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Old 11-21-2003, 10:10 AM   #117
aikidoc
Dojo: Aikido of Midland
Location: Midland Texas
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,652
United_States
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The rank issue does come up in a practice way regularly. I have had two incidences of non-verifiable rank which when questions were asked the responses did not make sense.

THe most recent was a young man claiming to be a shodan from a USAF dojo. He said his sho sho was packed (he just go out of the military). Then the story changed-it was in route. So I checked with hombu-they never heard of him. When confronted he acted like something was amiss. Story changed again. He said his instructor stole the money for the test. Knowing aikikai organization testing procedures I knew this was a lie-he was eventually kicked out of the school-he did produce a 1st kyu certificate from USAF.

Now most recently, he is claiming to be a 4th dan and saying he was from my area-his skills were at a 2nd or 1st kyu at most and his attitude at a poorly disciplined 6th kyu.

This is one of my reasons for liking documentation of rank-I can verify it if it is legitimate. There are a lot of frauds out there that learn enough to hoodwink the unknowing public and have enough physical skills and line of BS that they can pull it off for a while. It gives the art a bad name and the public a bad taste for the martial arts.
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