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One of my resolutoins this year was to resume my kempo training. Well, I started that this evening at a dojo just up the street from where I work, and it looks *very* promising.
It was rather amusing, actually... I had told the instructor that I had previous experience in the style, and we had discussed who I had trained with, who his teacher was, etc., but we hadn't discussed what my rank had been, or how long I'd studied.
So I come onto the floor tonight wearing a white belt (beginner rank), and lined up at the far left end of the class. The instructor looks at me, puzzled, and asks if I had any rank in my other school. I told him yes, I did. He didn't ask what it had been, just says that whatever that rank was, that's what I should wear here.
So I go back into the dressing room, and come out wearing my black belt.
Several other students had to pick up their jaws, but he just grinned and nodded, and said, "I thought so... now get down here at the other end of the line where you belong!"
For those of you not familiar with typical dojo "culture", the students generally line up in order of rank, with the highest ranking student being on the far right, and the lowest being on the far left. If there are enough students to require more than one line, the senior students are towards the front/right, and the junior students are towards the rear/left. So basically, I originally placed myself in the position of the least experienced student in the room, only to be moved to the second-highest position in the room. (I could probably have made a legitimate claim to the senior-most slot, but it seemed rude.)
Different schools handle ranks from outside their own "house" in different ways. Some will acknowledge it, some won't. Some will allow you to wear your old belt as a courtesy (especially if you're a black belt), but with the understanding that you don't actually hold that rank in their school until you've tested for it. Even if the instructor had known I was a black belt, he'd have been perfectly within his rights to have me start off in his school as a white belt, and there would have been no discourtesy or insult if he had done so. By putting *myself* there at the start, it put the ball in his court and gave him an easy way out, as well as letting him know that I wasn't going to be hung up about having my previous rank acknowledged.
Definitely looking forward to this, though!
It was rather amusing, actually... I had told the instructor that I had previous experience in the style, and we had discussed who I had trained with, who his teacher was, etc., but we hadn't discussed what my rank had been, or how long I'd studied.
So I come onto the floor tonight wearing a white belt (beginner rank), and lined up at the far left end of the class. The instructor looks at me, puzzled, and asks if I had any rank in my other school. I told him yes, I did. He didn't ask what it had been, just says that whatever that rank was, that's what I should wear here.
So I go back into the dressing room, and come out wearing my black belt.
Several other students had to pick up their jaws, but he just grinned and nodded, and said, "I thought so... now get down here at the other end of the line where you belong!"
For those of you not familiar with typical dojo "culture", the students generally line up in order of rank, with the highest ranking student being on the far right, and the lowest being on the far left. If there are enough students to require more than one line, the senior students are towards the front/right, and the junior students are towards the rear/left. So basically, I originally placed myself in the position of the least experienced student in the room, only to be moved to the second-highest position in the room. (I could probably have made a legitimate claim to the senior-most slot, but it seemed rude.)
Different schools handle ranks from outside their own "house" in different ways. Some will acknowledge it, some won't. Some will allow you to wear your old belt as a courtesy (especially if you're a black belt), but with the understanding that you don't actually hold that rank in their school until you've tested for it. Even if the instructor had known I was a black belt, he'd have been perfectly within his rights to have me start off in his school as a white belt, and there would have been no discourtesy or insult if he had done so. By putting *myself* there at the start, it put the ball in his court and gave him an easy way out, as well as letting him know that I wasn't going to be hung up about having my previous rank acknowledged.
Definitely looking forward to this, though!
