Go Belts and Other Gi Items

[Bill Mattocks]

I agree but I hate the more poly than cotton feel of the cheap Century uniforms. I have to admit I splurged on an Adidas ADI-Flex uniform that is by far the coolest, most comfortable uniform I have ever owned. I have a Mooto I really like as well. These are only a year old, my others are '80's-'90's vintage and show it with very noticeable pit stains. Adidas uniforms how up very well. IMHO

The middleweight Century is all cotton.

 

[drop bear]

Ok. Here is how you go about being that guy. Get a white gi. Tie dye it.

Job done.

 

[drop bear]

True, Headhunter, but if I was going to order a higher quality belt and they offer embroidery, the question was "should I go for it."

I know now the answer is "no."

Wait until you smash the weight off anyway. Otherwise you are that guy in a good that doesn't fit.

 

[Papageno]

Rules differ from style to style and sometimes even club to club. As for belts, we are allowed to have embroidery (i.e. style name on one end and your name on the other) if you have a brown or black belt. That said, I wouldn't dream of putting it on my brown belt. I've seen brown belts with embroidery a couple of times, but it looks ridiculous. It's very rare here. Black belts, that's a different matter. Most black belts here have embroidery.

But belts are just for show, your gi is something completely different. It's about comfort and practical needs. I've tried a few until I found a gi I like. I actually have two, one worn that I use for regular training and one newer (and whiter!) to use in contests and exams. Get a gi that you really like and feel comfortably in. Regarding your belt... well, you might want to lay low for now and see what gives in your club.

Remember you've already made the greatest decision in your life to take up this training. If you pursue this, you WILL lose weight, you WILL feel good about yourself and you will even be able to catch that bus across the street with a little running. Something you probably wouldn't have done a few weeks earlier. Keep it up and welcome to martial Talk.

 

[Rusty B]

Since we're being candid, dvcochran, if someone asking about a belt has ruffled your feathers so much that you're questioning their mental state, then you're the one with problems.

 

[Rusty B]

Rules differ from style to style and sometimes even club to club. As for belts, we are allowed to have embroidery (i.e. style name on one end and your name on the other) if you have a brown or black belt. That said, I wouldn't dream of putting it on my brown belt. I've seen brown belts with embroidery a couple of times, but it looks ridiculous. It's very rare here. Black belts, that's a different matter. Most black belts here have embroidery.

But belts are just for show, your gi is something completely different. It's about comfort and practical needs. I've tried a few until I found a gi I like. I actually have two, one worn that I use for regular training and one newer (and whiter!) to use in contests and exams. Get a gi that you really like and feel comfortably in. Regarding your belt... well, you might want to lay low for now and see what gives in your club.

Remember you've already made the greatest decision in your life to take up this training. If you pursue this, you WILL lose weight, you WILL feel good about yourself and you will even be able to catch that bus across the street with a little running. Something you probably wouldn't have done a few weeks earlier. Keep it up and welcome to martial Talk.

Thanks!

I'm already a good runner; in fact, I ran ten miles yesterday morning.

I actually achieved the feat of losing 100 pounds back in 2014 with diet and running (up to 12 miles), but due to the fact that I treated the methods of my weight loss as a means to an end... I'm back to square one.

So this is definitely meant to be a lifestyle change.

 

[Dirty Dog]

If you're wondering what decoration is allowed at your school, you need to ask your instructor. It's really that simple.
As far as the gi goes, I'd honestly recommend you stick with the cheap ones. You've said you expect to be losing a fair bit of weight in a fairly short time. So why spend money on something you're going to bin in a couple months? A decent quality gi, like those from Century, will cost you about $100. A really good one can be considerably more. I buy my dobak from Moo Sool Sa. They're not cheap, nor are they anywhere near as pricey as some suppliers. And they're worth it, since I can wear them for 6-8 years before they need to be replaced.

