Embroidered black belts

[Brandon Fisher]

In my organization when you recieve a black belt you wear it until it wears out, so why not spend the extra money on a good one and embroider it. I get all new black belts a brand new shureido black belt from Okinawa, membership to USKA and give them a 11x17 certificate all out of the $200 testing fee. Well after all that there is not much left. Except a lot of pride in them for achieving shodan and their pride for their work.

[pers]

It never crossed my mind and I never paid much attention .I was too busy learning and training karate cause at the end of the day that is what it's all about ,belt is not going to help much outside when in trouble

I really don't see the logic in this way of thinking. Are you trying to say that if you have a belt that looks nice, you haven't trained hard?? It sometimes seems that people say what they think they should be saying to appear humble rather than what they actually think. I'm not saying that's the case in this post, but it does happen.

As far as I'm concerned, you have to wear the belt anyway (weather it's just to hold your gi together, or to mark grade), so what does it matter if you want it to look nice?? That doesn't take away from the training you have done, and it certainly doesn't mean that you haven't been busy training!

No ! I am not sayin if you have a nice looking belt it means you have not train hard ! I can't see how you reached that conclusion !

what I a was trying to say is it is more important to concentrate on traninig and perfecting one's karate as there is so much involved .

I have had one belt since my shodan 15 years ago and yes it looks nice to me and I am not planning on buying another one .

I am proud of my karate status and grade but I am not the type to go and shout about it but I have nothing against those who do ,but obviously here on a forum is not possible to show if I am really humble or as you said pretending to be one !

My point in my first reply was there is so much to learn and try to improve in karate which should be the main object ,a nice looking belt and expensive gi's should not matter that much ,this is the philosephy I try to encourage among karate poeple . My objection is with those karate associations with selfclaimed 8,9,10th dan instructers who have brought down the standards of karate and gave it a bad name ! they all have flashy certificates and belts ,all for marketing and business and EGO purposes! Sorry if my post was misunderstood .

[Shotokan-kez]

Thank you Jiffy and Brandon thats exactly what i was thinking, it's nice you understand what i was getting at. I have worked so hard, and i have seen the dan gradings in our club and if i pass mine then it will be with pride. I mean now wearing my brown and two stripes is an amazing acheivement to me and if i could i would enbroider that too

I spoke to another instructor the other night about having sensei's name on my belt and he thinks it's a really nice idea and gesture, but he also said mention it to sensei first before going ahead and doing it, which is what i was going to do first anyway. I am going to have a brilliant black belt and i will wear it with pride, that won't stop me from training hard though, that'll never happen!

[bushido_man96]

In my organization when you recieve a black belt you wear it until it wears out, so why not spend the extra money on a good one and embroider it. I get all new black belts a brand new shureido black belt from Okinawa, membership to USKA and give them a 11x17 certificate all out of the $200 testing fee. Well after all that there is not much left. Except a lot of pride in them for achieving shodan and their pride for their work.

That is really cool, Brandon. A very nice gesture on your part.

[Brandon Fisher]

Black belt is a milestone it should be celebrated but also the person must be humble to be able to continue training.

[bushido_man96]

Black belt is a milestone it should be celebrated but also the person must be humble to be able to continue training.

Yeah, I just wish my 3rd dan wouldn't be an $800 milestone!

[Brandon Fisher]

Black belt is a milestone it should be celebrated but also the person must be humble to be able to continue training.

Yeah, I just wish my 3rd dan wouldn't be an $800 milestone!

Ouch $800 I am sorry that seems absolutely crazy. I have not ever charged a testing fee over 1st dan. But if I did it would be minimal.

[bushido_man96]

Black belt is a milestone it should be celebrated but also the person must be humble to be able to continue training.

Yeah, I just wish my 3rd dan wouldn't be an $800 milestone!

Ouch $800 I am sorry that seems absolutely crazy. I have not ever charged a testing fee over 1st dan. But if I did it would be minimal.

Yeah, I think it is crazy, too. It really makes me kind of sick.

[Shotokan-kez]

Brian why not go get your 3rd dan with Brandon lol.

Yeah i agree with your statement Brandon...about being humble to be able training.

[Elky]

I haven't read all the pages so maybe someone's asked this already: is your sensei Japanese? If not, how worthwhile is it to get his name spelt out phonetically in kanji? Seems a little, I dunno, strange!

If he's called (e.g.) Hirokazu Kanazawa, then fair enough there'll be a set japanese way of writing his name. If he's called Malcolm Jones or something, you're just gonna end up with some meaningless transliteration like "Marukomu Josu" which isn't his name or anything with any real meaning.