05/03/2025
Someone asked me recently about why I award different colored belts to students as they progress. Part of the reason is so that everyone knows what the students have learned so far, and what they need to learn next. When I began training (1960's) there were 8 Kyu ranks. 8th and 7th Kyu students wore white belts. 6th 5th and 4th Kyu wore green belts. 3rd 2nd and 1st Kyu wore Brown belts. Shodan students and higher wore Black Belts. I haven't changed it much. I added another White belt rank for 9th Kyu to encourage beginning students, especially children to stick with the training. My 8th Kyu students wear a Gold Belt. 7th Kyu wear an Orange Belt. These are all beginning ranks. My intermediate ranked students go from Blue belt to Green and then to Purple belt by the time they have their 4th Kyu. 3rd, 2nd and 1st Kyu students wear a Brown belt. I do award 1st Kyu students a new belt that has a black stripe running through the length of the belt. I award this belt for two reasons. The first is that young students have often outgrown the Brown belt they were initially awarded at 3rd Kyu before they achieve 1st Kyu, because it takes a while. The second reason is that over the years I've often been able to qualify gifted students to begin teaching before they achieve their Black Belt. The Black stripe through a 1st Kyu Brown belt adds an image of qualification, because Shodan Black Belt will be their next rank.
I used to work as a psychologist and I recognized that the different colored belts made it easier for my students to recognize when a goal had been achieved, and clearly defined what the next goal is.
I've only promoted around 160 students to Black Belt during the last 45 years I've been teaching in Florida, and only 10 of them are currently training with me at the moment. Many have moved away over the years, but some of those have continued to train themselves. Florida is very transient. Others stopped training during Covid and haven't yet returned to the Dojo. Some others, sadly have passed away, but it's been my pleasure to teach them all during the time that they were able to walk this path with me.
