hey schools need to make money teachers need to pay for their families ... say 150 years ago in china for example a student might bring his teacher a bag of rice or a pigs leg or a chicken or a new farm tool etc etc ... this to me is no different than the way many schools support their teachers today in america ... ranking systems also serve as a way to make money ...
hi hjm,
i did not take your comment as such nor did i think you were being rude:-)
you make legitimate questions and comments from one point of view ...
how were most forced? of coarse many traditional cma people do not use ranking and do not like ranking ... i have no problem with that :-)
i do not see the logic there ... you are saying that all of the schools i listed are not traditional kung fu schools. (you state they do traditional styles but are not traditional kwoons)
you can take my sash away and i will still have my skills ... :-)
i agree 100% for me "rank" is a personal achievement that has nothing to do with my training peers. it is only a measure of my own progress in the curriculum ...
i do know that i put in thousands of hours of practice to reach the rank i am at and some others who are at the same rank did not put in those hours and do not have the same understanding but i am not in a race with other students ... so it does not matter to me :-)
i dont follow? whos tradition are you speaking about? how long does something need to be done for it to be a tradition?
what is traditional?
i dont take anything personally on internet forums :-)
in my opinion a belt/sash is used to measure what part of the curriculum you have "learned" the basics of. it is not a measure of skill or ability to apply the concepts of your art.
some schools have a set curriculum that all students follow and to keep track of where you are it is easy to use a ranking system.
"proper" ... i think you might misunderstand how belts/sashs are used and viewed in some schools.
why would a sifu deserve "unearned" respect.
ability to apply the content of your art is more important than rank :-)