12:36 to 13:06 I think this is a pretty good way of explaining just how overwhelming and “strange” processing BJJ can be. As well as why my dumbass is never getting past 1 stripe White Belt
You're a joke if you think LMNT is safe to drink, 1000 mg??? thats the equal of a hole meal, you're only suppose to have near around 2000 sodium and this drink offers 1000, you're insane.
I love how you said the black is the beginning! That's how I was taught as well. They always said White to Red you focus on learning to control your body. Then once you get black it's when you begin to learn to control your opponents body.
I was a kid in the 1970s. Back then, we knew two things as absolute Gospel truth: 1. if you drank pop rocks and Coca-Cola at the same time your stomach would explode 2. if you got a black belt in Karate, you had to register your hands as deadly weapons So, there is no contest. Karate black belt. Kid logic wins every time.
go do it, buy some knee protectors, consider groin protector as well. Wear a tshirt under the gi so you dont get your armpits scratched and sore as much. While injuries happen often to beginners (since they are too tense and dont know how to trip someone using their feet so they damage their toes and often rip toenails) the curriculum is usually beginner friendly. For the first 3-6 months when you work towards your white belt exam you mostly do falls and learn to do things while relaxed, stretch your back and for the exam you barely need to do throws, mostly it's just showing ~4 holds on the ground. Then you work towards your yellow belt, doing first 8 basic throws and trips and modifications to the holds you learned (kuzure versions). You start to do more sparrings than beginners so you learn to apply those throws you're learning and on the ground you already know 4 endgoals (first 4 holds) to work towards. In my dojo you also do the stuff other ranks are doing, even if chances you do them correctly is pretty low. And you spar against black belts so you get the feeling of the skill needed to be one firsthand. Very humbling stuff. I've been doing judo for 7 months now (I'm mostly focused on boxing and taekwondo) and what it did for me is- it made me more grounded despite a higher stance than in say shotokan karate, it made me more relaxed in sparring (applies to boxing too) allowing me to fight longer, it starts to add more explosiveness/acceleration to all my techniques (at least in boxing, it's likely gonna take long before my kicks get the same boost) since judo has the most "from relaxed-to-max" acceleration in all martial arts. It made my boxing guard and arms in general more stable and it made me more body aware when on the ground. Also going back to balance for a second- it makes me wobble less while doing boxing weaving stuff. Pretty cool benefits overall. I don't see myself going for a black belt, but orange or green or maybe even blue belt seems like good goals to have. But now I focus on my next month's yellow belt exam
just wanted to let you know - Im one of those people who got their judo black bet the traditional way (beating other black belts). Im the wrong side of middle aged now - fighting days well behind me, but I got it at age 12 - after beating adult and near adult high belts including black belts. To be fair i was also 6'2 and about 14 stone at 12, and had to retest formally at I think age 17 to prove it was valid as an adult. my specific style was the sport version practiced at olympics - I believe it was called MCC Judo back then, name may have changed since. Any ways just wanted to say there are few of us traditional method black belts still kicking around ;)
I do believe there is a cultural difference in the concept of black belt in BJJ. As you heard, every art likes to say that black belt is the beginning, or it means you have the basics down. But BJJ at some point in the past decided the black belt should be a level of mastery, and that's really why it takes so much longer. Most people will compare the time, effort, and skill involved to get a BJJ black belt to be like getting 2nd or 3rd dan in Judo. While a lot of BJJ black belts import the idea that it's a beginning, it's really not as true as it is for other arts.
I could be completely bias, but even before I did BJJ I thought it was so weird that kids at school who were doing karate for like 3 years were black belts. As a FIGHTING art I really think a black belt should be able to defeat 99% of a population (given a fair size gap I guess, lets say if you're a kid you should be able to beat 99% of kids as a black belt.)
I like BJJ’s approach to black belts not even being an option for kids. Until you turn 16 can you even get your blue belt. Regardless of training 10 years by the age of 16. I like this because 10 years of training from 6-16 is very different from 10 years of training from 16-26.
