Rank Market
Crash
Ladies and gentlemen, and now a
summary of the key events in the budo graduation market since last
weekend.
The incidents started during routine
promotions at the *** club. In the middle of
the performance, some examinees suddenly withdrew their
applications. At the same time, further participants declared
publicly to waive their already awarded ranks.
How could this
happen? The actions were triggered by recent articles on
the Karate-Doctor website, which analyzed the current situation in
the affected martial arts. A statistical projection showed
that, based on the continuation of the current graduation practice,
in about ten years all of today's green belt students will have to
be awarded the twelfth black belt. New disclosures about the
responsible budo association's politics, details of intrigues
involving the local antisensei, and publication of the true club
statistics completed the picture.
When more and more spectators,
helpers, and coaches announced to reject their titles, it set off an
avalanche. The news spread through cell phones and, within few
hours, led to examination strikes and mass returns of ranks all over
the country. Thereupon all graduation shows were aborted. Official
statements assured that there was no plausible reason for panic, and
that the situation would normalize in the coming weeks. But when it
became public that the budo association was about to distribute
several hunderd master diplomas in order to persuade selected
persons to publicly take countermeasures, the condition
escalated.
Over the following days, entire
training classes returned their ranks and refused to wear
their legitimate colored belts. Even passive and long resigned
members joined the action. In some areas the paper recycling bins
were congested with graduation certificates and membership passes.
All structured training regimes collapsed nationwide. Beginners to
advanced students intermingled arbitrarily, and many a pseudo-master
could only escape his furious persecutors in the misty fog of shower
rooms.
Experts have long warned that the
average rank level is unrealistically high. Over many years the
entire system has developed into a ludicrously overvalued grading
bubble. The present crash is a necessary and long overdue
correction. However, quite deplorable is the fact that the good
reputation of people with deserved ranks would be harmed,
too.
Meanwhile, the downtrend
has levelled off, since most people have reached their appropriate
degrees. A side anecdote caused both indignation and
amusement. The antisensei from ***
obviously took advantage of the tumults to pull in a series of
pending favors and procured 25 further dan-ranks. Eventually, his
euphoria and demand for being recognised as the nationwide
hyper-master went down in the current climate of self-awareness and
honesty.
What brings the future? The latest
plans propose a graduation reform where the old
fantasy degrees will be converted to new adequate ones in a 4
to 1 ratio. Actually, this means that most members will be demoted
three levels. The decision to establish strict and serious
belt examinations led to a flurry of membership resignations of so
called fun-budoka and of busted officials. Parallel to this,
the formation of a new martial arts association was
announced. It promises to recognise all previous ranks together with
a 25 percent loyalty bonus.
And now, the weather
forecast.
