The Great Black Belt Rank Debacle!

Who was the first black belt?
Interesting question.
And, if someone was the first black belt,
who gave it to him?
It had to be a non-black belt,
so…does that make it invalid?
Does that make every belt since then invalid?
While you’re thinking about that,
let me do a brief history of the black belt.

My introductions to the belt system
was in Chinese Kenpo Karate.
We had eight belts.
white,
orange,
purple,
blue,
green,
three stages of brown,
and I never could figure out
how many levels of black belt there were.
Most people would get to 2nd or 3rd,
then,
over the years,
school owners,
without ever letting you see them work out,
became sixth and seventh.
Until there were eight.
Then ten.
Oh, and twelfth degree came along.

And I always wondered,
if a guy is a twelfth degree…
who promoted him?

I went to the Kang Duk Won
and there were eight belts.
This was my introduction to stripes,
but it was the same basic eight degrees
as I found in Kenpo.
The ranks were
white,
white with a green stripe
green,
green with a white stripe,
green with a brown stripe,
brown,
brown with a white stripe,
brown with a black stripe,
eight degrees of black.
My instructor was a 6th degree black belt,
but he was ‘official’ because
he had a certificate written half in oriental
with a ‘chop’ on it.
A chop was a stamp of hieroglyphics.

But,
while I was at the KDW,
I was told that originally there were two ranks.
White belt and black belt.
This was supposedly a hundred years before,
but it was probably only 30 or 40 years.
This aligns with certain Japanese systems.
You studied as a beginner
and graduated with a teaching diploma.
That was the only rank fact.

Then I read,
People were given white belts
and they worked until they became black with grime.
And these were the first black belts.
Which just goes to show
you can’t believe all you read.
Anybody who’s seen an old black belt
knows they fray and shred and
become white,

Eventually,
the teachers decided to separate the two ranks into four,
so they created
White,
green,
brown,
black.
Maybe aligning with the four seasons.

I don’t know why or when they started
adding stripes to the belts,
but it might have because of Kenpo,
trying to keep up with
the rainbow of belts Kenpo had become.

Kenpo hired a sales person from
the Arthur Murray dance studio
to design contracts for them.
These are sometimes called ‘car contracts.’
They last for four years to black belt.
Kenpo then rearranged,
expanded, made variations on,
all the techniques
to have forty techniques per belt
plus two forms.
Thus,
a black belt which had taken
about a year to gain in the beginning,
became a four year thing.
And everybody bought it.

Before people get out the loose
and claim sacrilege,
let me say that there are good and bad things
about the whole car contract set up.
First, it did keep students,
and it did expand the art.
But the real problem was that
learned 500 techniques,
as was common in some kenpo systems,
does not make a teacher.
In fact,
people went through four years,
promoted themselves a few times,
created their own systems,
and…the quality of Karate,
and the martial arts,
sank faster than the Titanic.

The last school I was at they had over 24 ranks to black belt,
and children attained rank by fighting in tournaments.
No skill required.

Now,
this little thumbnail sketch I have given you
leaves out a lot of things.
There are a lot of oddities and anomalies
in the belt systems
which pervade the various arts
of modern times.
But the gist of it seems to be fairly accurate.

But the real point here is this:
forget the belts…what makes a teacher?
Knowledge.
Repeating techniques endlessly,
monkey see monkey do,
does not create knowledge,
except in the most artificial sense.

What does make knowledge
is a profound study of the basics
and a thorough understanding of physics.
But even if a fellow does have that,
it doesn’t make him a teacher.
What makes a teacher is when you go beyond physics,
when you start to appreciate not just the physics of the game,
but of the mind playing the game,
of the ethics and compassion that arise
from a profound study of the martial arts.
Because a black belt is not just a rank,
it is a statement of maturity,
of responsibility,
it is to become a man.
Not in the physical or societal sense,
but in the kindness and understanding sense.

Okay,
ya gots it or ya don’t.
But now you understand why I write such things as

The Book of Five Arts

So you can understand basics better,
so you can see how the arts relate,
so you can get over tribal attitudes
and understand that no art is better.
The individual arts are just fingers on a hand,
and you have to pick up that hand and make it work
to be a real human being.

It’s the middle of summer
Go swimming,
play baseball,
read good books,
and…
WORK OUT!

Al

And thanks to everybody who picked up my book,

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

Don’t forget to give me five stars.
Those ratings help my sales.

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)