How many belts should there be?

[chiliphil1]

Six.

No Belt: Just started. Still learning the basic fundamentals. If you ask them to do (insert basic bread and butter technique here) , say reverse punch or front kick, expect to be looked at in confusion.

Green Belt: Knows the basics. Typical student.

Yellow Belt: Advanced student. Can be thrown around the room forcefully or have other intense things demoed on them and will deal with it gracefully.

Blue belt: Instructor. Quakified to teach.

White belt: Instructor.. of the class you are in. only one of these in a room at once.

Brown belt: Visitor. Green or higher, but in a different style. Expect them to move wierd.

So white belt would be the highest rank? Interesting.

My school followed the chun kuk do method of belts which is

White, yellow, purple, orange, blue, 6th green, 5th green, 4th brown, 3rd brown, 2nd red, 1st red. Then 11 levels of Dan ranks.

I always felt that the difference between the 2 greens, Browns, and reds was negligible and it really should have been just one of beach color. There was a testing fee between each rank, however between testing you had to earn 4 colored stripes, one for each area of discipline on the test, once you had all 4,that meant you were ready to test, but there was no fee for the colored stripes, only the actual rank promotion.

[JusticeZero]

So white belt would be the highest rank? Interesting.

That's traditional, yeah. I'm just keeping the normal cord sequence for the most part here.

[chiliphil1]

So white belt would be the highest rank? Interesting.

That's traditional, yeah. I'm just keeping the normal cord sequence for the most part here.

Sorry, I'm not as versed in ma history as I should be, I only asked that because in most styles including mine it all starts at white, and I think these days white is universally known as the "beginer" belt.

[Harkon72]

In our style there are 8 Kyu grades, then Shodan. I know of clubs where there can be as many as 12! This I think is to generate more money by making your students pay for gradings.

[Dobbersky]

In our style there are 8 Kyu grades, then Shodan. I know of clubs where there can be as many as 12! This I think is to generate more money by making your students pay for gradings.

Choi Kwang Do has 18, yes 18 grades, before black belt

http://harrowckd.com/BeltSystem.htm

[Harkon72]

Wow! Their syllabus must be massive! I pity the Dan grades taking their test!!!

[SamsIAmz]

So white belt would be the highest rank? Interesting.

That's traditional, yeah. I'm just keeping the normal cord sequence for the most part here.

I was a little confused at first, before I realized you were referencing a typical sequence in capoeira. The capoeira school I come from does the following:

- no belt

- Green

- Green with a little yellow

- Half green/yellow

- yellow with a little green

- yellow

- yellow with a little blue

- half yellow/blue

- blue with a little yellow

- blue

- blue, green, yellow

and then it goes into contra mestre ranks and mestre ranks. I'm still a beginner in capoeira with green, so I don't fully understand the ranking system. It always confused me a little when people visit from elsewhere and they'll have a green belt but called an instructor. I've seen people buy out instructor in the Roda because they didn't realize they had a different belt system than us.

[DoctorQui]

So white belt would be the highest rank? Interesting.

That's traditional, yeah. I'm just keeping the normal cord sequence for the most part here.

I was a little confused at first, before I realized you were referencing a typical sequence in capoeira. The capoeira school I come from does the following:

- no belt

- Green

- Green with a little yellow

- Half green/yellow

- yellow with a little green

- yellow

- yellow with a little blue

- half yellow/blue

- blue with a little yellow

- blue

- blue, green, yellow

and then it goes into contra mestre ranks and mestre ranks. I'm still a beginner in capoeira with green, so I don't fully understand the ranking system. It always confused me a little when people visit from elsewhere and they'll have a green belt but called an instructor. I've seen people buy out instructor in the Roda because they didn't realize they had a different belt system than us.

I got headache just reading that without seeing the mishmash of Blue, Green and Yellow!

[SamsIAmz]

Its easier to see because its a cord so it kinda works nicely in the end.

This is sorta what I'm talking about though these pictures don't quite do it justice. Also there are many capoeira schools out there which use different ranking systems, just like any martial art.

http://www.capoeiramartins.com.br/cordeis/cordeis.jpg

The karate school I come from we do the following. I am not an instructor responsible for grading, so I've never had too many conversations about the unwritten requirements for each belt, but I have some of my own hypotheses:

- No belt/beginner: really doesn't know anything as far as techniques go. Still learning basic stances, blocks, kicks, punches

- White belt: starts learning kata and self-defense techniques, plus more blocks. Growing in confidence and opening up to learning experience.

- Yellow belt: learns more complex kata, and more blocks and self defense techniques: Working toward sense of awareness

- Orange belt: Same as above: more kata, blocks, self defense. Working toward developing power and losing some tension.

- Green: Not entirely sure what makes a green belt into a purple belt, but overall improvement. More precise technique, gaining control over power. Working to prevent flailing about.

- Purple belt: Techniques getting more interesting at this point. Techniques should be precise by the time they reach brown belt.

- Brown belt: "picture perfect" technique. Quite competent at this point.

Black belt: Has found the spirit in their technique. Has an indomitable spirit and won't ever give up. Starting to grasp the deeper aspects of the art.

And that's where I end. I'm currently working towards second degree black belt which I personally feel is truly about making the art your own. It's said the process of reaching shodan is "cutting the cloth" and I feel that getting to nidan is about putting it back together again in the way that fits you.

[JusticeZero]

I got headache just reading that without seeing the mishmash of Blue, Green and Yellow!

The cords are made as ropes; different colors are strands that are wound or braided together as part of the final rope. For a yellow/green cord, one would make an even number of thinner cords of yellow and green, then coil or braid those together to make the cord itself.

The colors originate from the colors of the Brazilian flag, which is a green field with a gold diamond inside of it, which contains in its center a blue globe, which is decorated with white stars and a white belt around the globe. Hence, the general progression of green>yellow>blue>white in many schools, particularly as Capoeira was legalized as part of a nationalist project.