POLL: Am I being too tough on affiliates??

[Patt Holloman]

Should I start giving out brown belts at seminars to instructors who won't compete and won't travel to Cali to test themselves against HQ purples, browns and blacks?
NO.

[Matthew Edlund]

You should do what you think is right for the system. The tougher the standards the more determined the student. The standard of black belt is rising higher and higher every year. The guys training to get there one day (myself included) need to get tough and rise to meet that challenge.

Eddie if you don't make it tough then it's not worth it. A belt, regardless of color, is something not everyone should be able to posses. If they could then the belt would be truly worthless.

It's a tough climb but only those that reach the top get the glory.

[Tammo Haarhuis]

It is good as it is right now. That being said I'll come back to L.A. in four weeks for three months of training at the place to improve. And I want to participate at the No Gi World representing finest 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu technique.

fucking nice to hear that....see you later!

[Jon Helton]

Should I start giving out brown belts at seminars to instructors who won't compete and won't travel to Cali to test themselves against HQ purples, browns and blacks?

Should I?

What yalls think?

I will if most of you think i should.

LOL. You know EVERYBODY is gonna say hell no. Well, everybody except whomever it was that went and wined about it.

[Tammo Haarhuis]

Should I start giving out brown belts at seminars to instructors who won't compete and won't travel to Cali to test themselves against HQ purples, browns and blacks?

Should I?

What yalls think?

I will if most of you think i should.

personally, i dont think you should. i dont know, everything i wanted to say has been said. sacrifice and so on...

[Josh Passini]

Than its not important enough to you, that is excatly the sacrifice were referring to. Who doesn't have those commitments? Everyone has work and family obligations. Since I graduated college I've had a full time job (I worked in human services for peanuts for 15 years), ran a school(which only made enough to pay for itself to stay open) on top of my own training and a wife and family obligations. Yet I still found time, and busted my ass saving money to go train with my Sambo Coach in Canada, My Judo Coach in Detriot, in Iowa with Pat Miletich and obviously at HQ with Eddie.

If you WANT it you will find a way.

+1

[Ron Almeida]

Should I start giving out brown belts at seminars to instructors who won't compete and won't travel to Cali to test themselves against HQ purples, browns and blacks?

Should I?

What yalls think?

I will if most of you think i should.

if they "WONT" i would say NO way, if they legitimately Cant, then yes.

if you feel someone deserves a certain color belt in your system then who am i to question how you give it to them. i know you would not promote someone to something they didnt deserve.

example- if someone lived in a 3rd world country and was barely putting food on the table, but was scraping pesos together to go to every seminar you put on in that country and training everyday. you test his skills and roll with him, you can give him what ever belt you want.

heck its hard for me (financially and scheduling) to drive four hours to get to hq, so i can understand the difficulty for others coming from other parts of the world.

the bottom line is, who you promote and how you promote is up to you, we should not question your judgement.

[Tyler Timmermans]

you should charge peapol to test and make some dough and make 10th planet a religion so you don't have to pay taxs.

[Enrique "Kiko"]

Interesting thread, and even more interesting is that some of us believe that a belt should be awarded even if the skill level that should be attained to wear the belt isn't reached.

If one doesn't have the skill, knowledge level, etc to rank up, then they don't rank up. Please keep the standards the way they are Eddie. If one wants a quick black belt in a year of training, there are plenty of McDojos willing to belt you for money. If one wants to learn a "real deal" martial art, then you're in the right place training the 10th Planet system, just be prepared to put the time in and demonstrate *through competitions or seminars etc* that you ACTUALLY know and can perform the moves in the system. You can't really "cheat" your way to rank up in 10th Planet as most of us here can recognize skill, *even us lowly, but proud, white belts.*

[Bill Keeling]

Leave it just the way it is! If it's not broke, don't fix it....