Over in Okinawa right now, an international OGKK seminar is being held followed up by one big fat sweaty gaijin grading. Yesterday I was just asked about the costs involved should one grade over there. Discussions lead to this gasshuku and who the funds eventually end up going to – Definitely not to my sensei that’s all I know.
It’s unique and a little weird at the same time. My sensei teaches us, doesn’t charge, yet we have to pay for yearly costs and grading fees to the association, and not him. How does that work? Not even a slight dodgy Amway style cut. Money and karate can be a rather nasty thing at times – can cause organisation splits, destroy friendships and so on. I do understand overheads and other necessary costs may be involved, but as one climbs through the ranks and eventually has to fork out a hefty 60,000 Yen for a 6th dan, 70,000 for a 7th and so on, to know that the person who has put all that time and energy into us and does not receive anything seems like a big kick in the liver - ossssu. Having said that, I know my sensei wouldn’t accept anything even if offered, which makes me wonder why it is it that he places an importance on our gradings. He feels and knows that we all (including him) don’t give a rats about rank, but at the same time stated it was our responsibility to keep track of frequency of gradings etc. Sensei, you contradicting yourself brother? Maybe we need to be graded so the next generation / and our own students have the chance to move up accordingly. Then again, we aren’t your everyday McDojo who has thousands of students and accepts any bum off the street. Imagine all the dough we could make by holding all those gradings huh!
I know I can be quite “karate-judgemental” at times – the way you block, your stances, how you enter the first step of any kata – just one of the mentioned is all I need to see to gain an insight of karate level and rank. Yeah yeah, I know – too judgy judgy. I have only come across a few foreigners who I thought were “WOWWW this dude is goooood”. Not so much the athletic pop a vein in the forehead kiaaaiiii type, but someone who understands the concepts and can physically do Okinawan karate the way I strive to. It makes you think how the cringeworthy karateka achieved their say 5th, 6th or 7th dan within the OGKK ranks – oh that’s right, money talks. Or maybe there are different expectations for foreigners, and true ranks for the Okinawans.
Maybe it’s time to stop evaluating my/ourselves against others; instead, examine what standard we measure ourselves? Are our standards too high? Is the perfectionist in me getting in the way to such a level that I can’t seem to respect most of the karate population out there? Am I rambling too much? What would happen if our students remained with us, continued to grade, went off to Okinawa for further gradings, and eventually surpassed us in rank should we decide we didn’t want to grade again. Is that possible? Should I be the first to attempt such experiment?
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