Shitty Black Belts
And Other Facades of Value
As a little boy in Judo and Karate class I can remember being in awe seeing the black belts around my instructors' waists. That piece of black cloth represented a sort of celestial expertise and the person wearing it, a cut above the rest. When you see a person with a black belt on it represents expertise, skill, and character. Or does it? You see, black belts can suck. For real. Having a black belt is no more a guarantee of competence than having a college degree is a guarantee of intelligence. They can go together, but they don't necessarily go together.
I don't point this out as a way to assuredly piss off the entire martial arts community. I'm sure you're all very good. Please don't hurt me. Instead what I'm pointing out is that we, humans that is, often mistake the marker for the thing itself and then target the marker instead of the thing that marker is supposed to represent. To this end many students chase belts. They worry themselves about when they'll get promoted and how long will it take to become a this belt or that belt rather than the substantive aspects of the actual pursuit. In other words, looking good instead of being good.
You can actually substitute any certification, license, or credential for the work belt because this fallacy can be seen everywhere.Credentials are often mistaken for competence and symbols are mistaken for reality. This isn't to say we should do away with these things altogether but rather to audit how accurately our measures offer insight to achieving the impact we ultimately want to.
Measures Of Effectiveness vs Measures of Performance
Measures of Performance tell us about outcome and are often binary in their application. Do you have a degree? Yes or no. Are you certified? Yes or no. Did you do get promoted to a higher rank? Yes or no? Did you complete the exercise? Yes or no? While those things can be helpful and necessary questions that need to be answered they by no means tell the entire story.
You can have a college degree with no work experience. Often we assume that a college degree equates to a certain level of knowledge or intelligence but not necessarily. For example, success in a collegiate environment depends greatly on being conscientious. More well organized and industrious students tend to have better study habits in general and such perform better on standardized exams. Ya nerds. That said, the information tested for on standardized exams does not necessarily represent real life problem sets that emerge in a dynamic workplace. That doesn't mean college isn't valuable. It just means a degree indicates that you showed up and passed the necessary classes. The rest of the equation is TBD.
Measurements of effectiveness tells us if we are doing the thing right. They're more oriented towards the substance of the thing. A clear example of this is in exercise selection and execution. Often when we think of certain exercises we think of the name of that exercise and then an associated outcome, positive or negative.
I.e, "Deadlifts make your back stronger" or "Deadlifts hurt your back." Regardless of your bias for or against this particular exercise both statements are in reference to the outcome, both of which can be true. What isn't explicit is the how of the execution. How one performs an exercise is at least as important as the exercise chosen. This is because the human body has no idea what a deadlift is. That's an idea made up by people. All the body knows is the forces that are being applied to it and the associated stress that occurs as a result. So when we say an exercise does X that's a measure of performance. When we talk about the standards of execution those are reflections of effectiveness.
What Do Measurements Really Mean?
If we revisit the black belt is recognition by your community via your instructor that you've put in time. It's a symbol of commitment and with time and commitment can come skill but not always. Similarly we assume that things like college degrees exactly equal competence in a given field but they do not. They mean that you can pass the exams that are barriers to entry for the field. Examinations and certifications are intended as minimum levels of knowledge for given professions. In the field of strength and conditioning I've met some very well educated people who could not coach an actual athlete out of a wet paper bag.
Measure what matters. In my Check Engine Light class we talk often about the important of bringing clarity to problems and identifying outcomes. Being as precise as possible in this step makes it far easier to decide what various measurements mean to us whether its the rank we achieve in a martial art or an exercise we choose for our fitness toolkit. To sum that up measurements mean exactly what they mean. Nothing more, nothing less. Any inferences made about them are just that, inferences.
Baby and Bathwater
All that said it's not necessary to throw black belts, degrees, or certifications away. Measures of performance are important because they can keep us on track and when used properly ensure at least minimum standards of competence. It up to us to understand what it is we are really measuring and then hold the line for that standard.
A black belt doesn't necessarily guarantee that a person can fight. What it does tell us is that this person is willing to commit themselves to a difficult and grueling practice for a long period of time and that they will sacrifice and commit to improvement in their chosen martial art. That time and commitment is important and rank is recognition by the instructor and their community of that commitment. A college degree or training certificate does not guarantee competence but it can mean this person is at least willing to subject themselves to the given standard of their community.
Tail Wags Dog
This article isn't really about black belts or college degrees so if you have one or both and you happen to be tough and smart and competent please don't beat me up and then recite statistics to me. This is really about how all of us tend to place value on reflections of value over time because we can't know everything about everything so we utilize heuristics to save time and energy.
One on hand this is good because it saves time and energy. On the other we can fall prey to mirages in the marketplace because we rely too much on symbols of value rather than the actual thing the symbol should reflect. So respect your black belts. Go to college and get certified. Do deadlifts for back strength. Just know what it really means.
Thanks for reading,
Rob