Belt question

[HunterCS]

Ok I'm a bit confused, I was in Karate several years ago but I was forced to get out. I've continued training and studying on my own since then. Anyways now I'd like to commimerate my karate training by picking up a new belt that's actually my size.

Now I earned a blue belt in my previous training. And I remembered the order being:

white

yellow

orange

green

blue

purple

red

brown

black

Although the site that I'd like to buy off of seems to have a different order

http://www.karatesupply.com/Solid-Rank-Martial-Arts-Belts_p_67-544.html

Is this correct, have things changed since I last studied. And if so, what belt would I have essentially earned?

[cross]

The best system varies alot from style to style. Go with what you recall from your training.

[G95champ]

Belt color is nothing but a way for a school to set apart peopel at differant areas of their training. There is no right or wrong order.

A general rule of thumb is to go from light color belts to darker color belts. Red is the odd ball that may fall anywhere.

[Montana]

Red is the odd ball that may fall anywhere.

True. Red in some systems is the equilivant of brown (or just before black belt) in other systems. In my own particular system, and I believe the majority of Okinawan/Japanese systems, a solid red belt denotes the head of the system. Only one person can wear it (legally).

[G95champ]

Yeah and I have also seen red in the very low ranks where most place a Gold or Orange Belt.

We changed our second purple to red several years ago just ot have another color belt for the class. However as you said many use it as a pre black belt rank or a rank set aside ofr a Master.

[bushido_man96]

Different systems do things different ways. The site probably showed just a general guideline. Go with what you remember.

[paininneck18]

So it doesn't matter what color you are then. I always thought it showed where you where in rank

[G95champ]

No color don't matter.

The color belts were added by Kano and Funkakoshi to show the differant stages of training but in most styles you have white and black. Sometimes it is even the same belt just gets really dirty lol.

But you may have 2 TKD schools or 2 Shotokan schools or 2 TSD schools etc in the same org. or assoc. and they have differant belt color systems.

There is no right or wrong answer but like I said above a general rule is to go from light to dark.

[AikiGuy]

So it doesn't matter what color you are then. I always thought it showed where you where in rank

It does matter and it does indicate where you are in rank. But it is specific to a certain school's ranking system. It's like saying a general (army) and an admiral (navy) are the same rank level. Even though they are in separate branches, they are the same number of levels from the bottom so they are equal.

That's why some people refer to their "kyu" or "grade" level instead. These are numerical values so they are generic. In my style, green belt is 6th kyu. I once knew someone who wore a purple belt and said in his school, that was 6th kyu. So the two are equal. (Purple would be 4th kyu at my school.) So your "kyu" is universal. But your color is specific to a school or style, so it may or may not be the same kyu level at another dojo. Hope this makes sense.

Edited August 17, 2007 by AikiGuy

[Azmyth]

it does..

but there is no "right or wrong" system of ranking.

I have seen schools with camoflauge belts..

for example.. in tkd.. in my old system.. green belts would be on dosan form..

in another system.. people doing the same form, were purple belt..

it just depends on the school.