Benefits For Teacher Members:
Achieve Higher Black Levels
- Board certified
- Black belts from all systems welcome
- Curriculum requirements (no politics)
- Diverse martial arts encouraged
Earn More Revenue
- Keep $5 for every student registered
- Equal division of seminar money
- Teach seminars / Host tournaments
Free Learning Exchange
- Trade weapons, forms and techniques
- Seminars free to teacher members
- Web site provides seminar videos
Belong to an Association that Builds Respect
- Code of faith, love, honor, courage, peace
- Modest membership dues
- Annual membership certificate
- Annual membership patch
- Make friends across systems & nations
Benefits For Student Members:
Connect and Learn More
- Membership patch and certificate
- Connect to other schools and members
- 25% discount on all seminars
- 25% discount on all tournaments
- Website video for all seminars taken
- Learn martial arts outside your system
Achieve Higher Black Rank Levels
Many black belts may find it difficult to get further credentials in their system – sometimes due to politics and varying demands. Others may be required to unusual servitude or to opening schools with certain number of students, or even just to pay extraordinary funds. The White Lotus Association believes in achieving higher rank by the merit of three things:
- Ongoing pursuit and learning of martial arts through forms, weapons, and self-defense techniques
- Sufficient and consistent time at each higher level to mature and perfect the material learned
- Loyalty in practice and in life to core values of martial arts – honor, courage, faith, love and peace
Most practioners today have come to see that all traditional and authentic arts have something of great value to contribute to a student. The White Lotus Association believes in strength through the diversity of martial art training. It may be that a black belt will learn forms from one system, self-defense through another, and weapons from yet another. This is encouraged at each level of attainment. Whether through the association’s free teacher exchange or through seminars or through joining a different system for a while a black belt might obtain the necessary requirements to meet one or more of the higher levels in the White Lotus Association. Click here to see the Rank Requirements. There are no politics involved in testing. If you meet the requirements and can demonstrate them proficiently you have achieved that level.
Note that all testing is Board Certified from martial artists with over 75 years’ experience in traditional systems. The current board (elected every four years among members) holds numerous degrees from a variety of systems. You can see the current board here. They have also followed the values and tested through the White Lotus Association.
Black Belts from all martial art systems from all countries and localities are welcome and encouraged to join and share their expertise. There is no bias of which art or place you come from – rather the mix of arts, skills, styles, and martial artists strengthen the very goal and concept of the association to always be learning and improving oneself.
Earn more Revenue
In order to build black belts who are teachers and/or own schools, every teacher keeps $5 of the $25 registration fee for the association. The association uses the rest of the money to process and provide a membership certificate and a membership patch to every member.
Black belt teachers also keep 50% of every student they register in a White Lotus Association seminar encouraging enrollment in other association seminars and into diverse training. If the teacher enrolls one of his own students into his own teaching seminar he collects 100% of seminar cost. From other White Lotus Association schools and members who come to one’s own seminar he/she returns 50% of the cost. Visiting White Lotus Association teachers are free to all seminars if they bring at least one student to the seminar. This encourages many more schools and students to participate in seminars which helps the students and teachers learn more, helps support teachers equally, and brings together and unifies schools within the association.
Seminars can be scheduled by contacting our teacher members via our link page. Each one offers a unique range of forms, weapons, styles and self-defense techniques. Check out their BIOS and contact those that interest you.
Learn new weapons, forms and techniques in free exchange
All white lotus black belt members agree to the free exchange of knowledge. High ranks mutually agree to trade forms , weapons, and other martial art techniques among each other. A black belt from one system may pick up the ideals and skills of other arts without the burden of investing time and money of joining those arts. For example a black belt member might pick up some two stick defense from Escrima in exchange for some specialty kicks from Tae Kwon Do, or one teacher may trade some Karate form for a weapon from Kung Fu, or an exchange of ground fighting techniques from Jujitsu for some movements and teaching from Capoeira. All of these forms, weapons and self-defense can further be incorporated as one’s additional learning in order to achieve higher rank within the association.
Seminars are free to member teachers who bring at least one student and serve as another way to learn new material freely. Furthermore all students of a seminar receive free access of a video display of the form or seminar teaching via the White Lotus Association web site. This serves as a means to help remember the teaching in the future.