Okay now I have been practicing martial arts for nearly 10 years going from Taewkondo to Karate to Kung Fu. I've learnt what I could and then moved on. My problem really is that when people ask me what I do for fun and I respond 'martial arts' they say "Oh COOL. What belt are you?"

Now the most I have ever done belt wise was a blue belt in taekwondo, but when I was doing karate I sparred with black belts. My point is: do we, as martial artists, need black belts to tell other people that we are good at what we do? I mean should I go and do 5 years minimum training or such to get such recognition? I'm confident in my abilities as a martial artist but when you reply to the above question as "I've done a variety of disiplines and as such didn't need any specific belt" they look at you like you are talking complete crap.

How do you guys deal with this?

It depends on what you want out of it really doesn't it? If you want to really impress people with you're martial art's skills you need to A: Have a black belt. B: Be able to do crazy spinning jump kicks. or C: Get into and win a street fight (unfortunately C is something far to many "martial artists" go for).
But quite frankly you don't NEED that as a martial artist.
However it could be good to go up to black belt level in ONE martial art, to have a proper specialization I guess, but then I'm no expert on the subject.

We have gradings in our style of kf but traditionally the sash hasn't been used in kf. I could do without it tbh, sashes/belts don't really mean anything to me. When it comes down to it all that matters is how good someone is at whatever they are trying to do. There's a huge amount of ego involved with the whole grading thing imo. People who don't do ma often just think all styles have them,but what does it matter what they think?

Just tell them that you've been involved in martial arts for "x" number of years...but if they ask what belt you have, I guess you'd have to tell them.

I would encourage you to pick one particular art and stick with it; train in depth until you achieve some higher grade. Of course, the object isn't to train just to get a certain belt, per se, but to train and study in depth. The end result of that is what you're after-

What Belt are you?

I think thats a perfectly reasonable question to ask really. Its like if you have your own business your always going to get people saying, how much money do you make?

Gradings helped me a great deal and certainly focused me to push myself harder. It took me four years to earn my blackbelt and boy, everytime I put that on it feels good because it took four years of my life to earn it.

However, I wouldnt for one minute think that makes me invincible to conflict. Ive sparred thousands of rounds over the years with people of all abilities, and that more then anything has made me realise that belts in some situations are only good enough to hold your pants up

pstarr wrote:

...I would encourage you to pick one particular art and stick with it; train in depth until you achieve some higher grade. Of course, the object isn't to train just to get a certain belt, per se, but to train and study in depth. The end result of that is what you're after-

To dovetail onto Sifu, you must realize that you don't truly begin to understand whatever art it is you are training in until you've reached somewhere between 2nd and 4th dan. Only then do you have enough experience to start making some of the intuitive leaps and start asking the right questions.

Back in the old days, 1st and 2nd dans were not instructors... they were just regular students. Your 3rd and 4th dans were seniors students and your actual instructors were usually 5th dan and above. I've been training now for 20 years, and I can tell you that I've learned more in the last 6 than I did in the first 14.

I don't think anyone needs a belt per se, but they aren't a bad thing either. Don't go training just so you can have a black piece of cotton around your waist though. That is the wrong focus. You should focus on the knowledge you are attaining in order to get said little strip of cotton.

I dont agree with the whole "gradings give me focus" thing. I don't think people should rely on belts to give them focus really. Yes,having a syllabus is a good thing, as is training particular techniques and being tested on them, but I just think too much emphasis is placed on them really. Just my view though.

I used to be really "into" the whole belts & gradings thing, but these days I don't have the time for it.
Far to many people place far to much importance on belts. I'd much rather focus my training on improving my abilities, rather than jumping through hoops to get a strip of material.

ok education does not buy commonsense
and belts do not buy good fighters

yes you are like me different art forms and a dusty black belt somewhere in the loft i think

please remember its not what you do its the way you do it
the means to a way?

if you pick up a black belt this is ok for you and you can say i have one but will it make you happy

myself going from art form to art form i say learn to be a master and this is not a grade but an ability

but yes you guest it someone put a grade on it for money
its better to be seen as a master than to collect the belts for a so called one

as a real fight no one gives a monkey
all the best from mark

Ok im going to take you all on here...

Su Lin wrote

I dont agree with the whole "gradings give me focus" thing

But you believe in a syllabus? How can you quantify when someone has learned a specific technique? Does the syllabus tell you? Does your instructor tell you? Is your instructor qualified to tell you without a grading panel?

Bailu Taiji:
I'd much rather focus my training on improving my abilities, rather than jumping through hoops to get a strip of material.


I focus my training on improving my abilities too. I dont want to offend you here and I say this with all respect but I think your casting judgement on hundreds of years of discplined training...sure there are dojos that have, shall, we say low standards but I know at my school and many others that you earn every inch of that 'material'...


Dragon:

its better to be seen as a master than to collect the belts for a so called one

I dont agree with you at all here.... Again a sweeping generalisation/

Hi all

I like this question! the belt as i understand is meaningless in a fight you are not going to tell an attacker I have black belt or any other, so it must be for something else.

Often it a sign or seniority within a school otherwise it would be really unfair for beginners to keep being beat on without knowing how good the other students are (or does this happen anyway?).

For me I was put off the whole belt thing for two reasons, 1. I saw a lot of black belts of various styles in my school get ego satisfaction from having a belt, and became preocupied with maintaining their status (but you don't need a belt to do that).

Secondly in the Philipines, I trained with two grandmasters who were lethal and the test was always if you think your good pick up the stick or knife and show me. it is the now that was important to them and not training to get the grade.

What is your constant best as oppossed to you training to at the height of your abilities, belts don't tell you that.

See this is where I am getting at. I focus my martial arts on becoming a better fighter. In my opinion I need to study more then just Taekwondo or Karate to be the best I can possibly be, but unless you have some sign of status (ie. black belt) then you can never tell people that you are a good martial artist without them thinking you are full of crap. And the problem at least in Australia is that if I went to a specific dojo to learn a specific technique it would take X number of years until they would be willing to teach it to me. Now I don't know about anyone else but I don't want to spend X number of years in one style, I like to diversify. Personally I believe the grading system should be based on how good a martial artist one is, not how long they spend in one system or how many katas they can perform.