Real Information Concerning Black Belt Rankings In The Various Martial Arts

Black Belt rankings were begun by Judo Master Jigoro Kano

. Master Kano is supposed to have based his system on rankings used by swimming clubs. Karate clubs in Japanese Universities borrowed this ranking system.

The original karate system is rumored to have had two belts, white belt and black belt. As classes grew larger two more belts were used, green belt and brown belt. Eventually Chinese American Kenpo was developed by Ed Parker, and the number of colored belts expanded greatly.

Colored belts were arranged in the following order: white, orange, purple, blue, green, three stages of brown, multiple stages of black. As the belt ranking systems grew, myths concerning the importance of the colors grew. Each system seemed to put forth a different meaning for the colors of belts.

White and black, in the beginning, didn't have much significance, as there were so few students and the promotions were pretty easily understood. White meant beginner, and black belt meant the student had the status of an assistant instructor. As the belt systems grew ever larger this concept quickly gave way to instructor rankings.

White, green, brown and black were rumored to relate to the spring, summer, fall and winter of a student's martial arts life. This also correlated to beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert status. This concept, while valid, gave way when more colors were introduced.

The full spectrum of colors used by Chinese Kenpo Systems had to do with a full range of knowledge. Correctly or incorrectly, a Kenpo student was assumed, when he was raised to black belt, to know everything in the spectrum. This notion began to recede when red belts were first used.

At first, red belts were introduced to honor high ranking masters, these were sometimes politically offered belts, though there were some legitimate rankings. Then, because people tend to promote themselves, the red belt replaced the black belt in many peoples eyes, and the spectral system broke apart. This was aided by the fact that some systems, especially taekwondo systems, began using a red belt in place of a brown belt.

In modern times, while colored belts are said to be of great use in motivating students, the fact of the matter is that there has been some abuse. Many commercial martial arts schools have elongated training time to align with the increased rankings to keep people at their schools, and this has extended the length of time it takes to learn the martial arts. It is hoped that understanding the real information of Black Belt rankings, as described in this bit of writing, will help potential students when they analyze possible arts to learn.

by: Al Case

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