Belt meanings

[Danjo]

Danjo I guess that's as good an explanation as any and it did make me laugh out loud this morning.

Glad you liked it. Sometimes humor needs to be interjected IMO.

 

[KempoGuy06]

Thank you Danjo, Iron Leopard and John Bishop. Im glad im not the only one that feel the way i do.

B

 

[goodwrench_mc]

Can someone list the belt meanings. As my original belts are.

white
yellow
orange
purple
blue
blue with green stipe
green
green with brown stripe
brown with 1 stripe
brown with 2 stripes
brown with 3 stripes
black

I understand what my teachers and myself are looking for in each progression weather it's knowledge of the basics and basic balance or more fluidity in movement and sparring or power etc but...

What do the colors of the belts signify as you understand them.

Some of you have the order a little different and even a few of these colors not in your system.

Thanks!

Is this what you are looking for ?

Yellow Belt: A Yellow Belt practitioner is given an introduction to the American Kenpo System while developing a working knowledge of the basics – the foundation of the Art.
Orange Belt: An Orange Belt practitioner must strive for the development of proper form so as to enhance the effectiveness of the basics.
Purple Belt: A Purple Belt practitioner must strive for the development of speed achieved through economy of motion by executing basics with proper form.
Blue Belt: A Blue Belt practitioner must possess a proper display of power achieved by the correct application of form plus speed of the basics.
Green Belt: A Green Belt practitioner must strive for the development of timing achieved by the proper application of breath control.
3rd Degree Brown Belt: A 3rd Degree Brown Belt practitioner must strive for the development and display of focussed strikes achieved by adding power to breath control.
2nd Degree Brown Belt: A 2nd Degree Brown Belt practitioner must enhance his/her physical fitness in order to increase ones stamina and to make one more tolerant of pain.
1st Degree Brown Belt: A 1st Degree Brown Belt practitioner must strive for the development of mental skills by possessing a working knowledge of the principles, concepts and theories of American Kenpo Karate.
1st Degree Black Belt: A 1st Degree Black Belt must demonstrate his/her expertise in American Kenpo by properly applying these three formulae: Knowledge of Basics + Form + Speed = Power Power + Breath Control = Focus Focus + Physical Conditioning + Working Knowledge of Concepts, Principles and Theories = Expertise in individual self-defense skills.

 

[Danjo]

Is this what you are looking for ?

Yellow Belt: A Yellow Belt practitioner is given an introduction to the American Kenpo System while developing a working knowledge of the basics – the foundation of the Art.
Orange Belt: An Orange Belt practitioner must strive for the development of proper form so as to enhance the effectiveness of the basics.
Purple Belt: A Purple Belt practitioner must strive for the development of speed achieved through economy of motion by executing basics with proper form.
Blue Belt: A Blue Belt practitioner must possess a proper display of power achieved by the correct application of form plus speed of the basics.
Green Belt: A Green Belt practitioner must strive for the development of timing achieved by the proper application of breath control.
3rd Degree Brown Belt: A 3rd Degree Brown Belt practitioner must strive for the development and display of focussed strikes achieved by adding power to breath control.
2nd Degree Brown Belt: A 2nd Degree Brown Belt practitioner must enhance his/her physical fitness in order to increase ones stamina and to make one more tolerant of pain.
1st Degree Brown Belt: A 1st Degree Brown Belt practitioner must strive for the development of mental skills by possessing a working knowledge of the principles, concepts and theories of American Kenpo Karate.
1st Degree Black Belt: A 1st Degree Black Belt must demonstrate his/her expertise in American Kenpo by properly applying these three formulae: Knowledge of Basics + Form + Speed = Power Power + Breath Control = Focus Focus + Physical Conditioning + Working Knowledge of Concepts, Principles and Theories = Expertise in individual self-defense skills.

I like mine better, but to each his own.

 

[tellner]

I'm more 'old school'

White - a new clean belt.
Yellow - belt is stained with sweat and less mentionable fluids
Green - unwashed belt gets moldy
Brown - mold succeeded by new species
Black - new culture deepens, thickens, completely infuses belt
White - mycelium and fruiting bodies turn remains of belt white. belt disintegrates. repeat.

