Belts, Sashes, Arm Bands (Part One)
December 22, 2014Monday morning message
December 22, 2014
“Follow not in the footsteps of the masters, but rather seek what they sought.” – Unknown
“Obey the principles without being bound by them.” – Bruce Lee
Dear Academy member,
I’ve been having an ongoing spirited discussion with longtime FKB member Lisa “Double L” Lee about Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do philosophies.
Recently we got to the subject of ranking systems and the use of belts or sashes in Karate and Kung Fu.
Her question to me was “Why aren’t belts used in Jeet Kune Do to show rank?”
My answer was that there are actually many Jeet Kune Do instructors and school owners who now use some kind of coloured belt to indicate student rank.
But we DO NOT at UMAA!
Of course that fueled her follow-up question of “Why not at UMAA, especially since, by your own admission Sifu, the JKD schools that use belts make more money than you do?”
It’s not at all a simple answer even though it’s a simple question.
There’re several reasons why we don’t use belts at UMAA and this morning I will give you a couple of them. If this sparks interest, in next week’s Morning Message I’ll give you a couple more.
One reason is that historically belts have not been used in Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee is reported to have jokingly referred to belts as being good only for “holding your pants up!”
It’s funny and he never meant to insult the traditional approach; he was just illustrating a difference in his approach.
And so for many years in the beginning, we never used any kind of ranking system at UMAA.
But when I started to pay more attention to the business of martial arts, I realised that some kind of recognition and reward system should be in place for UMAA’s hardworking students.
And that’s how and why we came to use the different coloured t-shirts. It achieves the same thing and we don’t “break any JKD rules”. (Obviously I’m kidding about that last part: there are no JKD rules about belts).
I simply looked at what Bruce Lee had done and “created” something that, in my mind, was in keeping with the non-classical approach.
You may not be aware but Bruce Lee did actually have a coloured ranking system, even though in the late 1960s there wasn’t much of an outward demonstration of it.
For example, at various times in Bruce Lee’s ranking system the blue & white or the yellow & white yin yang symbol represented 3rd Rank which was Instructor Level.
So we did something similar with the yin yang symbol on UMAA uniform t-shirts. Simple as that.
But deeper than that is the teaching that no outward symbol can truly depict who or what an individual is. These external symbols are attempts to categorise something that cannot be measured.
A Jeet Kune Do student’s passion for/dedication to learning his art, his instructor’s passion for/dedication to teaching the art, cannot be demonstrated merely by what colour uniform they wear.
It’s what you carry inside you that truly matters! What do you think?
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 22nd & Tuesday 23rd (no Lil’ Dragons). Closed Wednesday 24th & Thursday 25th. “Momoy” Morales will lead Kali class Friday 26th at 10.30am and Review Class Saturday 27th at 11.30am.
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