A In Depth Look At Belt Systems
With most types of martial arts around the world, the color of the belts that are used with certain style martial arts signify your rank within that style, although they does not have universal means or ranking within the martial arts world. More or less, they will give you a better understand and tell others how much you know about your style of martial arts.
The use of belt colors in martial arts is not some thing new. In fact, it is an old practice, dating back hundreds of years. Belts and their use in martial arts actually started by a man known as Jigoro Kano. He is the creator of the style known as Kodokan Judo. Kano started out using only white and black belts to signify the rank of his style of martial arts, which is Kodokan Judo. His reasons for using belts were to specify which students could compete in different technique in Judo. For example, those with white belts could only practice basic throws and guards where the black will complete the throws and guards at a more advance level.
Shortly after Kano introduced his idea of using belts, He then introduces more belt colors so as to segregate his student to many different levels. This makes things easier for him to manage where he can assign his higher level student to train the lower level student. These belts systems soon travel to other part of the world. Over the years, it became a great way of telling what level a student had in his martial arts style - just by the look of his belt color. The few martial arts styles which use the belts systems include Taekwondo, Karate and etc.
The Belts systems of Judo:
From: White - Yellow - Orange - Green - Blue - Brown - Black
The Belts systems of Taekwondo:
From: White - Advanced White - Junior Yellow - Advanced Junior Yellow - Yellow - Advanced Yellow - Junior Green - Advanced Junior Green - Green - Advanced Green - Junior Blue - Advanced Junior Blue - Blue - Advanced Blue - Junior Red - Advanced Junior Red - Red - Advanced Red I - Advanced Red II - Black
The Belts systems of Karate:
From: White - Yellow - Orange - Green - Blue - Brown - Black
The only problem with using the belts system to signify ranking and levels is the fact that different school may have different requirements. Even though both schools teaches the same style of martial arts but their ranking system and requirements may be different from the other school. In such case, to get a certain ranking may be totally different. This can cause confusion in ranks and level of competency, especially if a black belt from one school is not as well versed in that style as a black belt from another school. Although most schools stick to the same criteria but there are schools who choose to be a little different and incorporate their own unique system as well. However, this problem has been rectify by the introduction the individual martial arts council. The council will unify the use of color.
Although most martial arts styles like Judo, Karate and etc use belts to signify rank and level, there are some other martial arts such as Muay Thai, Krav Maga and Boxing that don't use belts at all. One of the main reason that these style does not use belts is they do not wear "Gi", and also some are not a sports martial arts. Example: Krav Maga. Pitfighting is another martial arts style that does not use any belts either. This style are more for self defense and protection system that you learn to protect yourself - although they differ from the traditional sense of martial arts, they are still a great style of martial arts.
All things aside, belts system are a great innovation to martial arts world. They do give students an objective to aim for, and a goal to keep practicing till they reach a higher level. Most students of any styles of martial arts aim to get the black belt which is the highest level of competency, and is the most prestige belt in that particular style of martial arts. A black belt takes up to many years of practice to archives, as the student has to go through many lower ranked color belts before having an opportunity to try and earn Highest level belt - The Black Belt.
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Lamy has been a practitioner of various types of martial arts. He created a websites dedicate to the World of Martial Arts...and he always trying out new style of Martial Arts.
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