Hello,

Rank has little meaning, imho, outside of your own kwoon. Kind of like a Black Belt does not translate equally across the board. A BB in one system may be only a high ranking brown in another.

FWIW; While I trained in WT I was officially ranked as a Primary Level Technician after having passed all 12 student grade levels. I was trained to my third level but never tested past the Primary. Partly due to some of the requirements, such as having your own school and promoting students to instructor level as well. Ranking seemed more about promoting the system than in attaining skill, of course that is just my opinion. I never really had a great interest in teaching anyone else.

The one good thing about the ranking structure was that you could go to any other WT school in the world and the program would be pretty close for your rank or grade, with minior differences.

Having said that, just knowing the requirements for the rank did not necessarily equate with greater skill. I remember when I returned to the U.S. from Germany and one of the guys in AZ asked me about my primary instructor in Germany and what rank he was. I replied that the guy I trained with in Germany was a second level to which this guy replied that he was a third level. I told him that the guy in Germany would eat him for breakfast and this was confirmed after some of the German guys visited the U.S. The difference was more in how they trained than in what they knew.

Under Sifu Chow I never wore any of the rank he gave me and I think, after time, he gave up on me being ranked . I used to be the only guy on his site who was not a fully certified instructor but authorized to teach under his banner.

I used to like attending some of his classes without any rank and messing with some of the guys there. It was also funny to see how some of the other students would react to me when I am hardly ever there due to distance, etc and they think I am a newbie. A lot is revealed when I hang out with the senior guys, but it is fun to mess with people, part of my devilish nature I guess. Does not work so much now, but then again I have been in GA for almost four years now so I am sure a lot of people no longer know me.