do, considered the most influential martial artist of all time
Dear Academy friends,
Last week we started our discussion about why there’s no use of the classical coloured belt ranking system at UMAA.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the tradition, that’s where the student starts out with the white belt and progresses all the way through to black belt.
Although I’ve seen many JKD instructors using belts, I’ve opted to stick to a more non-classical approach and so we use coloured t-shirts to achieve the same goal.
This morning I’ll tell you about the use of the coloured sash.
Before the hit TV show Kung Fu in the 1970s, not too much was known about the Chinese martial arts. It is even said that before Bruce Lee started accepting non-Chinese students in Seattle in the ‘60s, very few outsiders had been exposed to the Chinese arts.
There’s even pictorial evidence that in his early days Sijo Bruce himself used coloured sashes for himself and his students.
But by the time he had evolved to the level of what became known as Jeet Kune Do, he seems to have eschewed all such external trappings.
Nowadays I’ve seen JKD guys using coloured sashes for their students on top of sweatpants, MMA shorts and even Muay Thai shorts!
The instructors themselves have black belts around their own waists.
I recently ran into a Bajan guy I’ve known since I was at least nine years old. We hadn’t seen each other in quite some time so while catching up, he asked if I was still involved in martial art.
And of course he asked, “What degree black belt are you?”
And of course I had to explain that I wasn’t in classical martial arts so I didn’t have a black belt.
So his follow-up question was, “Well what equivalent black belt level would you be?”
Interesting question, right? It made me think of those black-belted JKD guys I just mentioned. Perhaps that’s what they’re doing: using the black belt as equivalency symbols.
I could do the same but it would be a lie. I’ve never actually achieved anything close to black belt. The closest was “graded white” in Wu Shu Kwan before I was asked to quit that school for asking too many Bruce Lee-inspired questions!
And see, I’m not an “equivalent anything”! I’m a Full Instructor of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do certified by none other than his premier disciple Dan Inosanto!
That means everything to me. Substituting some other kind of rank for myself in order to be more acceptable to the public (read water down who I AM in order to be more conventional), it’s something I AM completely unwilling to do.
For me, (and I emphasise that) it’s 40 steps backwards to use the conventional method to illustrate rank in Jeet Kune Do.
If in the old days Bruce Lee evolved to the point of not using coloured sashes around the waist but still having a ranking system for his students, then the modern-day JKD instructor should find a non-classical way to do the same in his studio.
This is just my way of telling you that you don’t have to conform to any standard if it doesn’t ring true for you. Especially not in the hope that’ll make you more money.
Have a very Happy New Year!
Now go out and conquer the world,
Sifu DW for TeamUMAA
www.unifiedmartialart.com
“Using Martial Art As a vehicle for personal growth and development”
305 595-2892
P.S. UMAA Holiday schedule: Open Monday 29th. Closed Tuesday 30th Wednesday 31st & Thursday 1st. Open Friday 2nd for Kali class at 10.30am and Saturday 3rd for Review and Jiu Jitsu at 11.30am.
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