 

[Rusty B]

If you're wondering what decoration is allowed at your school, you need to ask your instructor. It's really that simple.
As far as the gi goes, I'd honestly recommend you stick with the cheap ones. You've said you expect to be losing a fair bit of weight in a fairly short time. So why spend money on something you're going to bin in a couple months? A decent quality gi, like those from Century, will cost you about $100. A really good one can be considerably more. I buy my dobak from Moo Sool Sa. They're not cheap, nor are they anywhere near as pricey as some suppliers. And they're worth it, since I can wear them for 6-8 years before they need to be replaced.

I said earlier in the thread that this was the plan. That $200+ gi shipped from Japan doesn't come until I've lost all my weight.

I'll also say this: the very same gi I was issued, if I wanted to purchase a second one (much more convenient for me to have two, if I train five times per week) or a new one every time I went down in size, I'd have to pay $35 for it.

I found the same gi online for $17. My guess as to the reasoning for the markup is that he'd likely rather reserve them as free uniforms for new students.

The same brand has higher quality gis for the same price that I would have spent on another of the same gi that I currently have.

That said... it's good to shop around.

 

[jobo]

Since we're being candid, dvcochran, if someone asking about a belt has ruffled your feathers so much that you're questioning their mental state, then you're the one with problems.

Well you did invite opinions ? 8m constantly amazed at how much people will pay to look sharp in situation were looking sharp isn't at all important, I had an interesting discussion on a mountain bike forum, about how much people were prepared to pay to look rad whilst getting covered in mud and soaking wet . I couldn't for the ,ife of me how paying the cost of a semi decent stereo represented good value. When they could get some old shorts and a hoodie that did just as well

But we are all different , if you want emboardry then go for it

 

[Rusty B]

Well you did invite opinions ?

Yeah, about whether or not one would be "that guy" if they showed up with an embroidered kyu belt.

I didn't expect insinuations that I needed to be put into a straight-jacket and locked into a padded cell over it.

That being said... I'm only dishing what I'm taking.

 

[Rusty B]

8m constantly amazed at how much people will pay to look sharp in situation were looking sharp isn't at all important,

The craziest thing about the free gi is that I can see my own nipples (and tattoos) through it. Val Kilmer's Batman suit has nothing on my free gi!

If I don't rectify anything else, I'd at least like to rectify THAT!

 

[jobo]

Yeah, about whether or not one would be "that guy" if they showed up with an embroidered kyu belt.

I didn't expect insinuations that I needed to be put into a straight-jacket and locked into a padded cell over it.

That being said... I'm only dishing what I'm taking.

well you perhaps need to think a little about perspective, this is a ma forum populated by people who dedicate there lives there lives to achieving physical perfection through ma. it's likely they regard someone with two weeks exspeiance who comes on asking about embroidery rather than physical improvement as rather shallow and perhaps focusing on the wrong thing.



I'm very modern and dont think people should be discriminated against just coz they have an interest in needle craft

 

[Rusty B]

well you perhaps need to think a little about perspective, this is a ma forum populated by people who dedicate there lives there lives to achieving physical perfection through ma. it's likely they regard someone with two weeks exspeiance who comes on asking about embroidery rather than physical improvement as rather shallow and perhaps focusing on the wrong thing.

Are you saying that there are people here with a tendency to eat their young?

Just because I'm talking about one thing at a particular moment doesn't mean that I don't care about something else.

When it comes to the actual training itself, I ask questions in the dojo for that.

However, when it comes to asking questions about whether or not a particular thing would make me look like "that guy"... it would make sense to use the anonymity of the internet for that. At least, to me it does.

 

[Flying Crane]

The craziest thing about the free gi is that I can see my own nipples (and tattoos) through it. Val Kilmer's Batman suit has nothing on my free gi!

If I don't rectify anything else, I'd at least like to rectify THAT!

You can wear a t-shirt under the gi. That being said, there are some low quality gi that are more like lightweight pijamas. Junk.

