Black Belt. Expert? Or Fraud?
The Truth Behind the Black Belt.
The black belt is synonymous with nearly every form of martial arts. From Karate and Judo to BJJ and MMA, but what’s it all about? Should you care if someone has a black belt? Or just shrug your shoulders and carry on with your day?
First lets go back and look where the black belt comes from. The black belt is not as old as you might think, only dating back to around 1880. Kanō Jigorō, the founder of Judo, is most widely accredited with the development of the modern ranking system we use in most martial arts, especially those from Japan.
At first there were only two belts, white and black. The philosophy being everyone would start the same, a white belt, then eventually over time with lots of sweat, blood and tears the belt would get dirtier and dirtier and then become black, noting the students progression an experience in the art. It’s a nice idea, but not very practical.
The problem comes for those in-between, what if you’re better than a white belt but not good enough for a black belt? What color should you have? Thus the brown belt was born and eventually more colors were added, blue, green, red, orange etc. The list goes on. Nowadays some clubs can have 20 different colored belts. Crazy!
Where does the black belt fit in with all these different colors? Well it’s still the top, kind of. There are often different ranks of black belt. In Karate (which I practice) there are 10 “Dans”, 1st Dan being the first black belt you get and 10th being the highest. Pretty confusing.
So how can you tell who has what rank? Well in many styles you simply can’t. In others you can have bars on the belt denoting your ranks or even different color writing, it varies greatly. Other “modern” styles have starting adding all kinds of ranks and colors after black belt. I think I remember seeing a gentleman wearing a black and gold belt with dragons down the side. Dragons!
In Okinawa, belt mean no need rope to hold up pants!
Ha! I love that quote from Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid” movie.
Although this is from a movie and is fictional it’s kind of based in truth. Many old school martial artists and traditionalists often don’t care what belt someone wears, it’s the attitude and heart that counts. I’ve heard of old masters giving black belts to students almost as an after thought, and that belt was simply a spare one he had hanging around in the closet.
So does this mean the black belt has no value? Well yes and no. No as in it really is just a piece of cloth you wrap around your waist and yes it does because you can ask nearly anyone on the street and ask “Is a back belt high in martial arts?” and they’d almost always answer “yes”.
So if someone says to you that they’re a black belt, should you be impressed or not? I think it’s important on how it came up. If you’re talking about the weather and suddenly Joe says “I’m a black belt at the ultimate black belt academy” or something along those lines, I think it’s safe to assume it’s not really worth that much. However if you’re talking about martial arts and Joe is asked if he’s done any and answers “I’ve done a bit of Karate” then asked what belt he got and answers “I only got the first black belt” or something similar, it’s also safe to assume that he’s honest and genuine.
In truth the black belt is just an acknowledgment that you’re no longer a beginner and have generally mastered the basics, it no way means that you’re a master. Often getting a black belt means you can finally start learning the good stuff. I often think of getting a black belt is like a frame of a house, you have the foundations down but you still need to furnish and paint the house, add the plumbing, electrics etc. The list goes on.
In my experience it really comes down to the individual it what a black belt (or equivalent) means. It can be a great milestone in someone's martial arts career but it shouldn’t be the be all and end all of it. Martial arts are about the journey not the destination. Wow that sounds rather profound. Hey you could always by one from amazon for $6.26. Yes I Googled it, no joke that’s what a black belt is worth, remember that if someone is bragging about having fought twenty guys and done a million kicks to get their belt.
