THOSE WHO EARN RANK AND THOSE WHO JUST DONT MATTER

I recently received an email from one of my instructor’s daughters. My instructor passed away several years ago and since his passing some have popped up claiming to have trained under him, claiming to be black belts under him. To make a long story short they did not. There were some under handed things pulled by these people using her father’s name in various deceitful ways and his daughter of course is very understandably upset about this. I wont get into everything they have supposedly done other than to say that they managed to set the bar for a new level of low. 

Martial arts are supposed to be about honor. This isn’t honorable at all. But She isn’t dealing with those who have honor or even respect.

Some of these people claim to be tenth dans under my old instructor. I know these people and they have made a lot of bullshit claims in the past. My old instructor’s highest rank was only an 8^th dan. He did come up with his own system but he only considered himself an 8^th dan in it. He didn’t give himself a grand master title or a tenth dan like some of these wannabes did......so where did ya 10th dans come from fellas? Ya made them up...just like ya made up everything else.  

I do want to point out.....my old Sensei would point this out as well.....if you never actually trained with someone you can’t be a black belt or even a student of theirs of any rank, not even a kyu rank. As an instructor myself, if a student only sticks around for six months I don’t consider him/her a student. Teaching someone a few techniques doesn’t qualify them to be training under me or part of my school/style. It certainly doesn’t mean that they were “trained by me”. A few seminars doesn't grant someone some sort of inheritance or a partnership of someone's system. This is crap or lines that frauds use to feed and fool the ignorant. To be considered an actual student of an instructor takes years of training and constant consistent practice under that instructor’s direct tutelage and supervision. 

Anyone who actually knew my old instructor knew that there wasn’t a person who walked the face of the planet that he was prouder of than his daughter. She served her country made a career of it and was every bit as tough as nails as her father. These people have treated my old instructor’s family with a lot of disrespect. They took advantage of his widow. They ignore the family’s wishes and requests. They have been rude to his daughter in their emails. 

My response to my instructor’s daughter was that anyone going against the family’s wishes was obviously never a friend of her father's in the first place....so don't waste anymore time with them and move forward.... as her father would want her to do. If my old instructor were alive and knew how they were treating his daughter….he would track them down and cut their head and nuts off…..nuts first of course. 

 When my old instructor was alive these pretenders held him in disdain, tried to undermine him. They did this all because my instructor would not budge from the truth, he wanted nothing to do with them or how they did things. Now that he has passed away they leach off him, use his name, claim some kind of inheritance of his system. 

My advice to my instructor's daughter was to no longer waste her breath on these people. They just aren't worth it. She already has plenty out there to prove her side of things. I also pointed that there are those who earn their ranks and those who don't, those who don't....don't matter. Personally, I quit writing about the pretenders. I refuse to soil my blog with their names. They are desperate to be recognized for something they didn’t do. Take credit for something they were never a part of. Those of this ilk are quite frankly beneath me and like I communicated to her, just don’t matter. 

I am interested in the well being of my instructor's family. His wife, his daughter, they all went through enough in dealing with their loved one's illness and his ultimate passing. I expect trying to talk her into no longer dealing with these people will generate nothing but hate from them even though I didn't mention their names.....again not going to soil my blog.