Black Belts in Jeet Kune Do, and other ranks.

 Sometimes, in the weird and wonderful world of Jeet Kune Do, we come accross individuals that claim to hold a blackbelt, or an even higher 'Dan' grade in the art. 

There's a few things I need to say about this.  Whilst, in the early days of running his martial arts schools, Bruce Lee did give out grades (in the form of 'levels', as in level of proficiency) he later completely went away from it.  He felt that grades / levels do not prove someone's ability to fight, but you can clearly see or experience if someone is good at something.  The practitioner themselves will easily 'feel' that their punch/kick etc has improved or not. (and the instructor will tell him so). Throughout the years, the vast majority of his students, those who started to teach his art, kept to the same principle. There are also very few instructors around. The art never got properly organised. There is no official international body currently in existence endorsed by the Lee estate/family.  Largely due to Bruce Lee's statement that he wanted to keep the numbers low and the quality high, and his desire to be teaching people as individuals. A larger organisation invariably needs some form of structure to ensure tuition is to his exacting standards, and is another reason why it never really got organised. There have been attempts to do so, trying to tread a careful line between Bruce's ideas/wishes of individual expression, and preventing it from getting to formulaic, and setting up some kind of core curriculum (and how to test/control it).  Individual views on this matter meant that most of Bruce's orginal students (who also studied at different times and circumstances with him) never could properly agree and went their own ways.  

Then there are instructors that, sometimes due to public pressure do award belts. (and by that I mean the perception of the general public is that awarding belts is like passing exams and shows your proficiency, and that this is how all martial arts do it. ).  

I know genuine JKD instructors that do that for their kids classes.. For adults this is rarely done, particularly in the Western world. For all intent and purposes, JKD is a Western Martial art, developed by an American, but with a good dose of oriental input due to his roots.  

Things change if you move to other parts of the world. In the Middle east/Africa, some asian countries love this kind of thing. Perhaps it's a cultural thing, it awards status etc.  There have been individuals who taught themselves (with varying degrees of success but that's a whole different topic) and have no lineage to any of Bruce Lee's original students (for reasons already mentioned), and awarded themselves a high rank, in the form of a Black belt with a dan grade (most recently I saw someone claiming a 7th dan in JKD)...Some of these even set up organisations with colourful names like 'world jeet kune do council' or 'International JKD Federation' and that sort of thing. Those are not endorsed by the Lee estate. They may hold competitions, they spar, but mostly exists for the benefit of profit of their founders... Also keep in mind that anyone with any serious business in this art, should have a decent level of fitness...some of these 'masters'... appear far from possesing that...

Does that mean they know what they're doing? They 'may' do..some may have attended a seminar/work shop with a genuine instructor at one point (but how many hours/years did they properly train under any??) Does that mean they are bad martial artists? No, it doesn't but it should be clear that if you are ever looking to train in JKD, to do your research. Who are they, is what they teach genuine? Prospective students should always enquire how they were awarded any dan grade, who did they train with (and can they prove it?). If you're going to spend money and time to train, you deserve to know! 

There are many pitfalls. There are fake certificates out there, and with ever improving AI and other tech, I'm sure it's going to get even more complicated...  

Also look out for those with highlevel ranks in many martial arts.  To know one martial art well, and acchieve a high rank in it, means many years of dedicated training, more than most of us have available in our lives, even if martial arts is how you make a living..  Also know that dan grades are usually awarded (in traditional arts, and is commonly accepted) in the following way: The Dan grade (lets say 4th dan), means that it took the individual a minimum of 4 more years since grading for his 3rd degree,  and from his 4th to 5th will take at least another 5 etc.  so if you come accros a 30 - 40 year old individual that holds a degree like 8-9 or 10th degree (and on top of that in multiple arts) do the maths, I'd be a little suspicious... There are now many children with black belts, but back in the 80's there were hardly any. Instructors that had a 4th dan then (a pretty high rank in the 'west' at the time), may be grand masters now, and now in their 60's. I earned my black belt after 4 years of training in Taekwondo, I was 16.  I've still not reached 60 so I am not even at minimum time trained to earn/grade for a 9th dan, had I continued training in it!  So particularly if that art is JKD, which knows no official grading structure.  any higher grade is most likely self awarded..    

There are even some (including a few individuals in Europe and USA) claiming to be 'grand masters'... let me be clear, those are NOT endorsed by any genuine JKD instructor with any form of dignity or respect towards the founder..let alone the Lee estate. If you come accross these individuals, respectfully walk away.. 

There are also those that paid a lot of money, trained for a weekend 'camp' and walked away with instructor rank... sadly that's happened too... They don't only fool themselves, but anyone training with them...

As said, there are those that have opted to test their students and give them colourful belts as a measure of their progress, and that's OK.

In my lineage we do award 'level certificates', but they are 'handed' out after the instructor feels the student deserves it, has the understanding and put in the time. A minimum for '1st Level' (like a yellow belt in traditional money) is 2 years of dedicated training in our case.  This is again because awarding someone a belt or certificate gives them something tangible to understand they're improving in the art on a personal level, a bit of a pat on the back (hence we don't test / run exams, the instructor can observe them during class and knows if someone's worth it). 

However, as a true martial artist, you probably already know, deep inside, that you are improving and getting more proficient as time goes by. It's just a piece of paper, true knowledge lies within. 

We don't wear belts, we don't act according to our 'rank' in class. We are all the same, treat eachother with the same respect as human beings. It just so happen that some of us have trained longer than others... no more no less...

Walk On!