Martial arts research

[FangPwnsAll7]

I am doing a research paper for school and I chose the topic of martial arts. I need to research aspects of martial arts such as the styles, types of sparring, famous martial artists, and the martial art belts. Today I looked up information on the karate belts. These are just the colors of my dojo. The following is what I came up with.

White Belt: This signifies a birth or beginning. The white belt is the beginning of life's cycle. It represents the seed as it lies beneath the snow in the winter. Purity is often signified by the color, white.

Yellow Belt: This signifies the first beam of sunlight which shines upon a seed giving it new strength with the beginning of a new life. The yellow belt student is given their first ray of knowledge, opening his mind.

Orange Belt: This signifies that the sun is beginning to rise. The beauty of the sunrise is rather seen than the immense power. An orange belt student sees the meaning of the art, but has not yet experienced the power of the technique.

Green Belt: This signifies the growth of the seed as it sprouts from the earth reaching toward the sun and begins to grow into a plant. A green belt student learns to develop and refine their techniques.

Red Belt: Signifies the red hot heat of the sun as the plant continues growing towards it. A red belt student acquires more detailed knowledge. Just as the plant grows slowly toward the sun, the red belt student learns to be more cautious as their knowledge and physical abilities increase.

Blue Belt: Signifies the blue sky as the plant continues growing towards it. A blue belt student moves up higher in rank like the plant grows taller. The light feeds the plant so it can continue to grow. The student is fed additional knowledge of the art in order for their mind to grow and develop.

Black Belt: A black belt signifies a rebirth, or a new beginning. It is a state of being. It dictates how we conduct ourselves and it is culmination of personal growth that one has achieved through many hours of training and introspection.

Tomorrow we are going to a computer lab, so I'm going to research styles. I was thinking of maybe doing one from each country?

-Tang Soo Do (Korea): Because it's my style and I practice it.

[i was thinking of also researching Tae Kwon Do for this. What do you guys think?]

-Maybe Kung-fu for Chinese style? I don't know why. I just thought it would be interesting and my friend is a black belt in kung fu. Don't they use sashes? I think that is what their called.

I was also thinking of researching another style. What martial art do you practice or what do you think would be interesting to research?

Another topic I need to research is gi/dobok uniforms, and the patches/design.

I just started Tang Soo Do a year ago so I thought I would get some information or help here on other styles from people with more experience.

Thanks!

[ps1]

If you research far enough you'll learn that the belt system was developed in Judo by Jigoro Kano. Prior to him, there were no belts in any martial art. The colors chosen by various systems over the years could have meaning, but initially there was white and black.

Good luck in your studies! Let us know if you have any questions. There is a plethora of knowledge on this forum if you simply ask.

[JusticeZero]

Right, and furthermore, it was invented just so that when visiting unfamiliar schools, that he would be able to know who he could suddenly grab and demonstrate a hard throw on, and who was new and thus wouldn't know how to fall well. Nothing mystical.

Capoeira uses colored ropes, and was introduced as part of Regional as an open attempt to ape the Asian martial arts; most cord systems i've seen are based on the colors of the Brazilian flag.

[Wastelander]

In my opinion, the belt system really isn't all that interesting--as PS1 and JusticeZero explained, it was created by the founder of judo as a simple way of signifying who you could ask questions and who could be used for demonstrations. Personally, I think it would be better for you to study the development of your martial art--who taught who, what martial arts did they study, where did those arts come from, etc. Tang Soo Do is an art made up of Shotokan karate (so you have a LONG history to dig into regarding the karate roots of your style, if you wanted), Chinese martial arts and Korean martial arts, so you have plenty of material to choose from.

If you wanted to do your report specifically on another style, I recommend choosing one that is related to the development of your art, just so you can have that piece of the puzzle for later

[robert01]

Generally many martial artist and MMA aspirants wish to start a occupation as an teacher and dream of coping with or even having their own college in the future.

