One of the more fascinating aspects of the way martial arts are taught these days is the unique ranking system they use in which different colored karate belts known as obis are worn to mark the skill level of each student in the dojo. There is a lot to know about these simple pieces of cloth and what they are intended to represent, from how they will help you tell a novice martial arts student from a well trained master to the many different myths that some karatekas have made up over the years.
Every color of the obi represents hours of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, it is not an easy feat to move up the ranks in martial arts and doing so is something of great honor and pride, a triumph that demands respect. In order to transition from one rank to the next, students are challenged to perform predetermined tests of strength and skill or could even be demanded to combat another student that is considered their equal or even their superior; there is no set rule for how to achieve the next rank.
The obis are a symbol that demand honor and respect, when you see someone who has earned a colored belt you know that they have worked hard to do so, typically the darker the belt is, the higher ranking they are. In the beginning the belt did serve a functional purpose, but many years ago, a master known as Jigoro Kano determined that there should be a clear way of indicating practitioners by their rank and skill set and so he developed the colored obi practice at his dojo and it eventually spread to encompass the sport as a whole.
Officially, in modern Karate, a dojo leader holds the responsibility for deciding what colors will mean what with regard to ranking. The popular trend in this system is that the belts will go from the lightest colors to the darkest colors as the student ranks up, typically from white to yellow and eventually to black, with various colored or numbers of stripes in between belt colors.
There are some myths out there that claim in years past, practitioners would only be provided one belt and as training went on the karate belts of these artists would get dirtier and dirtier, therefore a black belt was one that had been trained in for years. The reality is that they are only pieces of colored strips of cloth that are worn like badges of honor to represent how far you've progressed in your martial arts training, but they are still very fascinating, none the less.
Every color of the obi represents hours of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, it is not an easy feat to move up the ranks in martial arts and doing so is something of great honor and pride, a triumph that demands respect. In order to transition from one rank to the next, students are challenged to perform predetermined tests of strength and skill or could even be demanded to combat another student that is considered their equal or even their superior; there is no set rule for how to achieve the next rank.
The obis are a symbol that demand honor and respect, when you see someone who has earned a colored belt you know that they have worked hard to do so, typically the darker the belt is, the higher ranking they are. In the beginning the belt did serve a functional purpose, but many years ago, a master known as Jigoro Kano determined that there should be a clear way of indicating practitioners by their rank and skill set and so he developed the colored obi practice at his dojo and it eventually spread to encompass the sport as a whole.
Officially, in modern Karate, a dojo leader holds the responsibility for deciding what colors will mean what with regard to ranking. The popular trend in this system is that the belts will go from the lightest colors to the darkest colors as the student ranks up, typically from white to yellow and eventually to black, with various colored or numbers of stripes in between belt colors.
There are some myths out there that claim in years past, practitioners would only be provided one belt and as training went on the karate belts of these artists would get dirtier and dirtier, therefore a black belt was one that had been trained in for years. The reality is that they are only pieces of colored strips of cloth that are worn like badges of honor to represent how far you've progressed in your martial arts training, but they are still very fascinating, none the less.
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