Belts Are Fun!

Isn’t it a great feeling to earn your next rank?? Once you have that new belt in your hands and are walking back to your spot in line to put it on it seems like you’re on top of the world!

We’ve talked in other articles about the time and effort it takes to earn that new rank, but there’s another aspect of getting there that we often overlook. And that’s simply “trying”.

Sometimes students won’t get that next rank all because they just don’t go for it! Maybe they’re not very confident in that last kata, or they don’t feel like they’re ready. And ya know, that brings up another good point – “are you ready?” Many times across the years a student will decline to participate in Exams because they don’t think they are ready. That always strikes me as funny because in reality, how would “they” know? As students, their job is simply to train – our job as teachers is to determine when they are ready!

With that in mind I’ve often thought that we should throw the entire Exam process out the window and simply award new ranks when we see that a student has reached that next level. That would be great, but we would miss some of the important aspects of Exams. One is reading the written reports and getting to see how students are thinking about all this stuff, and another is the fear factor and seeing how students handle themselves under pressure.

All that said, a student will never get a new rank if they never try for it. It’s kinda like that slogan for the lottery that goes something like, “the odds of winning are a kajillion to one if you play, zero if you don’t!”

Many times I’ve awarded ranks to students who were not scheduled to test, but just showed up, did their best, and looked really good! (And I just love to see the shocked look on their face when their name is unexpectedly called!)

Colossians 3:23-24 tells us: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” God obviously wants us to do our best for Him too, no matter what it is we’re doing!

So whether its in your Karate class, Exams, at school, on your job, whatever it is, always TRY, do your best and God will be pleased. And you just never know where that will lead!