Earn Rank
There is only one way to earn rank in American Style Nunchaku – through training. There is no fast track.
We build our belt rank system around three main criteria:
- Character
- Experience
- Knowledge and technical skills
We require that our members and practitioners live by the Six Codes of Conduct. It does not matter how skilled you are swinging the nunchakus. If you behave badly we will not promote you. We never want to hear that our members are out there causing trouble.
We do not promote students before they have fulfilled the time-in-rank requirement. This requirement is to ensure the students have enough time to earn necessary level of experience. The techniques are few and easy to learn, but even though you can execute a technique well enough, it is a huge difference in accuracy, flow and confidence between a practitioner with hundreds and a practitioner with thousands of repetitions. Not to mention practitioners with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of repetitions. We look for experience in our students, which is only earned through time.
Off course you also need to have the theoretical knowledge and technical skills required for the next rank. Unfortunately many beginning practitioners seem to over-focus on this area, forgetting that is is only one third of the requirements. The other two are just as important for a promotion.
Our main training material is the Chakus Video Series created by Grandmaster Michael L. Burke. These contain all technical rank requirements. You can train the techniques at your own home in your own time. We will put you into contact with a Certified Instructor, if you do not have one already, and he/she will take care of you on your path forward.
As a practitioner of ASN you do not need to worry about the promotion process too much. You will automatically get invited to the next promotion test when you are ready. You can relax and focus on the training and learning the techniques really well. Belt levels are merely a pedagogical tool to measure a practitioner’s progress. It is never the main goal of training, and should not get too much focus in the daily practice.
