Friday, June 1, 2012

History of Belts and Rankings - Chief Instructor's Blog June 2012



Similar with testing (as discussed in the previous blog), ranks and belt colors can vary with each martial arts club and school.

Before discussing the differences, I will first describe the history of the ranking and belt system.

According to tkdtutor.com [1], the black belt and a ranking system was introduced by Jigero Kano, the founder of Judo after researching and discovering there was no set system in martial arts. The first black belts were worn in 1886. Initially there were two colors: white belts for students below the rank of first Dan (first degree) and black belts for those students with ranks first Dan and above. Okinawan karate did not originally train with special uniforms or belts. Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan karate, who brought karate from Okinawa to Japan in the 1920s adopted the belt/ ranking system and a modified uniform from Judo. According to tkdtutor.com [1], this was to encourage the Japanese to accept karate. Almost all martial arts followed suit and adopted a ranking and belt system.

Initially, Shotokan only used three belt colors: white, brown, and black as shown in Figure 1. Today, you will see various belt colors and ranks in Shotokan as well as other martial arts. Figure 1 shows what a typical US school ranking system may look like, as well as the standard in World Tae Kwon Do (WTF), the original Han Moo Kwan (HMK) and today’s HMK’s ranking and belt colors.


Figure 1. Belt Ranks and Colors

For the most part, various colors were introduced for instructors to indicate a student’s level, other students understand that level so they can train with them appropriately. And students understood their ranking and get feedback on the intermediate improvements from beginner to a first degree black belt.

There are benefits to the various colors, but also some drawbacks. Some schools out there introduce so many colors and strips that they are portioned about every 0.5 point. One wonders if this type of incremental improvement is really to motivate the students (especially kids) or is it to gain the fees they change to test for that next rank.

When the Sunnyvale Han Moo Kwan Club was created almost 40 years ago, the founders (who had Judo, Aikido, and a background in Shotokan) strived to find a balance. They wanted enough colors to give students and instructor a visual on the skill of a student without needing to specify each 0.5 or 1.0 point. They came up with four colors (white, blue, brown, and black) and two stripes (white with a blue stripe and brown with a black stripe for interim black).

This belt system stayed in place until approximately 1997. Brian Rainie, who was the acting Chief Instructor at this time, proposed the introduction of the green belt. The white belt with a blue tip appeared to be de-motivating for students and most students quit if they received such a ranking. In addition, he believed the range of the blue belt was too large and another color would help define the skill set between 8.5 and 3.5 better than just one color. The Club agreed and adopted this new color.

While belt colors do help signify to the student, other students, and instructor, a student’s skill level, students should not focus so much on what color belt they are wearing but recognize every day they come to class and everyday they practice, they are learning and growing as a martial artist physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Regards,
Kelly

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” ~ Lao-Tzu (6th century BC), philosopher of ancient China, and best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching

References
1. Hartman, R. (2012). TKDTutor [Online]. Available: TKDTutor.com [May 28, 2012]
2. Redmond, Roc (2012), 24fightingchickens [Online]. Available: 24fightingchickens.com Karate Ranks: The Basics [May 28, 2012].
3. http://www.taekwondo-network.com/Kukkiwon.html