Originally Posted by
Chris Herzog
I wasn't speaking about this particular situation, and no I don't think it your situation warrants a demotion. However, if I gave a student specifics to work on before getting promoted, they left and were promoted by someone at a different school, and they came back and those skills still hadn't been improved I wouldn't accept that promotion in my school, and he/she would come back at the same belt that left with. Especially if I suspect the only reason they left is because I hadn't promoted them yet.
That's fair. I've personally witnessed an example of a guy training at two schools get a second stripe on his blue belt at one school, go to a different school and get promoted to a 4-stripe blue belt (all within about a month of each other) and then he comes back to see the original instructors pissed about it, with good reason imo. It's not like the guy wasn't legit in his technique. That wasn't it at all. But it showed a lack of loyalty and the priority this guy really has in his training. In your hypothetical case that you presented about leaving due to not getting promoted, it would show a lack of consideration for the intrinsic factors, and too much emphasis on the extrinsic factors (e.g. belt color) that one should hope to attain from training jiu jitsu in general. Not to mention that it would be really lame if someone left just because they weren't getting promoted fast enough. But it'd say a lot about their character, and it would seem to me fairly generous of you to allow him back to your school PERIOD, let alone with his old rank. I've moved to a new school recently but made it clear from day one that I'm loyal to my guys in Chicago. It may take much longer to move up in rank this way, since I'll only see them on holidays or a sporadic weekend, but it means more to me to align with their vision of what a black belt should be, which obviously includes the universal technical and physical requirements that'll more or less come with mat time no matter
where I train, but just as importantly for me personally, the mental and spiritual development as well.
Interesting discussion.
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