The Silk Thread of Gorindo Magazine

Magazine • the Silk Thread of Gorindo

The Silk Thread of Gorindo - Ottawa - Canada

Issue 22

- Belts & Titles

- Kihon - Practicing Stances - Intro Level

- Kihon - Practicing Strikes - Intro Level

- Kihon - Practicing Defences - Intro Level

- Pearls of Gorindo...

Belts & Titles

We cannot always tell how advanced a martial artist is by his belt or his title. Some schools have different requirements or standards than others. This means that a blue belt in one school may have studied different things for his belt, or in some cases the blue belt is a different step on the ladder.

In Japanese we call the coloured belt levels kyu, and they begin with the highest number, usually the ninth, and graduate to first kyu, the level before black belt. Sometimes a blue belt may be fourth kyu or sixth kyu in different systems.

This is one reason why you shouldn’t worry too much about the color of the belt someone wears or compare yourself to others. Within your own school, it is easier to see how you are progressing because you know what you have to do for each level. If you are watching someone from another school and thinking you know more than her, be careful— you may be mistaken. Don’t be quick to judge someone when you don’t know the exact path she is following.

What happens if someone changes her belt before you do? This may happen because she has more time to train than you. She may also be physically or mentally more ready to practice the skills for the next level. If you incorrectly think of your belt as a prize rather than something to hold up your pants or keep your gi top closed, then you may become confused. The coloured belt should mean that you are ready to begin learning the skills for the next belt level, not that you have completely mastered the things that you have already learned. You will still have to practice and improve these older skills as well as learn new things.

Sometimes a teacher has to make the decision to keep a student at one belt level for a long time until he is ready for the next. He may be advanced in some things but need more work in others. Some of these areas may have to do with behaviour or how well he understands his responsibilities as a martial artist. He may have high kicks or energetic kata, but he may not be paying attention in class or helping the younger students, for example. The teacher is probably not trying to punish anyone, but he cannot, for the safety of the class and the progress of the student, allow this student to advance to the next level. Remember that your teacher is even happier than you when you are ready to change belts. It means that he has taught you well and now can teach you more!

Occasionally someone who started the same time as you will change her belt before you. Sometimes a student who started after you may also move ahead. Don’t worry about it. Later you may change at a different time than her. Relax and concentrate on your own path. Also, if you change before someone else, don’t start thinking that you are better. In the big picture, over time, it does not matter the colour of your belt; what matters is how well you train. Stick with it and you will always improve. Remember that the black belt is a dirty white belt that has seen lots of practice, sweat and hard work. The colours are there to help you learn martial arts, not to hang on your wall.

Enjoy what you are learning today and do it the best that you can. You will find the same kinds of differences between black belts of different ranks. Second dan in one school may be like a fourth dan in another. The expectations and the work might be quite different. Many titles and names are given to people with high ranks. Someone who is sensei here is renshi there. Some teachers are called masters but not all of them truly are masters. We can learn more about someone when we see how many years he has studied and who his teachers were, rather than the rank he has earned.

This is why we should respect everyone equally for being martial artists and work hard to live up to the standards set by some very good teachers.

How you behave toward others and how well you train in class will mean more to those masters who really know martial arts than the colour of your belt.

Excerpt from “The Peaceful Way - A Children's Guide to the Traditions of the Martial Arts” by Claudio Iedwab & Roxanne Standefer - © Photo 2011 by Roxanne Standefer