I might take up hapkido in addition to my TKD. But the place that insterests me also raises some questions. The head sahbumnim (master) is only a 4th dan.

Are 4th dans qualified enough or good enough to teach hapkido well to students?

Why are you so hung up on ranks? If he is good, he is good.

I have seen and received good instruction from a host of folk, from no rank to 4th dan.

I know of a 2nd dan in a style who has been practicing his art for 23 years consistently and who has practiced another art prior to this.

I have also seen black belts who have 1 year's worth experience and 3 dans with less than 10. Go figure.

He's either good or not, rank has to be one of the smaller considerations that I personally would have.

-B

Don't be hung up on ranks. I learn TKD/MMA that has Hapkido blended in and he is a 3rd Dan ... goes for 4th on Saturday. From talking to him he says anything over 3rd gets very political. A person at this rank does not necessarily have to been even learning his own art to get this just as long as they are doing "a" martial art and have put in the required amount of hours.

Possible this instructor is not unlike mine that has spent a tremendous amount of time at this rank and just hadn't seen it as necessary to get the next Dan because teaching was far more important.

As a white belt anything higher then your present level is qualified to teach you. But to answer your question from a my school's prespective 2nd dgree is the first level of Instructor he may have range of help from 5th kup up to 1st level Black belt. 3rd and 4th dan is JR. Master at our school its just title. A 4th dan has more then 10-15 years in training, usually.

At my hapkido school my instructor is a 3rd dan in hapkido and also a 4th dan in TKD. He tests all his students up through provisional black belt and then his instructor, Master Geoff Booth - an 8th dan bb - adminsters the bb tests.

I think butterfly has the right idea - rank really doesn't tell how effective an instructor someone is, not to mention how good a practitioner he or she is. The only way to tell is to attend some classes and see how the person instructs and how their students' abilities appear to you. My instructor is "only" a 3rd dan but he's an exceptionally gifted athlete who trains diligently, eats a strict vegetarian diet, participates in triathlons, and most importantly is a really, really, nice guy - all attributes that comprise a gifted instructor and practitioner.

I have to agree, after a certain point (usually 2nd-3rd dan in my experience) rank ceases to represent your level of proficiency and comes to have more to do with how long you've been practicing.

In all of the organizations I belong to a minimum of 2nd dan is required to teach an unassisted, regular class.

At our club Asst. Instructors are 2nd Dan and Full Instructors are 3rd Dan. I was promoted to 2nd Dan and Asst. Instructor just before I graduated college, that was almost 4 years ago. And I would have hesitations being instructed by a 4th Dan. Actually I wouldn't have any hesitations learning from a green belt that exicutes a particular throw more efficiently than me.

Bottom line, for me knowledge doesn't come from the amount of stripes on our belt or a patch on our uniform. I'd visit the class a few times, based on how things are run and the enthusiasm level in the room you should be able to tell very quickly if he has a deep knowledge of his/her Art or whether he was promoted by an online program that doesn't require video tests :-)


If you do a little research you won't be let down, generally.

Best of luck -

That's a great point jsgro82 about learning from everyone, regardless of their rank. I just started judo a couple weeks ago, mainly because they also train jiu-jitsu and I need to free roll as much as possible, and last night we were working a throw and this little, 11-yr. old orange belt, walked up to me and wanted to throw me--he's about 70 lbs and I'm 6' 2", 190 lbs. The thing is, the kid (George is his name) had EXCELLENT technique! He actually showed me how to get my hips involved in the throw and use my lower body to generate power. Very cool. Now, if I'd had the wrong attitude about learning from some "kid" I would have missed out on the opportunity to get some valuable information on executing a good judo throw.

Martial arts is amazing like that--it never ceases to teach me humility, respect, and open-mindedness.

Cheers.
ToddR