I started with Judo (in Germany) and later joined the Karate division of my club, too. In both sports black belt actually meant that you are very good at your sport and know how to properly execute all the techniques. Starting from blue belt (in Judo Germany it‘s the 2nd kyu - 9th kyu being the white belt; in Shotokan Karate where I trained blue was 5th and 4th kyu with white being 10th kyu) you were allowed to take extra classes to become an instructor. In these classes you learn about the body, how to avoid injuries, how to set up a proper training routines with warm up and cool downs and all that stuff. You needed to be at least 16 years old. Judo also had an age restriction from blue belt up because of the techniques you are supposed to perform, that could be very dangerous if executed wrongly. I‘m not so sure about age restrictions in Karate, but I think there were some for black belt for similar reasons. This being said: yeah, black belt definitely meant you are advanced and could potentially knock out random people. So I‘m actually very confused about the „black belt is just the beginning“-sentiment. I mean, we do say that, too. But that’s meant more in a philosophical - becoming a better human being/ perfecting every technique - kind of meaning.
@@missis_joThe black belt being the beginning is more of a traditional sentiment, being in that you are now fully competent, and know your way around rather than necessarily being a master of your art. In Japan they traditionally only had a white belt and a black belt to represent this. In Judo they have a brown belt, but getting a black belt in Judo at the Kodokan is, from what I've heard at least, not as big an achievement as getting a black belt in other countries as they still generally still adhere to this philosophy of 1st Dan black belt being a "fully competent beginner".
@@cuzza4321 BJJ BB here and I completely agree. BJJ is a fighting art and I believe you should be able to prove it. Any art that doesn't make you prove it is one that is actively moving further and further from efficacy. Kids can't really prove it which is why they don't get high belts.
For taekwondo it’s important to recognize that Kukkiwon standards separate children’s black belts from those of adults. An adult earns a Dan while a child is awarded a Poom, these are separate rankings. Additionally while there are other tkd organizations other than the kukkiwon’s World Teakwondo Federation many “taekwondo” schools are not associated with any, and thus have no enforced standard or curriculum. The Kukkiwon its self does not bother much with color belt standardization it is really focused on Poom and Dan certification as the black belt is seen as a beginner. My master would say that only once you gained your black belt would really start learning taekwondo.
Years ago when I was a coach (all mostly forgotten now) we had additional stripes that we had for the younger children. They represented certain aspects (kicks, sparing, self defence), but the most easily lost was the one for respect.
For my Shodan In Judo, I started help teach classes at brown belt. Writing my own lesson plans and teach them . Help teach classes, demonstrate skills ect at our national camp in front of a national board and finally sparing after than a gauntlet going from white belt up to my head coach who is an 8th Dan. This was over the course of almost 4 years as a brown belt.
it's important to remember that the rank system depends on the organization for Judo. for example, here in Brazil it goes: white; blue; yellow; orange, green; purple; brown; black and so on. but you need to be at least 16 for the black belt and there's a minimum time for each belt. while in Japan it's common to get a black belt at around 15 and many people go straight from white to black, like in the old days. it may seem early because we westerners see the black belt as this crazy rank, but in Japan that's just the beginning, it's like graduating from high school.
I agree with that sentiment. I began my training at 16 in 1975. After a couple months I foolishly asked my teacher when could I spar? (I had some misinformation in my head, and my teacher was from the old school. A Shotokan teacher. Nishiyama and Nakayama were his teachers.) He responded forcefully that no sparring before black belt. Being an undisciplined teenager I pushed my luck and asked when I might earn my black belt? His reply was thundered through the class room; "Not before ten years!" After hard core training. Three hour classes three times a week,. A year went by and he tested us for white belt! May he rest in peace. I began training Chinese boxing in 1980 and I earned my black belt instructors certification in 2000, and became a lineage holder. Today my motto is; "Ten years to Black Belt. A lifetime to mastery." Skill is all that matters. All the best. Laoshr #60 Ching Yi Kung Fu Association
This is super interesting. I’ve got 3 black belts: I got my TKD black belt at 18, got a 6th dan in karate (Pukang tang soo do) after 20+ yrs in the MSU karate club, and a 1st degree black belt in BJJ (Combat Base/Magic BJJ), which is what I currently train (I’m almost 52, so I’ve been at this stuff for a bit, lol). I found the difference in requirements and public perception fascinating. This was a well done video that paid respect to all the arts covered. Great work!
