 Honorary Blackbells. The reason I'm talking about this today is because I just got one, and I thought, hmm, this would be a great impromptu discussion episode to talk about on this channel. So today we're going to ask about Honorary Blackbells. Are they a good thing or are they a bad thing for the martial arts? Art of Wendojo is supported in part by our members on Patreon and YouTube memberships. If you want to learn more about supporting this channel, then please click on the link in the description or click the join button below the video to learn more. Okay, the reason I want to talk about this was a few days ago I was alerted online that I received a message from somebody who does their own offshoot system and I'm not going to name the system or the art because it's honestly relevant to this topic. But I received a message that I was being awarded an Honorary Blackbell for the hard work that we do on this channel. The person loved their videos and they are awarding me an honorary first degree in their art. This felt weird. I'm not going to lie. This felt very strange because I never really considered this before and I never really gave the topic too much of a thought until now. So being the awesome forum that you guys are and the awesome feedback and insight that we get, I wanted to pose this topic to all of you and kind of see where you stand on this because I've got my some thoughts that formulated and I figured today we will go through some of the aspects and pros and cons for honorary black belts. We put out a poll on our community tab asking people what their thoughts were on honorary black belt and interestingly enough I got the question several times of what is an honorary black belt? What does that mean? Is that even a thing? So real quickly, yes, an honorary black belt is basically an award of recognition either applied to an individual or an organization and it can be for any achievements along the lines of fundraising, promoting an art, contributing back to society, to community, guiding children, anything along those lines, it's really more of a token of appreciation. But the real question comes into is what kind of weight, what kind of consequence could this award have, if any? So before we did this episode, we wanted to kind of get a feel of the community and where you guys stood. So the poll had five options. An honorary black belt is an achievement to be proud of. Well, I'm okay with it as long as it's very clear that it's honorary. I'm indifferent, belts suck anyway, give away whatever you want. I think it sends the wrong message about ranks and I hate it, it diminishes the hard work I put into my training. Now before we go forward, I just have to reiterate that belts mean nothing. The physical fabric belts do not represent anyone's skill or knowledge in any given martial art. It just shows experience and that you've been through a certain part of the curriculum. So I just want to get out of the way, but even though in the real world and outside the scope of martial arts, the belts themselves mean nothing, they do carry consequence within the context of the martial arts. There is a responsibility and there is a weight, like it or not, that is applied to black belts. Now the term honorary black belt has a lot of fuzziness around it in some gray areas and I'm going to be making some distinctions as we go along. The first is I don't want to confuse this with putting time and great into a system. In many martial arts, belt ranks and black belt ranks only go up to a certain level before you run out of curriculum and at that point usually it's time and grade and dedication and contribution to your teaching and training in your art that you earn further degrees of black belt. So in that sense they are honorary but in the sense that you earn it because you're working towards it. You're giving back to the art, you're developing the art, you're actually taking part in development versus an acknowledgement or an achievement award given to you for something that may be unrelated possibly. So there's a big difference between the two. So as many people brought up, colleges and universities often give out honorary degrees, you know honorary doctorates and that's a very important thing to bring up and we're going to come back to that because there's a lot to look at in that aspect. Now with many topics in the martial arts just pros and cons. So let's start there. So what kind of good can an honorary black belt do? Well first look at the base level. You are honoring someone's contribution whether that be financially or if they put in time or a sacrifice on their end. You are honoring something that someone did and that's usually a positive thing. Also it can help proliferate the arts. You know many arts get attention this way and it helps bring a spotlight and awareness and sometimes it encourages other people to join. In addition to that it sets an example that others might want to follow. You know it might inspire new people to join or new people to contribute or the person who just got the award you might inspire them to go further into the art. So it definitely has its pluses. So what about the cons? What kind of harm can they do? Well starting off you know it could cause resentment within an organization. You know honorary or not in many times you might have students who are spending years working towards an art working towards a goal that somebody else donate some money and get the same title. So whether you agree with that or not that could cause some resentment within a school or organization. Also and I think this is more of a serious side of it a lot of people will take the honorary, honorary and kind of forget that particular word and they'll claim the title as their rank and that's where I think a lot of the real problems come from and stemming off of that people who try to play on that and claim that rank often find themselves getting hurt or humiliated when they're exposed. So I think that's a little bit more of the