Rank is a double-edged sword. It can cut for the good and cut for the bad. There is a point in time when you need rank. Rank gives structure and goals for the individual to shoot for. It is totally required in today’s day and age because people have even less attention span and focus than they did 30 years ago, let alone hundreds of years ago when no rank existed whatsoever. In the “old days,” you apprenticed yourself to the master for your entire life until he retired or passed away, and then you became the master, hopefully. There was no other incentive other than learning the art for the sake of the art. In today’s society, people need other motivations because they’re so caught up with having status, having a name, having something to show for it, rather than putting in the work and having the work speak for the quality of the individual. Rank is basically a motivational tool, an incentive, a carrot in front of the jackass to keep him moving.
First, second and third degrees are all about you honing your skill, your understanding, becoming fluent in your art form and your technique. From third, fourth and fifth it’s about teaching, becoming a teacher and helping to spread the art, supporting your teacher and supporting your school. Not too many people really get into that. It’s a much higher level. Anything above fifth degree black belt is all about your payback to the art, the system and your teacher. Back in the day, if you had a third degree blackbelt, that meant you had at least a good 25 years or more of experience. It meant you fought for it and bled for it and maybe lost a tooth or two. Those ranks were hard won and had a high level of value. I can remember breaking my hand, breaking my nose and quite a few black eyes to get a third degree or more. Not too many people want to go through that today. Rank is an important tool. But, when perceived solely on the basis of ego, it becomes detrimental to the overall growth of the individual practitioner as well as the martial art training hall.
Rank becomes detrimental when people think that their rank personifies who they are. But doesn’t it? Rank should epitomize the individual practitioner and serve a tool to remind them to what level they can aspire to, rather than what they truly are. It is a signpost to the potential that lies within the individual student rather than an overall accomplishment. In truth, learning and becoming better is a never-ending journey, and receiving a rank is only a signpost on the road that should remind you to continue moving forward in a positive direction.
There is a point in time where the individual passes themselves on that road and begins to understand the true function of rank, and is no longer hung up on it. If you really want to continue to grow, you need to take the roof off the house. The perception that you have of your rank is keeping you down. That item that used to be motivational becomes demotivational because you start lording over everything and everyone because you have a fifth degree blackbelt. In truth, as all steps forward, this becomes the true doorway into the learning of the martial arts. All of us that have spent an inordinate amount of time (30 years plus) training in our given art form, I think will all attest to the fact that once you reach this equivalent level, there is a major transformation, and you begin to understand that you’ve only begun to understand. In this one moment of epiphany, you can dispense with all ego, bravado, and anything else that was tied to having these ranks. You can truly begin an unfettered start to learning again.
When people find out that you hold a black belt or some rank equivalent in a martial art, they say, “Oh, so you must be a master,” in a Homer Simpson kind of voice, but you understand, hopefully, that that’s not the case. It’s just a stepping stone to a higher level of understanding. Ranked individuals return to become beginners again. Many times, I don’t wear my belt, I don’t wear my sash. It’s tied up and it’s on the Sun Toy (ancestral altar). There was a time when I was more into wearing it to show “what I am,” “what I have” and “what I accomplished.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but as I said before, when you pass yourself a few times, you realize that those trappings are not necessary and even hold you back. They keep you from growing because they put a cap on how you perceive the learning and the growth, and ultimately how you perceive yourself.
It’s good sometimes to mix it up and train with non-black belts to keep it real. Underbelts can sometimes do just as well if not better than black belts because we forget what it took to get there. What it took to get there is what it’s going to take to keep it there and move even further along. The danger of having a high rank is that it undermines your openness and the unspoiled nature of the beginner student mentality. Sometimes, you get your black belt, and it’s like cancer. Cancer ultimately kills and it’s very difficult to put in remission, and even if you do, it may come back. This is the crux of the matter. Some individuals, when they get their black belt, lose the proper understanding and get something else, which I like to term black-belt-itis, and it’s caustic to their growth. Because as we established, learning is a journey and it goes on forever. If you believe that, then you not only have to get rank out of the way, you have to get yourself out of the way. Sitting on your laurels about the glory days when you first started training and worked so hard will only get you so far. The car’s run out of gas; it’s time to get out and walk. You have to stoke the fire all the time; otherwise the fire goes out.
Keep it real. Honor it, respect it, cherish and honor the knowledge. Devote yourself to the learning, but don’t be held prisoner by the rank. Don’t care about the rank any more “in that way.” Because if it no longer holds sway over you, you can learn more. This is where a lot of senior practitioners in whatever art you want to talk about cannot continue to grow because they stagnate themselves with the wrong mentality. Rank means nothing unless you put in the work. You have to work it every day. If the 5-Star Chef doesn’t stay on top of his ability, then his five stars are gone. I try to remain vigilant to keep myself on the straight and narrow. As I was training yesterday with my teacher (as I have continued to do for the last thirty plus years), Grandmaster Tak Wah Eng, he said to me, in a blanket statement, “Don’t lie to yourself. Do it right.” I try to live by that on a daily basis. Most people dream the dream; they don’t live the dream. If you live the dream, you have to take stock of yourself. Sometimes it may come up much harsher than you’d like to hear, but in my opinion, that’s the only way a true martial artist or artist of any kind can and should be.
-Sifu Paul Koh 高寶羅
