Rank

Rank
[rangk] 
adjective, rank·er, rank·est.
1. having an offensively strong smell or taste: a rank cigar.
2. offensively strong, as a smell or taste.

This is not the rank you're looking for......or is it.  Ok, probably not what you were expecting when you saw the topic heading of RANK on a Life Protection related blog.  This is a homonym for what you were probably thinking, but I believe, the two identically spelled and sounding words are linked when it comes to Life Protection.  I'm going to sound like Yoda here, but rank leads to ego, ego leads to jealousy, and the only important thing left is that no paths from there are good.

One of the things I admired about Taika in the 80's, when he left Ryukyu Kempo behind and forged ahead with his new art, RyuTe® Ren Mei, was that of the belts.  Previously in the style, he'd had the standard kyu rank belts which are a help to large dojo when trying to remember who is supposed to know what techniques.  But at the time he also also had a set of colored belts for yudansha (black belts).  They started out black with various thicknesses of silver stripes, then gold stripes, then the belts turned red with gold stripes.  Taika grew to believe that these belts led to people strutting around at seminars saying, 'Look at me!  I'm more important than you.'  Ego, my theme for the day.  So when he started making his Okinawan hakama, the colored belts went away and then when he made his official RyuTe® uniforms, all black belts wore an integrated belt the same color as the uniform.  The uniforms were white half the year and black the other half.  Tasshi Logue used to joke that he was only a black belt half the year, the other half, white.  I truly believe this was a wonderful first step to get rid of or at least minimize ego.  Also, around this time he began treating everyone as equals.  If you were a true beginner student or a long time black belt, he treated you as equals at a seminar.  This is why he banished these colored belts, and why I find it so interesting that all the banished people have chosen to take up their egos, woops, I mean colored belts, and don them once again. 

When I stated belt removal was a 'First Step' earlier, you may be wondering what would of been the next step.  In my opinion, rank and title deletion would be next. 

By that, I mean that once you get your black belt, you are just a yudansha from then on out.  You don't get a first, second, third, fourth degree black belt.  To maintain your status in an organization you participate.  No participation, no certified status.  This is how most American professions handle things, with continuing education credits.  School teachers, Police Officers, Attorney's and many other professionals have to get continuing credit and participate or they are no longer able to sell themselves in that industry.  So many people spend their time chasing the next belt that they lose site of the real goals; To continually grow, get better, and research with their peers.  Why didn't Taika make that step, well, it was his source of income.  Not that he was greedy, by no means was he.  I am absolutely in no way criticizing him for this, he had to make money in his industry.  He often loaned out money to friends, family, students, and even the homeless.  But running an organization was indeed his job and belts is where you make your money.

Titles:  I have always, even in my current occupation hated titles.  A peeve of mine is people saying, my name is Sergeant so and so.  Well, that is your RANK and then your NAME.  I always answer the phone at work as, "This is Lee, how may I help you."  People will often then ask to talk to the Sergeant.  I say, "That's me."  They seemed shocked that I don't answer the phone as "Sergeant Lee Richards".  I ask my staff to call me by my name.  They seem to respect me and my rank, and just because I don't have them call me Sergeant doesn't mean they have forgotten that I am their boss.  There are people in the arts that demand you call them Renshi, Hanshi or something else.  Most of these don't even understand that a title is a separate document, and not just inherited by their rank certificate.  Most don't have any paperwork to back up their title.  When we were tasked with doing a demo to help convert another dojo to RyuTe® many years ago, the instructor there asked how to introduce us to the his class.  After we told him Lee and Tony, he asked again, what title.  We again said Lee and Tony.  This went round and round for at least five minutes before he gave up. 

Titles do not necessarily warrant respect and respect shouldn't necessarily bring titles.

Loose the Ego.

Makiwara

Makiwara

What it was:

There are so many people out there that that love to talk about 'The Old Ways' of training and two of these ways that drive me nuts are Bogu and Makiwara.  First, for any of my students that might be bored enough to read one of my rants, I guess I should define what a Makiwara is.  In the early years of Karate training, you couldn't just go down to the local sporting goods store and buy a punching bag.  You could however shove a stick or board down into the ground and wrap some rice rope around it.  The board would give or flex as you struck it and the rice rope would be softer than the board.  So this was essentially what they would use to practice punches and kics.

In Taika's early years, he trained on one and actually had some pretty big calluses on his knuckles.  After the war, when servicemen were training over in Okinawa, they still didn't have much in the way of training equipment, and this was cheap.  Years later, when Taika came to the United States, he would have his students train on one.  He would also make them bring a metal coffee can to class filled with their own urine.  Yes, the old remedy of urine being an antiseptic was in play in the dojo and people would make their knuckles bloody then soak them in urine.  Again, old training tips from ancient times.

As Taika got into his 50's, and gained in wisdom, he never trained on Makiwara.  Several discussions in class would come up over the years and he would say that this was, 'Stupid Training'.  He said that the makiwara was a great tool for weeding out the undisciplined, as well as taming those with attitudes.  Much like Punching Bags and Neosporin, there were much better ways in the past few decades to train.  He would talk about how his hands didn't need to be tough to enact any of his Kyusho techniques.  After decades of not hitting makiwara, he was still able to knock any of us unconscious with his fingers, and not a callus on his knuckles.   

  

What it has become: 

In the world of Karate, Martial Arts or whatever name you brand it with, the Makiwara has become a tough guy badge, a rite of passage.  People think that it is cool.  "Hey look at me, I was able to damage myself repeatedly until calluses built up over an already hard and bony surface."  If the two, typical striking knuckles of my fist strike your neck at the correct angle, do you really think they need to be ANY harder than bone?  I suppose if you are breaking boards and cement blocks, then you might enjoy the added protection of thicker skin.  But since boards and blocks don't usually attack innocent karateka, I don't think I'll waste my time training in this nonsense.  So if hardening the surface of a bone (still makes no sense to me no matter how I type it) isn't useful, then the only reason left is ego.  Ego, needs to be left out of the dojo and life in general.  We don't need it in Te and this is just one example of where it rears its ugly head.  Taika had more wisdom and experience in Te than anyone I have ever met, and I think I'll follow his lead, letting the Makiwara go the way of the DoDo.