[kensei]

Fang,

Avoid the belt thing...it comes across as flowery stuff to most non-martial artis types, unless you want to go into the idea of a belt system and that it stated with Judo founder ext and so on....but again, its kind of fluff stuff.

I however love history and the history of TSD is kind of interesting and sheds light on lots of hidden little truths that were mixed up or hidden by the Korean governement and founders. Its a interesting thing and you can even go into how Chuck Norris, Movie star and American hero (Stop laughing ) is a TSD black belt that started his own off shoot.

The potential for a really interesting and educational paper is in that my friend. I would skip the whole belt thing because each style has a idea behind the belts and reasons often affect the view of them....like we dont have a blue belt but I sure as hey would not say to someone...I am a blue belt it signifies the blue sky

TSD is a great martial art and has a interesting and fun traditional history and true history...dig their I think and good luck!

[Kusotare]

If you research far enough you'll learn that the belt system was developed in Judo by Jigoro Kano. Prior to him, there were no belts in any martial art. The colors chosen by various systems over the years could have meaning, but initially there was white and black.

Good luck in your studies! Let us know if you have any questions. There is a plethora of knowledge on this forum if you simply ask.

Kyu and Dan grades (Mudansha and Yudansha) were developed for the Japanese board game "go" in the 17th century and, whilst it's true to say that Kano adopted a similar hierarchy for judo, in fact it is a myth that Kano invented the coloured kyu belt system!

Those were developed at the London Budokwai by its Judo sensei and founder Gunji Koizumi (circa 1927) and later adopted by the Japanese and subsequently other gendai (Modern) martial systems.

Hope that helps with your research.

K.

[Harkon72]

Belt systems can be seen as the invention of modern Martial Arts, in older systems they were not needed. As Mr. Mayagi says "Belt mean no need rope pull up pants!"

[ps1]

If you research far enough you'll learn that the belt system was developed in Judo by Jigoro Kano. Prior to him, there were no belts in any martial art. The colors chosen by various systems over the years could have meaning, but initially there was white and black.

Good luck in your studies! Let us know if you have any questions. There is a plethora of knowledge on this forum if you simply ask.

Kyu and Dan grades (Mudansha and Yudansha) were developed for the Japanese board game "go" in the 17th century and, whilst it's true to say that Kano adopted a similar hierarchy for judo, in fact it is a myth that Kano invented the coloured kyu belt system!

Those were developed at the London Budokwai by its Judo sensei and founder Gunji Koizumi (circa 1927) and later adopted by the Japanese and subsequently other gendai (Modern) martial systems.

Hope that helps with your research.

K.

It's difficult to find good documentation on this. Everything I've read says Kano used white and black belts (though not the type we think of today) to separate his students. Additionally, I've read that Koizumi is credited with adding in additional colors while teaching in Paris in 1935.

Regardless, the various rainbow of colors was most certainly not a product of Kano.

Have you read anything about what colors Koizumi selected and why he chose those particular colors?

[Lupin1]

I think that's an amazing topic! Research is always so much easier when it's on something you're interested in and that has personal meaning to you. As a school librarian, I always see kids pick topics they have no interest in and then complain the entire way through the research. Way to go in picking such a great topic for yourself!

If the belts are what interest you, I'd say go for it. You probably won't even need to add to it. Keeping your focus smaller will allow you to get better detail, and there's more than enough for a research paper just in belts. There's a lot of history there. I find the history of the belt system even just within my small program to be fascinating. We started off in the 70s with just five belts and added levels slowly over the years. Now for the kids we've got nine belts with 13 different levels. Hearing the reasoning behind it and how it affects things like student motivation and retention is extremely interesting to me.

You won't find the deep, spiritual history some people expect when first looking into this (a lot of the myths that surround karate belts are just that-- myths), but if you appreciate learning the REAL story behind things, you won't be bored. And if you have to give a presentation, you'll have a unique topic that I bet will hold the interest of your audience and teach them all many things they don't know.

Awesome topic!