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Originally Posted by brokenelbow Joe is an icon and a hero from when I was a kid, but who made him a 10th degree BB Grand Master and in what style? Do the guys in AIKIA promote each other or are these ranks from legitamate outside orgs? I've never seen Lewis look very JKD, he always looks like a kickboxer. |
I go to Radford University, where Dr. Beasley teaches his aikia karate, and have studied under him for the last two years. First, the only rank advancement is through Dr. Beasley, and it is not something simply handed out. There is a legitimate test for each belt, and only he can decide who gets a belt and who doesnt. When I first began taking his class I already had a black belt in Okinawan karate kempo, and I wore my traditional gi and belt. After a while we shifted focus and everyone in the class lost their gi and belts for a more JKD/ old school bruce lee, gi pants and tank top/short sleeve shirt. This suited what we were doing for the time. We were learning a JKD based/Aikia based, functional karate. As of late we have put more focus on basic, traditional karate, on top of the functional trap boxing we have already studied. We have gotten a surge of new students and we need to teach them the basics before they really get into the advanced material.
I have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Beasley outside of the class, and he is a very nice guy, who has had a very broad experience in martial arts. You can criticize him if you like, but he is very learned in his field. Also you should realize that as of right now, Radford University, and Berkley, are the only two colleges in the state, with a nationally recognized martial arts major, and soon Radford will be unvieling an actual karate/martial arts major. So this means that Dr. Beasley will be the chair person of the only natioanlly recognized karate major. This just gives his experience and teaching that much more power and importance.