Sports Realm

[I:http://sportsrealm.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/AlCase16.jpg]Black Belt rankings were instituted by Judo Founder Jigoro Kano. Master Kano is supposed to have borrowed his system on rankings used by swimming clubs. Karate clubs in Japan borrowed his ranking system.

The original karate system is supposed to have been based on only two belts, white belt and black belt. As more and more people came to study, two more belts were added, green belt and brown belt. Eventually Chinese American Kenpo was devised by Karate pioneer Ed Parker, and the number of colored belts grew greatly.

Belts of color were setup in the following ranking: white, orange, purple, blue, green, three stages of brown, different stages of black. As the belt ranking systems expanded, legends having to do with the significance of the colors grew. Each martial arts school seemed to have a different reason for the belt colors.

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 alleged to have to do with the spring, summer, fall and winter of the martial arts life of a student. This also aligned with the notion of beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert ranking. This concept, while worthwhile, fell by the wayside when more colors were added.

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 current times, while colored belts are said to be motivational in student lessons, the fact of the matter is that there has been some abuse. Many commercial martial arts schools have lengthened training time to align with the increased rankings to keep people at their schools for longer periods of time, and this has extended the length of time it takes to learn the martial arts. It is hoped that understanding the basic facts of Black Belt rankings, as described in this article, will help potential students when they analyze possible arts to study.

Click on over to Monster Martial Arts for the real data about belt ranking systems and how long it really takes to learn the martial arts. x-4