Modern karate college students indicate their rank with a belt or obi of a different color. As their abilities increase, the old belt will be replaced with a new colored belt to indicate the progress that has been made. Each karate style has its own ranking system. In fact, each organization and dojo (karate training ground) also has a different variation of belts. However, there are some general rules that can be learned so that you can understand the meaning of the colors of the karate belts.
Step
Step 1. Start with a white belt
Prior to the 20th century, martial arts practitioners did not use a colored belt system, and each school usually used its own color variation. Even so, almost every college started with a white belt.
Karate college students begin training at the 10th kyu (student rank)
Step 2. Upgrade to yellow belt
If college students practice regularly, they can undergo testing every few months to advance to the next kyu. At certain levels, students will get new belts. The yellow belt is usually the second belt worn by college students, being in the 8th kyu.
Step 3. Level up to get darker belts
Requirements may vary in each college. In general, college students spend the first year training to get belts that are getting darker in color.
Commonly applied belt color changes are orange (around the 7th kyu), green, blue, and purple (around the 4th kyu). Many karate schools use a slightly different order of belts, or one color less
Step 4. Finish the kyu level with the brown belt
The highest kyu rank in most karate colleges is the brown belt. College students usually get this belt around the 3rd kyu, and continue to wear it until they reach the first kyu.
College students usually have to train for more than a year to earn a brown belt. Many college students continue to wear brown belts for another two years after that, even though they can move up the ranks from 3rd kyu brown belt to 1st brown kyu belt
Step 5. Get a black belt
The best achievement of karate college students is the famous black belt. However, unlike many people think, black belt wearers are not necessarily masters. Perhaps this can be analogous to people who get a college degree: a person who wears a black belt means has excellent understanding and competence, and can qualify to become a coach.
Karateka can still increase his level from this point on, but the belt remains black. Now they use a ranking system and, which starts from the first stage (Sho Dan) and continues to increase. (Remember that the ranking order is the reverse of the kyu system which starts with high numbers and goes low)
Step 6. Recognize the lines on the belt
In addition to color, some colleges also use striped belts. The line on this belt usually indicates that a student is higher in rank than the person wearing the colored belt, but has not progressed to the next color belt. The line used is usually white or a color higher up in the ranking system.
- For example, if a person joins a karate school and wants to change the belt from yellow to orange, he will wear the yellow belt in the first place. A few months later, he was able to wear the yellow belt with the orange stripe, and would eventually switch to the full orange belt.
- Some dojos mark grades and (rank in black belt) with a white or red line on their black belt. Sometimes they also use white or red pinned at the end of the belt.
Step 7. Ask the karateka for more information
Maybe you should visit the dojo of a karate school to see if the blue belt is higher than the green, or what the stripes on their karate belt mean. Also keep in mind that each college has its own requirements and standards for improving rankings. A person who attains 7th kyu in a dojo may have studied karate for a longer time than another dojo student who has attained 5th kyu. For more information, talk to a trainer at a dojo, also known as a sensei. Many karate colleges and organizations describe belt ratings and colors on their websites.
Tips
- One way that you can remember the order of the colors from light to dark is to remember their origins in World War II (Japan era). In this time of shortage, college students dyed the same belt a darker color instead of buying a new belt. Another story states that their belts were never washed, and eventually turned black due to dirt (but this is just a myth).
- There are many different styles of karate, and each style has its own unique organization and tradition. Keep in mind that the ranking system applied to belt colors will vary by dojo. This article is only a general explanation.
- In World Karate Federation tournaments, tournament participants wear red or blue belts. This color does not indicate the participant's rank.
