It also allows students to know and monitor their progress in relation to that syllabus at any given time and it functions remarkably well as a motivator for students to practice hard towards the next stage in their learning.

Students can also monitor other people’s progress within the club allowing them an indication of who to ask for assistance in the process of their own learning

Problems arise however when a student starts to regard the belt as a reward or a rank.

Yes, obviously it is very rewarding to achieve a level of competence and to be regarded highly by other club members for that achievement. This, in itself, is a form of status; but in reality it is just a mark of progress.

One of the great learnings in the karate journey that can be applied to other aspects of life is the ability to divide large, daunting goals into bite-sized portions and learning to motivate oneself by anticipating the great feeling of satisfaction from progress and achievement.

A rank it is not. Rank is a term given to a status that implies delegated power over others. Clubs that see it this way can create and encourage quite unpleasant atmospheres where students regard themselves as being superior people to lower belt students.

To illustrate my point with an extreme example: how it can be that a 19-year old, blue-belt, unemployed youth that has a criminal record and no education, regard him/herself as being a superior person to a 35-year old Doctor, with an harmonious family, actively involved in charitable work but happens to be an orange-belt? – Nuts!! 

But it is oh so common and in my opinion, clubs should actively work to remove this sort of nonsense.

Other problems also arise due to a mistaken perception that there is some sort of standardisation in awarding grades. There is none – absolutely none!

Criteria for grades differ between martial arts, styles, organisations, clubs and sometimes between instructors within a club. Criteria for grades often change over time even for the same instructor as the style; club or instructor develops and progresses him/herself.

The order and number of belts can also differ.

All this means that it is very unlikely to come across any two people who have been awarded a grade (say, an orange belt) that display any sort of uniformity in terms of quantity and quality of knowledge, level of understanding or ability to perform – even within the same club, let alone between clubs.

This makes it very difficult for an instructor to take on students that have achieved grades at other clubs. Ideally, regardless of level achieved, a person transferring clubs should really start at the beginning (white belt) in order to ensure that they gain all the required competencies determined by the new club’s syllabus as they progress through the belts.

Psychologically, this can be very difficult as that student can be justifiably proud of the reward and rank given to them by the other club in recognition of their progress and is usually very reluctant to have that mark of recognition stripped from them.

In order not to demoralise that student, an instructor will often compromise and allow the student to retain the belt until such time that they have gained sufficient knowledge to gain a higher grade – this usually takes some considerable time causing the student to feel that they are not making much progress within that club.

Had they elected to start from the beginning; the perception of progress though the belts may well have been far greater.

Kyu grades (or coloured belts) have no real meaning to people who do not train martial arts – most people have no concept of where a green belt lies on the scale in relation to black belt. The belt therefore has no real value outside the club.

This is not quite true when it comes to black belt. When it comes to the general public, the word black belt conjures up visions of indestructibility, physical and mental superiority and, strangely enough, serenity and wisdom.

Whereas it is also true that a black belt also has no real value outside the club, the very fact that you often get a “Wow!” reaction when people find out, it becomes a damned useful thing to have on your CV.

You get an automatic respect and you tend to get less hassle from bosses or fellow employees. It is a fact that seems to always lurk in the back of their minds; they can be quietly intimidated by it and the less you say about it the better – don’t ram it down their throats as it can then turn to your disadvantage.

In reality, the impossibility of enforcing any form of standardisation in the form of a globally or nationally recognised award or qualification (as, generally, is the public perception of a black belt) means that black belts can encompass almost any range of skill-level, or lack of.

In summary then, a black belt, for us, has reached the stage where they can survive in their martial arts journey without any further instruction. They possess all the understanding and skills necessary to continue to develop through their own research, investigation and experimentation.

Notice that no mention is made of physical fitness, strength or flexibility. Whereas these attributes would be superficially beneficial; the level of martial arts application intelligence must be of sufficient standard for the martial art to be able to survive and remain functional should any of these attribute be compromised in any individual.

In other words, intelligent defence rather that trading and absorbing blows.

Occasionally, however, we will award an honorary black belt to those that have shown outstanding perseverance and commitment but through circumstances such as age, injury or disability are unlikely to be able to fulfil all the criteria.

Second Dan and above are awarded by assessing a black belts progress in the journey of their own research, investigation and experimentation – we are looking for progress of efficiency and effectiveness of technique. (It is the process of turning quantity knowledge into quality knowledge).

Ideally, we would also like to see evidence that the martial artist is freely passing on their knowledge to others so that their skills don’t die with them, but, in reality, I think that it is unfair to enforce this as a compulsory criteria.

Unfortunately, there are very few people who are willing to donate their time towards the advancement of others and there are all too many that regard their skills as an opportunity for profit.