I started my journey in 1974 beginning with Japanese Jujutsu first then Kempo karate here in Tokyo,Japan. Achieved black belt in 1984(age 14) for both, and up to 6th degree in both(2002) before I switched to MMA(Boxing/Muay Thai/Wrestling/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu-mixed) since then. It’s been a long ride,I’ll be 54 in May
@@jonathancharles3719 Thanks,no congratulations needed,I find it refreshing to not have a belt/rank in MMA..Just put in work/practice too do it.Some might disagree with me that putting in time and effort into a Martial Art or two to get a belt/rank in it. I still practice Jujutsu and Kempo,but not like I used to ,these have served me well as my base..
Kano Jigoro introduced kyu and dan (6 and 10 respectively) ranks to martial arts in 1883 based on an already wide-spread ranking system in many Japanese arts (flower arranging, go, tea ceremony) which itself was based on the Chinese 9 rank system for players of go (weiqi) called 九品制 (jiǔ pǐn zhì) which was in turn based on the 9 rank system for court nobles (九品中正制). Prior to this, martial arts operated on a licencing system. A student would enter as okuiri (basically "entrant into the art") and after years of training would enter the mokuroku (official rolls of the school) basically being formally accepted as a member of that ryu (and by extension representative of their values and artform). Eventually a practitioner would earn a menkyo (licence) which certified that in the eyes of that ryu they were skilled enough to teach the art. In theory there were different levels of students in the rolls and different levels of licence, topping out at menkyo kaiden (grand master) but as is often the case with history, nothing was standardised and every school pursued its own system. Only the menkyo really mattered as this proved to people outside the ryu that a practitioner was in fact to be trusted to open a school and teach students. Within a ryu a student's rank and skill would be assessed in the master's head or through whatever internal ranks and traditions that school established. Kano wanted a more systematised approach to ranking with finer subdivisions partially to better track student progress and partially to modernise his art (Kano had lived through the Meiji restoration and the 1880s when the Kodokan was founded was a time of great change and modernisation in Japan with the military and martial arts (among other things) borrowing from Western counterparts. Kano invented the martial arts black belt (in 1886) based on the Japanese swim team who put black ribbons around the waists of top tier athletes. This was partially just to visually distinguish the advanced students from the juniors for the purposes of partnering during training, but also a way to reward advanced students and add incentive. However the belt at the time was the traditional wide sash (obi) of a Japanese kimono, until the modern judogi was invented (along with the modern belt) sometime around 1907. Kano himself then subdivided the kyu ranks into the the bottom half (6-4th kyu) who had a white belt and top half (3rd-1st kyu) who had a brown belt (half way between white and black). He later also suggested a light blue belt for complete beginners (6th kyu) but whether this was ever adopted I don't know. Belt colours would explode in Europe with the spread of Judo and Karate as (whether this is true or not I can't be sure), it was said that the European students were too impatient and needed more consistent rewards and distinctions of rank and so every kyu rank would have a unique colour and additional kyu ranks were created so that students in many Japanese (and by extension Korean) based martial arts today can expect their first belt promotion in 3-4 months of starting. As regards BJJ's influences: Judo was at the time called "Kano Jujutsu" or "Kodokan Jujutsu" and in the early 1900s when Mitsuyo Maeda came to the West (he arrived in the US in 1904 and Brazil in 1914) the arts had not diverged as much as they have today. That said, Kano himself was influenced by western styles of wrestling in developing Judo and the Brazilians further incorporated techniques from wrestling via the vale tudo tradition within which Maeda would often demonstrate the efficacy of (what we now call) Judo. But this is also why BJJ calls itself "jiu-jitsu" and not "judo" because this distinction was not yet formalised when BJJ was being developed and it was seen as the next evolution of the art from various syncretised classical Jujutsu traditions into Kano Jujutsu and then into Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Interestingly, BJJ belt ranks are a later development dating to around the 50s if I recall correctly. Originally only the white (pre-black belt), light blue (black belt equiv.), and dark blue (instructor) belts were used. This is also why black belts under Royce Gracie's lineage use a blue bar on their blackbelts instead of red, as Royce has moved to wearing a blue belt in homage to Hélio Gracie. Interestingly, the full BJJ pre-black belt system today varies between Gracie and IBJJF but both use the following basic colour progression: white - yellow - orange - green - blue - purple - brown, very much inspired by the Judo ranks, with yellow, orange, and green being exclusively used for under 16s though the green belt as an "early blue belt" for adults does exist in some rare places, it is not known by most jiujiteiros and is looked down upon by the rest.
