If you’ve trained in the martial arts for a number of years and taken lessons at various dojos and gyms, you’ll begin to notice your own ability to sniff out “the good” from “the mediocre.”

Though I did make my way through the traditional martial arts system at first, and enjoy being both a black belt and master, I rarely ever mention my previous training whenever entering a new training space. Think about it, when you enter into a new training space, declaring that you know or have trained in the martial arts already, people start to build expectations around you and you inadvertently paint a target on your back. Rather, I like to get a sense of who my training partners and teachers are from an honest and authentic perspective—as if I know nothing at all.

The thing is, you can’t hide from who you truly are when it’s time to show up and you’re forced to stand on your own; backed only by the quality of your own skill. As a personal story, I was taking a boxing class at a gym once where (if you’ve met me in person, you’ll know how unassuming I look) I was seemingly written off. Though, when the drills began, I was able to quickly to pick up the patterns and movements to the point where both my training partner and the coach had said “you’ve done this before…” to which I always reply “a bit.”

On the flip side of that, I’ve also trained with many people (mostly in grappling) where I stop them and go “you’ve trained something else, haven’t you?” and they often chuckle, replying with “ya, I’m a black belt in Judo” or “ya, I’ve wrestled since I was a child.”

The thing about ranks is that, though they mean something to your eyes, they mean nothing when it comes to feeling—and you can always feel skill. I’ve trained with many black belts, multiple degrees and masters who have all talked the talk, but unfortunately could not walk the walk. They may espouse many philosophies and suppositions, but when you try to test their theories by feeling their skill, the feeling never lies.

Granted, belt rankings do help support the martial arts learning process (for example, they let you know right away who may or may not be a good training partner, or who you should ask as a reference point on a specific move, or how far you have left to go when learning a specific style), but they shouldn’t be taken as the only measure for ability.

In fact, if you look at the most “effective” styles out there (Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Sambo, Kali), they actually don’t utilize belt systems at all—it’s either “put up or shut up.” Heck, even the original Gracie Jiu Jitsu system only comprised of two belts (white and light blue) to differentiate between instructor and student. During the early years, before commercialization, even the most accomplished students wore a white belt—simply to hold their uniform together.

Don’t get me wrong—black belts are great. We live in a hierarchal world, after all. However, for all true martial artists out there, meritocracy is the only real measure; and I guess you just have to ask yourself one thing: am I a martial artist, or am I someone who just practices martial arts?

-put up or shut up.