Awarded his 8th Dan Judo
The International Budo Federation International Congress held in Dalfsen Holland October 5th 2001 unanimously agreed to award Martin his 8th Dan. This was for outstanding achievement in the field of Judo culminating in a World Master’s Judo Title. This was the first time any IBF member had won a World Judo Title. Martin is one of the youngest Judo 8th Dan’s in Europe.
My
own view
By
Martin Clarke.
I was very shocked when I was told I had been awarded my 8th Dan especially as I could not attend the meeting myself. My first thought was do I accept this honour as I felt and still feel at 51 I am very young for this grade. To not accept would not only gone against protocol it would have been rude and insulting to the Congress members, it would have also been very arrogant on my behalf to suggest that I knew better then my peers.
So how do you judge your own ability?
1) You must seek the guidance of your peers
2) You must compare your own standard with others
3) You must evaluate your own record
When I first started Judo in 1955 under the tuition of my father and Mother it never occurred to me as a 5 year old I would become a Black Belt in fact in them day’s I can not remember seeing a Black Belt. In 1962 both my mother and father won their 1st Dan’s, my mother being the first women Black Belt in Kent. By the time I was 17 I was a brown belt and by now Judo had become more popular so there were many more Black Belts. I had no interest in becoming a black belt as a Brown Belt I was beating most Black Belts it was contest that mattered to me. In 1971 my father gave me an ultimatum take your Dan (Black Belt) grading or pack up the art. Well needless to say I obtained my Black Belt in March 1971 and by 1974 I was a 4th Dan. Why this sudden interest in grades well quite simply I had taken up Judo Coaching Professionally and the higher the grade the more work you got. Up to 5th Dan all my grades were through an examination process 6th Dan and above a committee awards them. The two most important grades to me were getting my 1st Dan this entitled me to wear a Black Belt and secondly getting my 6th Dan the coveted red and white belt.
I have only graded in two organisations the British Judo Council (MAC) and the International Budo Federation. All my grades to 4th Dan were with the BJC (MAC) and these were very hard gradings. For every grade you had to do a theory test, perform Kata and then take a contest line up. To get your Black Belt in the 70’s you were expected to attend a two-weekend course and then attend the area grading, taking 3 weekends on the trot, can you imagine youngsters today doing that? My father was General Secretary of the BJC (MAC) when he left to form IBF UK I naturally followed. The grading system retained the same format as the BJC (MAC) i.e. Theory, Kata and Contest. As time went by and I took over the IBF I did change the syllabus and included Kata’s I had invented. If the Judoka was testing for a Contest grade 75% of the grading would be on his fighting ability but they still had to do Kata. Something the largest Judo association know longer does. I am in the process of writing another article on Judo Kata.
I had won the BJC National title on many occasions, I then moved on to Olympic style Judo by joining the BJA where I won National titles, was selected for International and was a member of the Olympic Judo Squad. in 1983 I retired from competitive Judo to concentrate on my Sombo Wrestling. With the years sailing by I decided to enter the World Master’s in 2001 where I won a World Title.
So I was very lucky in that my parents and both the
associations I have belonged to believed in Judoka being a totally rounded
practiconer. I reached a reasonable standard in competition, taught Judo
professional since 1971 and performed all the basic 7 Judo Kata’s and invented
a few in the process. So is that enough to make me an 8th Dan? That
is up to you to judge. As for me I feel the same today as I did last week.
Martin Clarke 8th Dan