 

[Dave_T_L_W]

We do not have any of this stigma surrounding our belts in my school. Our belts are there to hold our GIs together. On more than one ocassion I have been told to take it off and put it on the floor by my instructor. I dont wash my belt but only because i dont want the colour to run into my other clothes. I prefer this approach but thats just me.

Dave

 

[MJS]

ATTENTION ALL USERS:

Please, keep the conversation polite and respectful. We all have our opinions of various arts, and we've also seen a number of threads in which SKK has been the focus of bashing. Lets try not to turn every thread into a bash session on SKK. Thanks.

-Mike Slosek
-MT Super Moderator-

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

I'm more 'old school'

White - a new clean belt.
Yellow - belt is stained with sweat and less mentionable fluids
Green - unwashed belt gets moldy
Brown - mold succeeded by new species
Black - new culture deepens, thickens, completely infuses belt
White - mycelium and fruiting bodies turn remains of belt white. belt disintegrates. repeat.

Old school? Reads more like a new micro class! I dug it.

D.

 

[LawDog]

Old school of thought.
There are two belts, the white and black belt. The colored belts are grades of white belt and the black belt has it's various levels.
This helps to keep things in prospective for me and my instructor staff.

 

[tellner]

All kidding aside there is a good reason for the belt system in certain contexts. The world is smaller and organizations are larger than they were in the seventeenth century. I can tell you an awful lot about everyone in my training group and a good number of my teacher's other students. It's not a lot of people. We've spent a fair amount of time together and know who's who. For village arts it's even simpler. Everyone knows everyone else from the cradle. If you're a spear carrier for the local warlord or in the Imperial Army there are uniforms, sergeants and all the rest to keep it all straight.

But then the Industrial Age happened. A teacher could leave Japan, travel to Europe and be presented with a bunch of students he'd never seen and knew absolutely nothing about. Or a University would form a club of up to a couple hundred people, more than any one teacher could keep straight. The colored belt system allows one to get a rough idea of who is who and what level they're at at a glance. Beginners don't get tossed into the deep end with the sharks. An instructor can alter his lesson plan to the class' skill.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

Old school of thought.
There are two belts, the white and black belt. The colored belts are grades of white belt and the black belt has it's various levels.
This helps to keep things in prospective for me and my instructor staff.

While I understand where your coming (and agree, in part), I do think that a brown belt should be held to a near dan level standard in both skill and character. It used to be that a brown belt was considered a hardcore, highly skilled martial artist (I started Judo in 1972 and brown belts were VERY senior students - who often ran their own small clubs under the mentorship of a sandan - and a dan was a near celestial being).

OTOH, in our days of rank inflation you're pretty much right.

 

[LawDog]

J.R.
I agree with you that in the old days Ikkyu's were considered beginner hard core students. One of the reasons for this was the training was very hard back then and most students "retired" before reaching the Ikkyu level. To be even considered for a black belt test a student had to be at the Ikkyu level for one - two years.
I too trained in Judo,(started in 65 & still do). Back then it was very unusual for Japan to award any of the Americans the rank level above Nidan. To achieve a brown belt level it could take you six years or more.

 

[Gufbal1982]

White= the color of the cocoon, from which the butterfly will emerge with some color.
Yellow= the color of a school bus that children take to the place of learning.
Orange= the color of a fruit (oranges) that provide one with the vitamin that gives one life-saving immunity from the harsh outside world.
Purple= the color of Royalty which symbolizes one's acceptance into the royal court or temple.
Blue=the color of sadness (i.e. the Blues), because it is at this point in one's training that one realizes the tragedy of having to learn violence in order to survive in this cruel world.
Green=The color of money, because in SKK the tests start getting expensive here (there is another version of this color which is it is the color of money because it is at this rank that many people realize they can make a ton of cash teaching) take your pick.
Brown= The color of the noses of those students that hope to be double promoted to Black.
Black= the color that one wishes to keep his studio in financially.

I hope this was helpful.

Ok, first off LOL! That's pretty funny. anyway, here's what my FV instructor told me and I still think about it this way...

White - Purple: The time you spend waiting at the doorstep of the temple to go in to be trained.

Blue - Brown: Time spent in the kitchen cleaning waiting to be taught

1st Black - 2nd degree black: Start learning

3rd degree Black: student of the art

4th degree Black: disciple of the art

5th degree Black: Master of the art.

As for what I think now, belts just hold up your pants.