Belt Greying

[shotochem]

It's just a fad I hope. Sorta like the frayed gi fad in the 80s.

 

Hey, I resemble that comment.

 

Me and My old gi have been through a lot together.

 

Every little tear, sweat and blood stain is the embodiment of all I have learned and still have to learn.......

[pineapple]

In our system, new students are taught NEVER to wash their belts.

 

Their belts represent their knowledge and washing their belts mean that they're washing their knowledge away.

 

New students often show me that face of "Never wash my belt? Yuck!"

 

I tell them that if their belt is getting a little "funky" that they have to work harder at achieving their next belt.

 

Our black belts NEVER wash their belts so the only extremely frayed belts that I see are the masters and grandmasters. If your belts are extremely frayed just from normal use, it's probably the quality of the belts that you are using. Likelihood is that it is the result of numerous washing.

 

I have rarely seen a extremely frayed belt in the BJJ school that I attended and BJJ takes years to go from one belt to the next and they're constantly rubbing their belts on the mats.

 

If a person intentionally frays his belt then he needs to remind himself to practice humbleness.

[Master Jules]

NEVER WASH YOUR BELT.......PERIOD.

 

Sometimes, you will see youngsters wearing a greyed belt......the most honorable thing is if their teacher has given them one of his/her belts, which is totally acceptable, and it is an honor to receive one of your teacher's belts.....but its a shame that most kids fray and grey their belts by some artificial method......they just dont get the point.....

 

You start out at white belt, work your way up to black and beyond, and as the years go by, the greying of the belt through constant training brings you full circle back to white again.

[Kieran-Lilith]

You never wash your belt, unless you can't tie it because it's so stiff. Sensei said not to. And his belt is turning grey, he says soon enough he'll be a white belt again, and he'll have even more too learn, he says he's never stopped. Sorry if I sound kind of idolistic, it's not normal for me. But Sensei is Sensei, and you never question Sensei's underlings. You can question him sometimes, he's nice.

[scottnshelly]

Thanks everyone.

 

Didn't mean to start another wash-or-don't-wash discussion. Just wondering if anyone on here can justify purposely fraying one's belt.

 

So, from what i've read so far, no one on here has purposely frayed their belt in order to make others think that they have more experience than they actually do, and no one can justify this, right?

[pineapple]

I was once taught that a Sensei's belt lightening in color represents turning back to purity.

 

An INTENTIONAL lightening in color is a far cry from purity. It represents fraud and ego.

[karatekid1975]

IMHO, the only time a belt should be washed, is under two conditions:

 

1) The belt is brand new, and exceptionally stiff, and needs just a bit of breaking in. Some brands, such as Pine Tree, make excellent black belts, but are thick, stiff, and could use a single cycle in a gentle cold wash. This also helps remove excess dye that can come off and permanently embed itself in a gi. If that means that it loses a wee bit of its "blackness," then so be it.

 

or

 

2) The belt has accumulated sweat / dirt, etc., that it's starting to stink.

 

I agree here. I NEVER wash my belts, except if I get a "stiffy" when I first get it. Then I wash it once, then never again after that. UNLESS, it gets a little "funky" But I shower twice a day (one of those is right before class), so I never have a problem with "funk" on my belt.

 

As far as black belts go, I don't know what I would do with it, as far as washing goes. Never had one. It'll probably be the same as above.

 

But if someone purposely freyed their belt, I feel it's disrespect. It's one thing if you trained a long time and it happened to get that way. That means you earned that greying. But to purposely do something like that is not right.

[pineapple]

Just wondering if anyone on here can justify purposely fraying one's belt.

 

Sure, if you're a con artist, have a poor image of yourself, lack confidence, have no moral values, then you should fray your belt and hope that others believe your *.

 

Just joking, there is no justified reason for fraying your belt.

 

Wait a minute, I just thought of a justified reason........It's Halloween and you want to pretend to be what you're not!

[aefibird]

I can't think of any reason why anyone could justify deliberately greying their belt. I feel that it is disrespectful. IMO, instructors should teach their students NOT to do this.

 

As for the wash/not wash question, I gently washed my blackbelt when I first had it because it was so stiff that I couldn't tie it. It's not been washed since as I feel that it hasn't needed to be. When I was a brown belt and had white stripes on my belt I also washed it occasionally, as the white part of the belt used to become dirty.

 

I wash my gi, so I have no problems with also washing my belt. However, I only wash it when I need to.

[solar_kid]

I can see why one might see this practice as disrespectful. I guess I don't see it that way. I just think it's odd, kinda funny, and a bit pretentious.

 

In as much as martial arts can improve one's character, maybe these kids will see things differently as they mature.