sinister side of it but we do have to take into account that there's both good and bad with honorary degrees. There's also very small distinction to make in that there's a difference between an honorable black belt that's given as an achievement and recognition versus a black belt as awarded honorably acting as a rank. And it's a very subtle difference but it's a very important difference. But before we get into that let's kind of revert back to the whole honorary doctorate's example. So the question was you know we don't bat an eye at an honorary doctorate so why would we have the black belt? Well right off the bat an honorary degree or honorary doctorate you know no one's going to take an honorary doctorate and go open up a doctor's practice you know that doesn't work because one it's usually state regulated. Universities are accredited and when you get a degree it's pretty legally binding and you have to be certified for it. So in order to open a medical practice your doctorate has to be pretty legitimate. When it comes to black belts you don't have that kind of regulation. It's a lot more arbitrary and it comes down to the individual school and organization. So if someone is awarded an honorary black belt and they get a certificate and it doesn't specifically say honorary on it or they choose not to show the certificate nothing stops them from just going to open up a dojo claiming that they are a black belt and they might even have some paperwork to back it up. So there's a little bit of a difference. I've seen problems come from this. For example I knew an instructor years back who had an assistant instructor teaching the kids classes and that assistant instructor had not reached a black belt yet. They were a couple belts away but he was getting complaints from parents saying you know I want to hook him up black belt so I teach him my kids even though he knew the material very very well. I mean it was a you know he was an adult teaching the kids curriculum but it got to the point where my instructor goes okay I'm going to give you an honorary black belt and he gave him a black instructor's belt to wear when he was teaching. The problem with that though is this guy went around and claimed that he was now a black belt that he got promoted and it actually caused ripple through the organization because at the time we were part of a hierarchy in which you know you went through levels and there were camps there was there was a certain procedure to test and the head of the organization found out and got really upset and said wait well why why is he saying this so claiming a rank you don't have is a big problem in the martial arts even if we want to say brink doesn't mean anything you're risking hurting yourself or humiliating yourself because if you are wearing a rank that you did not earn or even come close to earning and you walk to another school and you try to assert that rank most likely they're going to know what's up. I hold Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as the gold standard for belt ranks they don't play around in that world that rank means something because you have to earn it they don't just give them away willy-nilly you don't even usually test for it it's usually when you're ready for it. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the arts I feel and I respect the most for the ranks just because of how regimented it is and how much respect there is to it so if you are not a Black Belt and you put one on and you go to a BJJ school claiming to be one you were in for a very rough time and there's a big difference between receiving an honorary title and a system that you train in or an outside organization altogether and that's actually the case what happened here is I received the message that I was being awarded an honorary first degree Black Belt in this other system that I have never even spent a day in my life and I even trained and I didn't even know about it so there's a big difference between that or say a Kempo instructor came with me and wanted to award me an honorary title a little bit of a different context and that goes back to whether the title is honorary or if you're being given a rank for another reason so for example there's a lot of examples out there where a practitioner in art might be trained they might be spending years they're working towards Black Belt and they get sick or they get injured or something happens that prevents them from testing over time if they still find a way to contribute to the art maybe they can't train physically as hard anymore but maybe they can go into teaching or maybe they can do research and they start to give back to the art in many cases they are awarded that that first degree Black Belt they're given that rank now they didn't go to the same measures as anybody else but what do you guys think is that person anymore or less deserving of it now before you say oh well they didn't physically do it they can't perform anymore they shouldn't be a Black Belt then let me ask this let's look at the flip side of that coin what if you are a Black Belt and you get hurt later well you can no longer perform and you can no longer do it they don't usually take your belt away right you still have that knowledge and that's the gray area and a big question is should rank be based more on skill physical skill or should rank be based more on knowledge or should it be an even mix between the two where do you draw that line also postmortem titles many times when the Grand Master passes away or a high ranking instructor passes away posthumously they are awarded either an honorary rank or they're actually given another rank were they instrumental in the art so if it was an instructor they contribute in a way that after death they deserve another rank like I said many systems when to get past a certain rank they're honorary after that anyway you also sometimes see cases where maybe a grand master passes away and to honor that person the committee comes together and they award