I will say in TKD that the focus on being a good person was huge. One of the requirements for belt advancement was community service. I picked up trash out of a lake with friends. It was fun. We threw a ball of dead grass at a crocodile.
Definitely. It's a lifestyle that has a sport element. In my school there is a saying, "It's not the belt, it's the person wearing it that gives it value." People focus so much on the belt and the years training as a measure of their worth as a martial artist, they forget to use the martial art to make themselves a better person.
Martial arts is not about being a better person, it's about fighting. Quote jim harrison the teacher of superfoot wallace and chuck norris. Both would develop dojo kuns that is required memorization. Yet jim harrison didn't care if you was a criminal, you could study with him, bushidokan karate it was mainly judo with 2 forms from shurin ryu, fukyuichi an fukyuni. So, much so that 2 brothers policemen tried to kill a black student that was a great fighter he was either dating or married to the x wife of one of the two cop brothers they trained with steve katzer so did i that's how i know this story. They i think finally killed, he could straight out fight. Bushidokan all the way, unashamed of it cruel developments. I mean harrison back in the 1980s often fought without gear. Man those was fun years for me.
Yes, I’m a month into training and rolling with blue belts may as well be rolling with a black belt for me because I can’t even get close to doing anything to them successfully 😂 whereas some of my fellow white belts I’m pretty competitive with…. 4 stripe white belts however, again may as well be a black belt
@@Anonymous.androidblack belts have fun and let you get your moves in but they can destroy you any second. Blue belts have no mercy if you have a month of bjj experience unless they’re nice.
No stripe whites yeah, but a 4 stripe white and a blue? Eh? Then there is the complexity with all arts and belts like Seth saying his TKD wasn't real. But it's so similar to karate that it's probably pretty real. But, in like BJJ there is a whole complexity different. You can walk in as a wrestler and give a good go to a high white to early-mid blue. However, you're still a white and a way off from blue because of the technical aspects. But, if you roll with a ex-wrestler white, he's not going to be an easy roll by that much compared to a blue. But most wrestlers still take a year or two to actually get a blue. So I think the raw untrained white - blue is an insane difference, especially the first year of white. But, that's only absolute untrained.
I'd choose Taekwondo and the Muay Thai equivalent of a black belt, not because these are in anyway better than other martial arts, I just like stand-up martial arts more than grappling/takedown focussed ones, plus I want to become a human bay-blade.
I have 3 black belts. One in aikijitsu, one in karate and one in freestyle kickboxing. I also have a brown belt in judo. The toughest guy I ever encountered was a man called George Glass. He was a 6th dan in judo and possibly the nicest guy you could wish to meet. I trained with him once a month. He wasn’t a big guy but he was so knowledgable and could whoop pretty much any person I know
For judo, there is a difference in belt systems between Kodokan Judo and everywhere else (i.e. outside Japan). At the Kodokan (the school that Kano Jigoro founded), color belts are only for kids; adults go straight from white -> black belt. Moreover, it is possible to get a black belt at the Kodokan in only one year--they have a beginner school where you are expected to attend about 4-5 times a week for two hour sessions, and after 12 months you receive your 1st degree black belt. But this goes back to what Jesse was saying about karate, which is that the black belt in Japan symbolizes basic competency, not mastery.
