Relative Rank
Rank and belts are not equivalent between arts, styles, or even within some organizations. In some arts, a black belt is expected in three years, while in others ten years may be common. Testing for black belt is commonly more rigorous and more centralized than for lower grades. It is a common belief that belts are handed out more loosely in the West than in Asia, where the custom of using the color of the belt to indicate a practitioner's rank originated. In Japan, however, rank often comes more or less automatically with time training and the black belt has little to do with the "master" level which westerners often think of when they hear the term "black belt".
Read more about this topic: Black Belt (martial Arts)
Famous quotes containing the words relative rank, relative and/or rank:
“It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And since the average lifetime—the relative longevity—is far greater for memories of poetic sensations than for those of heartbreaks, since the very long time that the grief I felt then because of Gilbert, it has been outlived by the pleasure I feel, whenever I wish to read, as in a sort of sundial, the minutes between twelve fifteen and one o’clock, in the month of May, upon remembering myself chatting ... with Madame Swann under the reflection of a cradle of wisteria.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The rank and file have let their servants become their masters and dictators.... Provision should be made in all union constitutions for the recall of leaders. Big salaries should not be paid. Career hunters should be driven out, as well as leaders who use labor for political ends. These types are menaces to the advancement of labor.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)