I have been thinking about that question for a while now. I mean when I first became a black belt I would have said that being one meant that you had expert abilities to execute the fundamentals of your art’s techniques, that you had a strong understanding of its theoretical concepts, knew its history, understood it philosophical ideas. It meant that you developed yourself into a fighter who had the heart of a lion, the tenacity of a bear, a drive to succeed of almost fanatical proportions. You eat, slept, worked and talked your art. At the point they hand it to you, your life is your art.
But that is more how you make a black belt not what he or she is after the test is over and the ceremony done. I know this is going to sound so hokie but becoming a black belt has been more like David Caradin walking through that door after picking up the hot coal filled pot. It is a new beginning to walk through life with new skills, mental thought processes, and philosophical ideas that were absent before then. It is my believe that each of us has to determine how our actions and deeds best acknowledge us as black belts. There must be some level of retention of your art and I am not sure what that should be but it should not be exclusively about this Kata or that Trick. That to me is a responsibility that should be on a teacher’s shoulders. (No, just in case you are wondering, I don’t believe everyone should be a teacher but that’s another topic) Being a black belt for me is more a state of being that reflects a person who has integrated his art with his life. It represents a person who is constantly in the motions to improve his humanity utilizing a vehicle known as Kajukenbo (in our case). It is a commitment to excellence. The standard of which, you (the individual black belt) must determine how best to achieve and represent through your actions, words, and abilities.
I may be off from the group as a whole and their concepts of what it is to be a black belt but now that I have been one for a number of years and helped others to become them, I think it almost easier to say what it is not. It is not the end all be all. It is not ego. It is not just a decoration. It is not stagnant. It is not the same the day you first become one and years down the road. You are not the same person that is impossible. It is not the number of students you have had , schools you run or were opened in your name, the number of stripes on your belt or the name of your art that make you a black belt.
For me it is mostly your spirit that identifies you more then anything as a black belt.