them posthumously another degree or another dan level and the sentiment there is well they're now one step above grand master no one else could reach that so it's like a rank reserved for them to give them ultimate authority again that's a little more ceremonial and that really affects more of the practitioners and the organization as a whole because the person receiving that rank doesn't care when we're at the other so postmortem ranks and honorary ranks are definitely a thing and one of the most common comments was it's up to the sensei and you know what I really agree with that because because of the uncertainty and the amount of variables at play here it really should be analyzed on a case by case basis what is the reason for this honorary title is the sensei or organization really trying to honor someone and really trying to show appreciation or is it the political ploy or a marketing ploy are you just trying to you know make an organization look better or maybe it's a financial game because somebody bought their title you have to look at it at an individual level because there's a lot of gray area here now let's go take a look at the poll results because to be honest I was a little bit surprised 12 percent of our community felt that it was an achievement to be proud of and overwhelming 47 percent felt that it was fine as long as it was clear that it was only honorary 90 percent were indifferent either way 17 percent thought that it set a bad example for the martial arts and 16 hated it downright instead of diminishing the hard work that goes into training now these results were a little bit surprising I actually dissipated slightly different numbers I expected more people to be more indifferent to belt ranks and maybe even a bigger number towards sending a poor message to the martial arts I did not expect an overwhelming 47 percent of our community to be as accepting as they were so here's where I stand on it if it is made very very clear that the title is ceremonial and in honor only not an actual official rank then we really shouldn't see any problems with it but when it comes to a student making an inception and applying a rank to them that they didn't go through the normal channels that get through I think that's a harder call and I don't think there's a blanket statement I can apply to that I'm going to agree with most of you and that it really does come down to the individual scenario and the call of that instructor in fact it's their school it's their call if they feel that person represents that rank they have the right to apply that rank but like I said there's there's there's a lot of question marks that come with that so now I want to point out and go back to that message I received the message that the person sent was that I was being awarded an honorary title in their system but I want to point out that the certificate they printed up does not say honorary nowhere on there does it say honorary it just says first degree black belt and that's what I'm talking about where issues can come up because there's nothing that stops me from opening up a school especially since I already have martial arts background and claiming look I have a rank in another style I could do this for a marketing purpose or whatever reason it's a little harder to unless somebody kind of does a deep dive and they try to verify it it's harder to catch and I do think that that's something compared to the you know the degrees given up by university it's a little bit more of a leeway with the martial arts and easier to get away with so I just want to point it out there because technically technically speaking I'm certified in an art I never spent a day training in and I don't feel that's right and yes as we've said many times the belts mean nothing rank means nothing but within the context of a school or within the context of an art whether you like it or not there is consequence there is weight given to it even though there's a piece of fabric just around your waist there is contextual weight to it it also feels bad to get a rank or title that you didn't earn at least to me I was given a rank that I didn't put on for six months because I didn't feel I was where I wasn't where I wanted to be with it even though the instructor felt I was I held off for six months before I wore it because it didn't feel good to get it at that time so yes the belts themselves mean nothing but unfortunately whether we like it or not within a school within the organization there's still an authority in the way attached to it and I feel it's important to uphold that authority and integrity otherwise you're doing your school in art a great disservice so my personal opinion I think it's pretty easy fix I'm fine with giving away the achievements give recognitions that's great stuff it has bonuses but don't make it a rank make a plaque a trophy a certificate or use a belt that's not an official rank in your system you'll go land to do a camouflage belt or a gold belt or silver belt something that doesn't represent actual authority or rank because once you take away that aspect of it you kind of eliminate a lot of the political problems right off the bat and you can get rid of some resentment right there so my opinion I don't think the honoraries should be actual ranks because sometimes making the distinction between rank and an honorary title can be blurred so if you're out there watching I am humbled and I appreciate your gesture obviously I'm not going to claim rank as official rank in your system as the certificate implies but I know what you meant by it and I appreciate the gesture and I'm going to take it in the spirit in which it was intended as a compliment so what do you guys think is it a harmless achievement or do you feel it diminishes the value of the black belt or are belts just all stupid all together we should be talking about something else as always I appreciate your perspectives I value your input and I look forward to your comments below thanks for watching