The importance of seniority within a Moo Do organisation

This blog started life as an essay submission as part of Mr Jowett's 2nd Dan Test. Read his thoughts below....

Seniority is an important aspect of – and asset to – any Moo Do organisation, giving it structure, ensuring knowledge is retained and shared, and giving the members of that organisation recognition and reward for their efforts.

Within the Tang Soo Do Moo Do Kwan, it helps students to measure their progress, preserves the teachings of the Grandmaster and benefits the organisation as a whole by supporting the next generation of Dan members.

Miss Mia Cohen

But seniority is not simply about age or time served. I graduated to Cho Dan alongside Ms Mia Cohen when she was around 10 years old. But, due to her Dan number, will forever be my senior – something she always likes to remind me of.

This illustrates an important point. It was Grandmaster Hwang Kee who initiated the Dan numbering system and who personally assigned them to those graduating to Cho Dan, recognising their discipline, dedication and application. It is that knowledge and proficiency that the Dan number reflects, not how old someone is or necessarily how long a student may have been practising.

In Ms Cohen’s case, she may be (slightly) younger than me but in her remarkable progress from Tigers class to Cho Dan, she undoubtedly earned her rank - and the respect afforded it - so I am always happy to recognise her seniority when we line up together in class.

With seniority, in most organisations, comes knowledge and experience. And that can play a valuable role in supporting the more junior members beyond the formal training they receive.

If we think about the military, seniority defines the chain of command and accountability for decisions. In a well drilled army, orders flow down the hierarchy from Field Marshall or General to Private, with a centralised authority at the top taking strategic decisions that are passed down clear lines of communication through each rank, with the soldiers in the field taking the lead from their own immediate superior. Everyone knows not only their own role but also the consequences of refusing to follow orders.

It is a similar for a Moo Do Kwan, with the Grandmaster's teachings providing the strategic overview as it were, and our own Masters and Instructors passing the practical application to the troops by their teaching on the mats.

But beyond this formal structure, seniority has an important role to play in support and mentorship.

Within the military – or indeed, the police, fire service and ambulance service – new recruits receive extensive training so they know what to do in specific situations. This certainly has value but when first thrust into the realities of these roles, it is often their more senior colleagues, who have been through that experience themselves, who help the junior ranks to process what can be stressful or even traumatic elements of their work, giving them the confidence to carry on.

Within the Moo Do Kwan, we are of course dealing with very different situations. Nevertheless, mentorship and support from senior ranks outside of the formal training students receive can also be tremendously valuable.

Senior members – whether it’s in a Tigers, beginners, advanced or Dan class – should, of course, set an example with their attitude and application, and be a role model for others to follow and hopefully aspire to.

This can develop to something as simple as a Dan member complimenting a Gup student on their progress or growth, which boosts their confidence and indeed determination to one day be a Dan member themselves.

Senior members can also provide reassurance that challenges are not unusual and can be overcome. New Dan members or those making the step from Beginners to Advanced class can find it daunting. I know first hand that it can feel like you suddenly don’t know what you’re doing and you’re making mistake after mistake – while at the same time, it can seem like everyone around you knows exactly what to do with ease.

This can be disheartening and the feeling that “I’ll never be able to do this” can be enough to deter some from continuing.

Obviously, a good instructor will point out that as, say, a green belt, you are not expected to know all of the Pyung Ahn forms off by heart or that for a new Cho Dan member, one-step sparring can be a lot to take on board.

But it is nonetheless reassuring to hear from a fellow student who has “been there, done that” that they, too, have been in exactly the same situation – and that those challenges can be overcome.

Mr Jowett

In my own case, as a green belt coming into what was a very senior advanced class, it was Mrs Plummer who took the time to give me some encouragement, as she does for so many students. A simple recognition of progress from a senior member, that someone is kicking higher or looking sharper in their moves or even just seeming more confident, can go a long way.

I certainly appreciated it coming into the advanced class and, although it's not something that perhaps comes naturally to me, as I have moved up the ranks, it's something I've always tried to do myself for junior students.

Even the most senior members have, at some point, made mistakes in their training – indeed, they have probably made every mistake you can think of. But they did not give up. Mistakes are not terminal failures; indeed, they are in many ways an essential and desirable part of the training process, and senior members get where they are by working on them. If we never made mistakes, how would we ever measure progress? There is a lot of truth in the saying that a black belt is just a white belt that didn’t give up.

It is important for senior members to take it upon themselves to support more junior ranks, but for the organisation as a whole, the real benefits come when its senior members eventually have the experience and confidence to become assistant instructors and instructors themselves.

Again, Mrs Plummer and Mr Ogden have been role models for me in wanting to first do the Assistant Instructor Training and eventually to have the confidence to stand in front of a class, while Master Nelson has been a constant, some might say persistent, support in pushing me (and I probably need pushing sometimes) to try some teaching.

Although I've only taught a couple of classes, it's something I've enjoyed, and I hope I can continue to progress and pass on the discipline, dedication and application I have gained from my own martial arts journey to more students in the future.

In gaining my Cho Dan and Assistant Instructor qualification, I feel part of – albeit a very small part – of a direct lineage that goes back to Grandmaster Hwang Kee himself, the Tang Dynasty in China and the Silla Dynasty in Korea before that.

With my seniority, I have gained a greater appreciation of that lineage and a sense of belonging to teachings that can be traced back hundreds or even thousands of years, from completely different parts of the world.

Indeed, while earning the rank of Cho Dan and receiving my Dan number gave me a sense of recognition and reward for my individual efforts, perhaps above all it gave me that sense of belonging to something bigger.

My Dan number – 22-052 – is permanently mine. It will never expire, never need renewing and, (I hope!) will never be revoked. Even with fellow students I have never met before, we can organise into rank order based on seniority and Dan number without conflict or competition – the structure that seniority affords in action at each seminar and graduation.

It acknowledges my place within the Moo Do Kwan and the small role I have played in the organisation’s progress and growth, as well as my own continuing progress and growth within it.

Mr Andy Jowett (2nd Dan)

Super Jowett