When I used to wear a gi, I preferred a heavyweight that would last. But given your goals to size down, it makes sense to go with something inexpensive in the meantime. But not the pijamas. You need something better than that.

 

[dvcochran]

Since we're being candid, dvcochran, if someone asking about a belt has ruffled your feathers so much that you're questioning their mental state, then you're the one with problems.

I have no clue where you think my feathers got ruffled. You came on a martial arts forum asking for opinions. I obliged to tell you up front you would get a lot of different opinions.
It seems it is you who got the feathers ruffled.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Knock it off guys. Don't make me put on my moderator hat and be all official and stuff.

 

[dvcochran]

I have no clue where you think my feathers got ruffled. You came on a martial arts forum asking for opinions. I obliged to tell you up front you would get a lot of different opinions.
It seems it is you who got the feathers ruffled.

@Dirty Dog, I am being mindful or your warning. This is in no way a sniping. I am purely trying to encourage the OP to just work out and see his exercise from a higher perspective.

Rusty B, you have deflected nearly post from other people. This is indicative of my inference earlier. Just work out and do not waste your energies on external stuff like the time you have spent researching and discussion embroidery on a belt. That is not at all where the joy in MA's is found. You said you lost the weight and now over about a 5 year period put it back on. So, barring no external factors, there was a lesson you did not learn somewhere in the first success. Sadly, is not unusual and I have seen it before. It is indicative of the destructive cycle of operating in the peaks and valleys of emotion and never finding the mean.
The simple way to think of it is that someone starting any experience like the one you are starting must keep the "Why am I doing this" very much in the present. Over time that will be reconciled with the "How" as the result of the larger equation (in this case physical exercise to loose weight). Hopefully you will find many of the other benefits found in most all MA's such as the tenets of TKD (courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control, indomitable spirit). Most all styles have similar principles.

I am a 7th Dan MDK, 5th Dan Kukkiwon, 1st Dan Kali, two Masters degree and a P.E. I put no sub titles on my writings nor do I have any stripes on my belt. My GM gave me his old belt when he was promoted to 9th Dan. I took it and my original BB and joined them together as an example of Yin and Yang. The belt has very faded embroidery of my name in Korean on one side and my GM's on the others. It took me 35 years to attain this. The other stuff has taken me 56 years. Am I proud of them? You bet. Do they define me? Not at all as far as my self evaluation is concerned.
A persons work has to be able to speak for itself.

 

[Rusty B]

Knock it off guys. Don't make me put on my moderator hat and be all official and stuff.

I think you should. To be exact, locking this thread. If I had the ability to "dirty delete" my OP, resulting in the whole thread going away along with it, I would have already done so.

Hell, I inquired about something I found online that costs less than a steak dinner at a restaurant, and we've got a two-page thread with an entire dissertation (see above) calling my character into question. Now, all of sudden, I care more about an embroidered belt than learning the art (newsflash - I can buy ANY belt online I want WITHOUT taking a martial art, and say that I'm a 10th Dan in Rusty B-Do if such accusations were true); or I've "got issues."

I don't want this here any more than you do.

 

[Headhunter]

The craziest thing about the free gi is that I can see my own nipples (and tattoos) through it. Val Kilmer's Batman suit has nothing on my free gi!

If I don't rectify anything else, I'd at least like to rectify THAT!

Then wear a t shirt underneath

 

[Headhunter]

Are you saying that there are people here with a tendency to eat their young?

Just because I'm talking about one thing at a particular moment doesn't mean that I don't care about something else.

When it comes to the actual training itself, I ask questions in the dojo for that.

However, when it comes to asking questions about whether or not a particular thing would make me look like "that guy"... it would make sense to use the anonymity of the internet for that. At least, to me it does.

I think asking what's acceptable at your club would be much better asked to your instructor than a bunch of strangers.

Also don't ask for opinions if you can't take the answers. I havent seen anything wrong with anyone's said to you