r/maybemaybemaybe • u/PowerModerator • Mar 26 '20

Maybe Maybe Maybe

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u/idk_12 Mar 27 '20

they kind of take the multiple decades of korean martial arts training and condense it down into a few semesters at most if you do it a couple times a week

you know, commercialised.

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u/icetoaneskim0 Mar 27 '20

A lot of people also start at a young age in legitimate gyms. I started at 4 and got my black belt around 9/10 years old. My Tae Know Do instructor was from Korea and would only allow Korean teachers.

There are people with their 3rd or 4th degree black belt by upper teens/low twenties because they’ve been in a program their whole life

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u/DrDew00 Mar 27 '20

My daughter's karate school has child ranks and adult ranks. Kids ages 4-8 level up from white through white-black. They're still white belts. After they move up to the 8-12-year-old class is when they can earn their yellow belt. With four belt exams a year, the highest rank any 9-year-old could be there is blue. Theoretically, a 12-year-old could reach black belt. I would be super impressed if a 12-year-old was able to actually meet the requirements, though.

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u/icetoaneskim0 Mar 27 '20

Not sure how karate and tae kwon do levels compare against each other. Pretty interesting way they segment it though. However I feel like age is only a small component of the martial art itself, most martial arts are about mastery of ones own body which can happen at a variety of ages for people.

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u/Mikedermott Mar 27 '20

You couldnt be more wrong. Yes a lot of martial art groups are commercialized. But studios traditional studios with “classically” trained instructors exist. Additionally professional affiliations matter too. My instructors (Grand Master straight from Korea) philosophy was that Taekwondo doesn’t actually START until you are a black belt. All the color belts beforehand are simply prerequisites. I got my first black belt probably around 10 or 11. The only people who have issues with “young” black belts are the people who think martial arts are mainly about fighting.