AikiWeb Aikido Forums - View Single Post - Poll: How meaningful is your aikido rank to you?

Tim Griffiths · 02-21-2005, 07:55 AM

It amuses and annoys me at the same time to hear people say "tests aren't important to me" and then move hell and high water to do anything to avoid being tested, including missing courses, having to leave early etc. Sounds to me like the test is really important to these people.

Sure rank is important. Sure, it doesn't mean much objectively. Test when you're told to, not before or after. I once saw someone telling my first teacher that he wasn't good enough to test, after the teacher asked him to take it. About the only time I heard him pull rank: "Oh? So you think that with a few months of aikido you know more about whether someone is ready to do a test than I do, with over 30 years? Why don't you look around the class and tell me who else shouldn't be testing?"

That shut him up quick, and he took the test...

Tim

02-21-2005, 07:55 AM	#11
Tim Griffiths Dojo: Nes Ziona Aikikai Location: Suzhou, China Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 188 Offline	Re: Poll: How meaningful is your aikido rank to you? It amuses and annoys me at the same time to hear people say "tests aren't important to me" and then move hell and high water to do anything to avoid being tested, including missing courses, having to leave early etc. Sounds to me like the test is really important to these people. Sure rank is important. Sure, it doesn't mean much objectively. Test when you're told to, not before or after. I once saw someone telling my first teacher that he wasn't good enough to test, after the teacher asked him to take it. About the only time I heard him pull rank: "Oh? So you think that with a few months of aikido you know more about whether someone is ready to do a test than I do, with over 30 years? Why don't you look around the class and tell me who else shouldn't be testing?" That shut him up quick, and he took the test... Tim
	If one makes a distinction between the dojo and the battlefield, or being in your bedroom or in public, then when the time comes there will be no opportunity to make amends. (Hagakure)