Thread: A Black Belt symbolizes

I think the rank you are in a belt system seems to matter more to people outside of the art than those actually practising it. If i said i have a blue belt in TKD it obviously doesn't sound as impressive as saying i have a black belt. Everyone knows their own ability and what they can do. I'm still only brown belt in my current art KSW but i know in my heart my sparring far supasses most browns, blacks and instructors. Then again my techniques are mediocre and my form isn't perfect. Im happy at the belt level i am at, i wouldn't mind if i had to start all over as white belt again or get rushed to black, it seems to get a lot less meaningful once you get integrated into the art, but it will always carry a meaning. im proud of the belts i have achieved in all arts and i keep them on display because to me it sets as a mile stone, i can think back to my ability then and compare it to now, when looking back at my first white belt i can remember my unfocused punchs, sloppy kicks and misunderstanding of each 'technique' and their uses. I can remember my hip toss was all down to brute force and my wrist locks didn't lock at all, oh how times have changed...

Mr Miyagi on karate kid.....

Daniel: Hey, what kind of belt do you have?
Miyagi: Canvas. JC Penny. Three ninety-eight. You like?
[laughs]
Daniel: No, I meant...
Miyagi: Daniel-san... karate here.
[he taps his head]
Miyagi: Karate here.
[he taps his heart]
Miyagi: Karate never here
[points to his belt]
Miyagi: Understand?

I think that a black belt shows the practitionsers commitment to the martial art as they wil have constantly train over a substantial time period to become "skilled" enough to recieve the "award". The Black belt also shows the experience as mentioed in an above post. The one thing i think that a black belt is not a symbol of is : overall fighting ability

This is because some martial arts practitioners may have recieved there black belt by learning froms (Kata's). These do teach how to fight but only from the forms perspective eg. you go into stance A if your opponent is in stance B.

I think that the only way to judge fighting ability is through sparring, competeions etc and also look at the techniques that a practitioner can perform

Suhieb

A black belt is nothing more than a white belt that never quit!

Originally Posted by suhieb

I think that a black belt shows the practitioners commitment to the martial art as they Will have constantly train over a substantial time period to become "skilled" enough to receive the "award". The Black belt also shows the experience as mentioned in an above post. The one thing i think that a black belt is not a symbol of is : overall fighting ability

This is because some martial arts practitioners may have received there black belt by learning forms (Kata's). These do teach how to fight but only from the forms perspective eg. you go into stance A if your opponent is in stance B.

I think that the only way to judge fighting ability is through sparring, competitions etc and also look at the techniques that a practitioner can perform

Suhieb

I agree with you. First Dan or Shodan is for technical merit.What I mean by that is a good working knowledge of the criteria or curriculum taught at that particular school.Second Dan or Nidan we did a lot of full contact fighting and ground and pound. It took three weeks to grow all the skin back that got scrubbed off my feet and ankle bones from being dragged all over those mats. And that was a Kempo test.