Question about Dans.

[Master Jules]

Very true.....Gi tops...or uniforms in general are usually reserved for more formal occasions.....after all.....the point is to train .....it doesnt really matter what you wear.

[blitzcraig]

the question has been answered but this is for street fighter the video game players....if dan is supposed to be the best ranks....why does dan from street fighter suck so much?

[aefibird]

Good point...

[Master Jules]

dont play it....but thats a good point....lol

[Kane]

All blackbelts in our dojo wear a black belt, no stripes, no outward indication of rank.

It sometimes amazes me how obsessed our culture is with needing to have a visual representation of our ability. It's like we're not confident in our ability enough to be satisfied with a simple belt.

 

A gi used to be a person's smallclothes, but now there are different kinds of "authentic" uniforms for all martial arts. The belt used to be white for someone who wasn't a black belt, and that was it. Now there are a multitude of colored belts, stripes, half levels, etc, etc.

 

It's all a little ridiculous, but then, I'm not innocent either. It's just very interesting that our society (typically western society) is so obsessed with being able to "prove" our ability by saying "I have a 2nd degree black belt!" or "I'm a purple belt!" or whatever. I don't think the founding fathers of karate ever went around telling people how good they were. They just knew it. And that was enough.

 

Wap

 

I agree, WapCaplet. During the first years of my karate journey I trained in dojos that used the color belt system. Now I train with a group that only uses white, brown and black. No stripes, no rainbown colors, no patches , no half grades (if you want to fail me, fail me, but don't give me a half grade - I'm an adult, I can take it). The only reason for the existance of a brown belt between white and black, as far as I know, is so that both whitebelts and blackbelts know who the targets are Seriously now, though, I much prefer this system! Wearing a white belt for the first few years prevents beginners from being able to run around after a year of training saying "I'm an orange belt! I'm in the intermediate class!", or "I'm a greenbelt! That's the fourth color in my system. Only two more colors before black!" The focus isn't on belt color, but rather on ability. We still have kyu grades, but you can't tell them from the uniform. You have to look at the person's technique instead.

Edited September 3, 2004 by Kane

[Kane]

All blackbelts in our dojo wear a black belt, no stripes, no outward indication of rank.

It sometimes amazes me how obsessed our culture is with needing to have a visual representation of our ability. It's like we're not confident in our ability enough to be satisfied with a simple belt.

 

A gi used to be a person's smallclothes, but now there are different kinds of "authentic" uniforms for all martial arts. The belt used to be white for someone who wasn't a black belt, and that was it. Now there are a multitude of colored belts, stripes, half levels, etc, etc.

 

It's all a little ridiculous, but then, I'm not innocent either. It's just very interesting that our society (typically western society) is so obsessed with being able to "prove" our ability by saying "I have a 2nd degree black belt!" or "I'm a purple belt!" or whatever. I don't think the founding fathers of karate ever went around telling people how good they were. They just knew it. And that was enough.

 

Wap

 

I agree, WapCaplet. During the first years of my karate journey I trained in dojos that used the color belt system. Now I train with a group that only uses white, brown and black. No stripes, no rainbown colors, no patches , no half grades (if you want to fail me, fail me, but don't give me a half grade - I'm an adult, I can take it). The only reason for the existance of a brown belt between white and black, as far as I know, is so that both whitebelts and blackbelts know who the targets are Seriously now, though, I much prefer this system! Wearing a white belt for the first few years prevents beginners from being able to run around after a year of training saying "I'm an orange belt! I'm in the intermediate class!", or "I'm a greenbelt! That's the fourth color in my system. Only two more colors before back!" The focus isn't on belt color, but rather on ability. We still have kyu grades, but you can't tell them from the uniform. You have to look at the person's technique instead.

[47MartialMan]

The only Dan in one of the systems that I had studied was a guy named Danny. He hit very hard.

[parkerlineage]

As stated many times by several people here, the stripes really don't matter.

 

My favorite quote that my instructor says when questioned about the various ranks of Dan is...

 

"Colors show, but not what you know."

 

By the way, if 'dan' means man, and is signified in the black belts, and 'kyu' means boy, and is in the brown belts, is a junior black belt such as myself known as a..."Dan-kyu"?

 

"You're welcome."

 

(Insert rim-shot here)

[47MartialMan]

Can a male kyu, become a dan, without getting a dan? Does anyone "give a dan"?

[Coco]

Thanks for the responses. The highest person in my dojo is just a shodan ho, and he still has a year or so till his next belt, so I guess ill wait and see what he gets. Btw, on my style 1st kyu is brown belt with half black, and shodan ho is black belt. My teacher is a 4th dan and its a plain black belt with some japanese writings in both sides, and its very old so its starting to get white from the sides.