What dose your Martial Arts school use for Black belt ranks?
Do you have stripes or different color belts for dan ranking or just plane Black?
Well, I teach Western Martial Arts and continue to study Judo. In Judo, it's like "Gentle Fist" said.
I Western Martial Arts we brand our forearms with hot irons.
Just kidding. Most of the time we don't really have visible ranks. A lot of the HEMA organizations will wear different colored jackets. A Black fencing jacket is the symbol of a Maestro from Classical/Olympic fencing so they have that and those HEMA orgs that do visible signs will often do the same. Red is popular for "below expert" jackets, but white and green are common too. I've heard that some HEMA groups have bars that they sew on to their sleeves.
Savate has different colored
gloves.
A lot of WMA organizations that award rank will just give a certificate and nobody actually "wears their rank." When I got my Expert Knife rating in bowie knife I just got a certificate, though it meant a whole lot to me. I got a tatt to commemorate it though, does that count as a visible rank?
When I awarded rank to my guys in my club, I gave them a certificate and a lapel pin. I like lapel pins.
But now that I think about it, branding the forearms sounds WAY tougher than a pansy little lapel pin.
Honestly, I kinda question why anyone really needs visible markers past some level of "expert" or "instructor?" I can make the case for visible markers for below-expert. It's a training, safety, and goals type thing. But all a beginner needs to know when he walks on your mat is "who's the instructor." By the time he's good enough to differentiate between a good practitioner, a really good practitioner, an expert, and someone with "just die you slug" mad-skilz, he's been in long enough to recognize who's who, not take anyone for granted, and be able to assess skill for himself.
...now, about those brands...
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk