Jump to content
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt

Breaking in your belt


Recommended Posts

wash and dry it a time or two and it will be fine

The past is no more; the future is yet to come. Nothing exist except for the here and now. Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what's clearly is clearly at hand...Lets continue to train!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • Replies 29
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

None of you should be washing your belts. EVER. Or throwing them in the dryer. Want to break it in? Do a couple hundred pushups a day for six months. That, with your regular training and it will break in just fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

*shrugs* I don't see any trouble with washing a belt, personally. The color thing seems more philosophical than anything, and is a pretty recent tradition in any case. A frayed belt doesn't imply wisdom to me, it implies poor care.

Then again, I don't even wear my cord...

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." - Baleia

Link to comment
Share on other sites

*shrugs* I don't see any trouble with washing a belt, personally. The color thing seems more philosophical than anything, and is a pretty recent tradition in any case. A frayed belt doesn't imply wisdom to me, it implies poor care.

Then again, I don't even wear my cord...

its not because of poor care. the belt will eventually become frayed no matter the care. especially in Judo. or other grappling martial art where there is ground fighting involved.

You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent. -Henri Ducard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of it and try to keep it in good condition. There's no special honor associated with a shredded and stained uniform piece.

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." - Baleia

Link to comment
Share on other sites

None of you should be washing your belts. EVER. Or throwing them in the dryer. Want to break it in? Do a couple hundred pushups a day for six months. That, with your regular training and it will break in just fine.

I agree never wash your belt.Mine took over a year of blood and sweat and is just now starting to break in . :brow: :karate:

Semper Fi , Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me the point of breaking in a belt is not so I can look cool and like I've had it for a long time, but for simple practicality. Usually we recycle colored belts and you can get a used one, but for one of my colored belts there were no used ones available in my size. The new one was so stiff that I literally had to keep on retying it throughout the class -- like every minute or so! This got really frustrating, so here's what I did. I took it home and tied up up in a ball of knots, then soaked it overnight in cold water, then let it air dry. (This required some preplanning, as it took a couple of days to dry.) This helped a lot, and then I did it again the next week when I had a few days between classes. Then it was nice and soft, and stayed tied throughout the class!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't remember whether it was on this forum that I mentioned this before, but a good way to overcome the problems that "wearing in" a new belt sometimes brings, is to tuck the ends back under the waist of the belt.

In fact it was originally the way that belts were tied apparently ;)

The "hangy down ends" as a way to tie your belt was invented by the young bucks of the Japanese Universities that had Karate clubs, such as the Tokai and Nichidai as I understand it... seems that students were rebels back then also.

If you look at some early photos of the likes of Funakoshi and Mabuni for example, this is the way they seem to tie their belts for training at least.

It does help stop it from coming undone, also stops the belt ends from flapping around.

WNM

"A lot of people never use their initiative.... because no-one told them to" - Banksy


https://www.banksy.co.uk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure how to post multiple quotes yet, so I copied and pasted the following two, which I thought were fantastic!

"To me the point of breaking in a belt is not so I can look cool and like I've had it for a long time, but for simple practicality. Usually we recycle colored belts and you can get a used one, but for one of my colored belts there were no used ones available in my size. The new one was so stiff that I literally had to keep on retying it throughout the class -- like every minute or so! This got really frustrating, so here's what I did. I took it home and tied up up in a ball of knots, then soaked it overnight in cold water, then let it air dry. (This required some preplanning, as it took a couple of days to dry.) This helped a lot, and then I did it again the next week when I had a few days between classes. Then it was nice and soft, and stayed tied throughout the class!"

What a great idea that is! Nicely done, brother.

The second one was -

"Can't remember whether it was on this forum that I mentioned this before, but a good way to overcome the problems that "wearing in" a new belt sometimes brings, is to tuck the ends back under the waist of the belt.

In fact it was originally the way that belts were tied apparently

The "hangy down ends" as a way to tie your belt was invented by the young bucks of the Japanese Universities that had Karate clubs, such as the Tokai and Nichidai as I understand it... seems that students were rebels back then also.

If you look at some early photos of the likes of Funakoshi and Mabuni for example, this is the way they seem to tie their belts for training at least.

It does help stop it from coming undone, also stops the belt ends from flapping around."

Outstanding. Thanks for pointing this out to me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

None of you should be washing your belts. EVER. Or throwing them in the dryer. Want to break it in? Do a couple hundred pushups a day for six months. That, with your regular training and it will break in just fine.

Washing belts isn't a very big deal, really. Here is a good article on the "not washing belts" condundrum: http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2005/09/09/urban-legends-of-karate-belts/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...