Karate Belt

[Jesi Boy]

Hello Karate Forums!

I see a lot of people tying there belts with elastic bands nowadays, so that it does not come undone.

This is not so important for training, but for competition, as you get disqualified if your belt falls off.

It is also good, as you can have your belt stay in a nice loose knot, not some small and tight one.

The only problem is, I don't know how to do this!

I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how to tie a knot with an elastic band.

Cheers!

- Jesi Boy

[Wastelander]

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a big trick to this--you tie the belt in a normal knot, and then you just hold the ends together, slide the elastic band up to the knot, and secure it behind where the ends come out of the knot. Now, since I don't compete I have never done this, and nobody in my dojo does this, but I've seen it done by WKF people. I just tie my belt tight enough to stay put, personally.

[sensei8]

To be frank and honest, I've never ever heard of this. Is this a current trend/fad among today's competitors??

I'm with Wastelander in that all I've ever done was make the knot tight enough to not worry about it coming loose and falling off from my waist.

Is there a special band or is it just a rubber band that I'd use to fasten things up with or is it a hair band??

Then I found this...

https://www.kyokushinworldshop.com/us/full-contact-karate-5652254/belts/knot-straps/

Why not?!

[MatsuShinshii]

Hello Karate Forums!

I see a lot of people tying there belts with elastic bands nowadays, so that it does not come undone.

This is not so important for training, but for competition, as you get disqualified if your belt falls off.

It is also good, as you can have your belt stay in a nice loose knot, not some small and tight one.

The only problem is, I don't know how to do this!

I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how to tie a knot with an elastic band.

Cheers!

- Jesi Boy

Wow I'm getting old. I have no idea what you are talking about. Wear the belt long enough to get the newness (stiffness) out of it and it will hold in place when you cinch it tight. It starts to lose it's rigidity and will compress when cinched. This alone will keep your belt tight.

Elastic bands to keep your belt on? Wow I'm getting old.

[Wastelander]

The elastic band he is talking about is just a hair tie of the same color as the belt--for most people who do this, it's red or blue for WKF competition. They seem to like having extra thick, stiff belts in that circuit, so breaking in the belt and cinching it tight doesn't seem to be all that popular.

[Alan Armstrong]

In Shotokan the belt starts off white, then dyed yellow in boiling water, then again dyed for orange, in boiling water, then green... brown..each time it is dyed a darker color, till black is achieved; the fabric will loose its stiffness with all the boiling and dying, easier to tie with time.

As opposed to buying and wearing pre colored belts each time reaching a higher level, the stiffness could always be an issue and difficult to stay tied up.

A way to loosen up the belt fabric and oneself is to use it as a stretching out aid before and after class.

[Nidan Melbourne]

I've never seen belts tied with Elastic Bands before. I compete in AKF Tournaments, and seen god knows how many people changing their belts regularly after rounds.

For Kumite; i can understand why due to the nature of combat.

For Kata; it shouldn't be as necessary to have one.

Personally why even wear it if your not going to tie it properly? And then also have to rely on something else to keep it tied up.

[MatsuShinshii]

In Shotokan the belt starts off white, then dyed yellow in boiling water, then again dyed for orange, in boiling water, then green... brown..each time it is dyed a darker color, till black is achieved; the fabric will loose its stiffness with all the boiling and dying, easier to tie with time.

As opposed to buying and wearing pre colored belts each time reaching a higher level, the stiffness could always be an issue and difficult to stay tied up.

A way to loosen up the belt fabric and oneself is to use it as a stretching out aid before and after class.

I heard this when I was a kid but did not know that anyone ever did this practice of dying your belt.

Personally if your training regularly (every day for at least two hours) and work up a sweat and continue to tie (break down the fibers) the belt, it doesn't really take long for the belt to cinch.

[nyramat911]

I'm a bit of a late-comer to this conversation, but I'll throw my two cents anyway.

Noah, you're correct in that it's much more common in WKF style tournaments where thicker red and blue belts (such as Shureido and Tokaido brands) are favoured, and that it's just a regular hair tie which matches the belt colour. I know some people who have these brands of black belts in the dojo and do the same- the belt is just too thick to stay in a knot properly when it's new.

However, the trick is to put on the hair tie before the final stage of the knot, so you can feed the ends of the belt through, thus ensuring the ends stay in place. Alternatively, you can put the hair tie on middle of the belt so there's no chance of it falling off, but still feed the ends though in the last step.

Jesi boy I've never seen anyone do this because they wanted a loose knot, only because their belt is too thick to maintain a small, tight one. It's quite rare to see this in the dojo, even for black belts- generally you're training so much that the belt loses its stiffness pretty quickly. The issue with competition belts is exactly that- they're for competition. In class one usually wears their rank belt, not a competition belt, so it's the rank belt which gets worn out.

Liam, I haven't competed for a few years, but higher level competitors in AKF tournaments often did this, particularly when it became trendy to use the thicker belts for kata. The thick-belt trend didn't continue into kumite, so this behaviour wasn't observed there nearly as much.

[OneKickWonder]

This is the first I've heard of it.

I can see how it could be useful for young kids, who can't tie their belts yet. But adults? Is this really a thing?