Martial Arts Clothing

Shihan J:

they could be,
that depends on there linage, any japanese or okinawan style you can trace there linage back to know master
rank isnt everything, what matters is how you train

Stephen:

Legitimate is hard to define at times. I like look at schools in two ways. They may be "legitimate" or they may be "pedigree". There are many schools that have a pedigree, that is they can trace their roots to a known traditional master and system. However they may not be very legitimate. There are schools that have good roots to a traditional system but still just suck out loud. They have lost their legitimacy due to changes in training methods, poor teaching, and or low standards. Their pedigree is now worthless and yes there are quite a few. I have found some "legitimate" schools that have no pedigree but train hard, produce students who can fight if need be, and have high standards. For any school to be legitimate they must produce intelligent, capable students who can do more than just flash their "pedigree" rank. As always, belts just hold up your pants. You will have to be the final judge.

John:

That depends. There are several reasons I can immediately think of as to why there may not be belts in a part of their program. In my hybrid fighting class we don’t do belts although I have been giving it some consideration of starting a way to show or signify a certain level of understanding and skill and belts is one of the things I have considered but pretty much discarded at this time. Perhaps there is an aspect of their classes that is offered which does not allow them to promote or where promotion is not offered. That would not mean that they are not legitimate and legitimate always also carries with it as to recognized by who or who says they are not legitimate. In some ways if you need an organization or a person to establish if you are legitimate then I think maybe that in itself can even say something about you in a negative way if looked at from a certain prospective. Belts, organizations, affiliations exist as much for and in McDojos as they do for "legitimate" schools.

As for "ranking belts" perhaps they just opened in the past three years and promotions are not that fast or automatic in a good school with high standards that teaches Japanese/Okinawan martial arts. Does that mean they are not legitimate? Probably not under those circumstances but to a lot such a situation would make it appear so. I don’t think you can go by that or even by who says its is legitimate sometimes. It is best to look at a multitude of things including the quality of the instruction and training, the quality and caliber of their students, and the quality of the instructor and their ability to teach and impart knowledge, ability, and skill to those students.