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Children black belts

Since a martial art is a fighting art (not a sport, not a hobby, not a physical training activity) whose primary purpose is to stop, incapacitate, injure, or kill an attacker or a potential attacker, it involves complex problem solving, deep emotional feelings, life or death decision making, and a thinking process that only come through maturity. A child may be physically able to perform the motions of a black belt, but they cannot think as a black belt since their brains have not matured enough to deal with the situations that a black belt is expected to handle. Therefore, only an adult may become an actual black belt. Just as children may think they are adults and may pretend to be adults, black belt children only think and pretend they are black belts.

Just because one outwardly appears to be a black belt, that does make the person a black belt. A junior police cadet who has completed police officer training and was the first in her class is not a police officer, even is she wears a police officer uniform. She must wait until she is 21 years old before she will even be considered by police department. Decisions about the use of deadly force cannot be entrusted to the immature, since the immature cannot make proper decisions in highly volatile, emotions situations. Yet, there are those who see no problem in teaching deadly force to children.

A child cannot vote or legally enter into a contract (including a contract with a martial art school) until he or she is 18 years of age because of immaturity. Parents are legally responsible for the well-being and actions of their immature children until the children reach 18 years of age. Yet some martial art organizations, schools, and instructors, award black belts to children. In effect, they are saying the children are capable of making adult life or death decisions, that the children have the proven legal, physical, mental, and emotional ability to do what it takes to be a warrior and an expert in hand-to-hand combat. This is a fraud that is being perpetrated not only against the public, but also against the martial arts community.

The 60 Minutes television show recently ran a piece on a child music prodigy who, at 10 years old, composes symphonies. The boy said he hears music in his head and writes it down, and that what he hears is prefect and never needs to be changed. Beethoven and Mozart made so many changes to their symphonies that some were never finished. That is the difference between immaturity and maturity. Adults realize they may be wrong, children always think they are right. That is way we do not let them carry guns and knives  no matter how well trained they are in their usage; it should also be why we do not teach them how to seriously injure, maim, or kill.

In many martial art schools, you may find a child teaching a class of children, or even teaching a class of adults. In what other endeavor will you find adults paying to be instructed by a child, or paying to have their child taught by another child?

For example, one day your boss tells you that you must attend a seminar on the subject of how to deal with problem employees. She says the seminar will cover how to be more understanding of employee problems, how to help them solve their problems, and how to discipline them if necessary, and that the seminar will be taught by a “certified” expert in the field of employee relations. You think, “This sounds great! I think it help me be a better supervisor.” Then your boss says that you will have to pay for the class yourself. At first this upsets you, but, after some thought, you agree that the training may be worth the money. When you get to the seminar, you find it is being taught by a 16-year-old boy who has been “certified” as an expert by his instructor’s “organization,” which is operated by the instructor’s instructor. What would you do? Would you stay for the seminar and believe what a child tells you about complex employee relations, or would you leave and demand your money back?

If your young child asks if he or she can be a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, or an electrician in the next few years, you would say no; you must be an adult to do those things. However, if your child asks if he or she can become a black belt expert in an ancient hand-to-hand fighting martial art in the next few years, you could say “Certainly you can! You do not need to be an adult to become a highly qualified and responsible martial art black belt.” Even though your child cannot speak in complete sentences or write an meaningful paragraph, has never been attacked by a person intent on harming him or her or never stuck another with the intent to harm, still sleeps with a night light, and knows nothing about life, the child may still easily be awarded a martial art black belt.

To be a black belt, a person must know how to fight, must know how to seriously injure or, if necessary, kill and must have the maturity to know when it is necessary, must be emotionally capable of seriously injuring or killing another person, and then must be able to deal with the emotional aftermath. A martial art is not a sport—it is martial art!

A person under the age of 18 may still train in the martial arts and earn rank, but for the black belt to maintain its prestige, it must be reserved for adults. Children may have their own ranking system with the top belt being something other than a black belt; say a gray belt. Then the child stays at that belt level until he or she reaches 18 years of age, at which time the adult may test black. If the child reaches the top belt level at a young age, then it will be many years before the child may test again. If the child is truly black belt material, he or she will keep training and wait until his or her 18^th birthday. If the child waits, he or she will be a well-respected black belt; if the child does not wait, so be it.

Women black belts

If all black belts are considered equal, then all persons testing for black belt should have to meet the same requirements and standards. Men and women must meet the same requirements to be doctors, lawyers, PhD’s, etc., why not to be black belts

For example, if a man is required to break a certain number of boards, then a woman should be required to break the same number of boards. If you lower the number of boards a woman must break, then the black belts are not equal. You should either require women to meet the same requirements as men, lower the men’s requirement to the same level as the women’s requirement, lower the prestige and benefits of women black belts, or award women something other than, and subordinate to, a black belt. The black belt should be lofty goal, with the same requirements for everyone.

People demand equal pay for equal work. Why is there not also a demand for equal work for equal pay. If you want to be paid equally, you must perform equally. If you consider all black belts equal and give then all the same prestige and benefits, then you should expect all black belts to meet the same requirements for becoming a black belt. If they not, then not all black belts are equal; some are less than equal.

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