In Person Training
I’m sure this is not new news to anyone, but our lessons in the black belt class (and any class, for that matter) are best received in person. Online attendance is a great resource for those days when life happens, as a way to still engage and absorb. It has its limitations, however, and sometimes they become a crutch and hinderance.
Over the next while, we will be focusing on chi and energy work. Specifically, we will be covering the established syllabus with a new approach; that of energy, intent and direction. Attendance in person is going to be critical, as partner work is required.
Chi and energy is a relationship. It is difficult to evolve in our training without experiencing this relationship. As such, it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to absorb and practice the upcoming lessons in an online fashion. The quantity and quality of feedback (from both the instructors and students) is limited unless we are all in the same room.
Khona Rybak
SRKF Clan Titles
I founded Silent River Kung Fu in 1987. It was a humble beginning with me teaching my classes out of Stony Plain school gymnasiums. Eleven years later in 1998, I took out a second mortgage on my house, cashed in my RRSPs, and put a down payment on the first two bays of our current location. In 2011, we acquired the Ecowater bay and expanded our facility by almost doubling our training space. Two years later in 2013, we purchased the Tanarama bay and now own the entire east strip of the Stony Plain Professional Centre.
The point I am trying to make by sharing this information is that we did not arrive where we are today all at once. We slowly evolved to arrive here and now. It is important to note that our arrival here has been coloured and influenced by many unforeseen factors and events, including the current global pandemic. Back in 1987 I never dreamed that I would be an 8th degree black belt with master level students. Nor did I foresee the future problems that were being created through my inexperience and misplaced humility. I made two specific decisions way back then that now need to be addressed in order for me to lead Silent River Kung Fu toward a brighter and more secure future. Decision one was to use the Belt Ranking System, and decision two was to use the title of Sifu for all of my Black Belts.
As most of you know, Kung Fu is unique in the marital arts in that its hierarchy is clan-based (experience) as opposed to military-based (absolute rank). You have heard me say it before: “All Black Belts are equal but some are more equal than others”. This is the Chinese approach. We value wisdom and experience as much as, and sometimes more than, outright skill. What is most important and pertinent is how long you have been training and who you have been training under. The second that we start putting absolute ranks on people, we are classifying them within a hierarchy that does not necessarily conform to the hierarchy of the clan. To complicate things even further, I have given the title of Sifu to every adult Black Belt because of, as I mentioned earlier, my misplaced humility in my youth. When I started promoting students to Black Belt, I felt they should have the same title as me. Now thirty years and seven degrees of black belt later, I am having to deal with the issues that this approach has created, including the issue of pulling us even further away from the clan hierarchal approach and deeper with the militaristic hierarchal approach.
Today we are going to ‘reset’ and pull things back on track. Beginning immediately, I am adjusting our use of titles to conform to their traditional definitions. This will bring us closer in line with traditional Kung Fu clan titles:
師父 Sifu (Teacher/Father) - Master Black Belt (5th degree and higher)
師兄 Sihing (Teacher/Elder Brother) - Black Belt (4th degree and lower)
師弟 Sidai (Teacher/Junior Brother) - Junior Black Belt
徒弟 Toudai (Disciple/Junior Brother) - Student
For those of you who have been attending the Ging Wu Chinese New Year Banquet, you will have noticed that every time they ask all the visiting Sifus to come up for a group picture, Silent River Kung Fu always has way more people in that photo than any other group. We are not bringing more Black Belts than any other school, we are just giving the title of Sifu to more Black Belts. By making this switch to more traditional titles, we will be more inline with most Kung Fu schools.
Lastly, you will have noticed that we now have a title for non-Black Belt students. This is to bring the students in line with the gender independent Black Belt title terminology. We have never used the feminine format of the titles and we want to move forward with that approach for all our students. This will also address a long-standing issue that our non-binary and transgender students have had to contend with by dealing with the gender specific pronouns of Ms, Mr, he, and she. Moving forward we will be utilizing the Toudai (pronounced TOE-DIE) prefix when addressing a student. Therefore rather than calling Ian Repay Mr. Repay, we will address him as Toudai Repay. If you find this transition difficult to navigate initially, please use their first name until the Toudai title becomes more normalized.
Jeff Brinker
Teaching Opportunities
I have developed a tool to help black belts and higher queue belts experience more opportunities to teach:
I am opening up this opportunity immediately to all SRKF Black Belts and I will be opening it up to the 2nd Degree Brown Belts in 48 hours. If the tool and opportunities are being consistently used by you all, I will expand the opportunities to include our adult classes. If the tool is not being used consistently by the Black Belts and 2nd Degree Brown Belts, I will expand the scope of the opportunity to include Green Belts and up. If they also fail to consistently find value in this initiative, I will remove the tool and revert back to limiting teaching opportunities to a committed few.
I don’t think I should need to point out or remind everyone that it will be impossible for you to advance to the master ranks if you are not logging a lot of teaching hours.
Teaching is the only way to acquire the insights and wisdom that must be developed to earn the title of master.
I hope you all can take advantage of this opportunity.
Jeff Brinker
8th Degree
So this happened over the Christmas break. It was not expected and caught me off guard. It came with a personal note that read:
“Jeff:
As one of my final acts as founder of the project “The Ultimate Black Belt Test”, I am promoting you to the rank of 8th Dan.If you’re like me, you will reject the notion that you’re qualified. Nevertheless you should see this then as an opportunity to live up to the notion.
• Promote a progressive kind of MA education.
• Inspire good, kindness, and compassion.
• Be an example , to the best of your abilities, to others of what a Master of any art might be.
If you live these things, and seek to improve yourself as a human being — and promote this kind of martial arts — then you will grow into what it is to wear an 8th Degree Black Belt.
w/Love & Respect,
Tom Callos”
I wanted to share this with you guys because, as we all know, a promotion above 5th degree is an honorary promotion that mainly recognizes your ongoing contributions to the art. When you read what is written on my certificate, there is little doubt that we all share in this honour. Silent River Kung fu is my life’s work and if it were not for the support and contributions of all of you, we would not be who we are. Thank you!
Jeff Brinker