My first old TKD teacher told me the belt color story 😂 I have TKD and BJJ black belts but i still would like to have a karate one just because watching karate was my gateway into martial arts
I have a Kykoshin karate black belt, a judo black belt and a BJJ brown belt. Kykoshin black belt exam was brutal, but BJJ belts are next level. You require so much knowledge and skill, it is of the scale, takes forever as well. Judo black belt is following the curriculum and racking up competition points, at least in Europe that is an option if you don't want to go the kata way. Not easy, but I would place it third.
I practice a modified version of shito-ryu karate (shito-ryu but we don’t do all 100 katas or however many there are). For us there are 7 belts. White, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black. There are strips (pieces of electrical tape) that are for things such as attendance, basics, kata, nifunchi, and sparing which just help our renshi know where we are, and when we are ready to grade. Then there are dans once you’re a black belt which. All belts before black are estimated at 1 & 1/2 years between. You will be invited to a grading when you are deemed as ready which is a Saturday morning that happens roughly once every two months, where you show your skills and possibly earn a new belt.
Part of the "difficulty" of Black Belts changing over time is accessibility too. When my Dad was actively running his Dojo in the 70s-80s in Australia there were only a couple of places in the whole country you could test to go from Brown to Black, and interstate travel wasn't something everyone could afford to do.
My dojo faced a similar problem. We were independent, so gradings were done in the dojo, with two black belts conducting each grading. That was fine, except for when we did black belt gradings. Our sensei had to find someone to come to the dojo, often from quite far away, to conduct the gradings. It was very nerve-wracking knowing that this guy had travelled across the country just for me, so I could go for 2nd Dan.
BJJ, only because ( for now at least) it still requires a level of proficiency that most martial arts don’t. Like 10 years of consistent training is the average, and if you get it sooner you’re probably winning major competitions on a world stage
Hello great video !!! I'm from France and our belt system in judo is a bit different: it's white, yellow, orange, green ,blue, brown and then black. However we also have middle belts. like half white half yellow or half orange half green between each colors.
in the uk, the BJA (British Judo Assosiation) is the main governing body of judo ranks in the UK. You have to confirm your rank with them when you do judo and almost all clubs in the UK are associated with them. The club desires when you get each bet but the BJA makes it official
I did judo as a teenager in the UK and I was under the BJC, from what I remember it was split between the 2 association and some slight differences between them but i had trained at both clubs from both associations, best sport iv done
Love your content. I wanted to provide my World Taekwondo TKD experience, as both a student and coach/instructor. In the West, most of us consider color belts really just stepping stones to chunk up the content to make Black Belt attainable (consumable in other words). To us, in many Martial Arts Dojangs, Black Belt is really the beginning of your real training. We often consider color belt rankings to be "grade school" to get you to "college" which is your 1st poom/Dan ranking. Now that is the Martial Arts, ethos, side of TKD. There is another side of TKD within WT which is focused exclusively on competitive sport. Here, you could be a Black Belt in your Dojang but a Color belt in competitive sports arenas, this is all based on the school though. Lastly, You mentioned sparring and i wanted to comment here. In my experience as being a student of 2 schools, and a USAT/AAU coach for sparring and forms so getting exposure to other schools programs, many WT TKD schools begin sparring at early color belts. Again, as above, the sparring is made "consumable" to build upon the learnings within their belts to incorporate the new learning and build the student into a capable competitor knowledge wise. Obviously this isnt universal as some schools do not begin sparring until Advanced colors or even Black Belt. Technically, the Kukkiwon WT curriculum has requirements for sparring starting at yellow belt for testing progression.
I've done judo for all my life and am a brown belt now. Back when I was in the classes with other kids that were also brown or lower belts I was always near the top of the class, winning randori's all the time and I knew it all. The second my sensei told me I needed to move up to the black belt/brown belt class I felt like I didn't know the sport I'd been doing for the last decade of my life at all. I've been training for almost a year now for my black belt, and still have at least one more to go before I can even try to get it. Just shows how big the gap is Alex talks about in the interview.
@Paul-nj5xh I wish going to japan was a "just" 😅. Financially that's a huge challenge for someone who's 17 like me. Plus I've trained with these same sensei's for my whole life (they're both former national champs). So I feel like rather than spending money to fly out I'd rather learn from them a bit more and just get it with them 🙂
Sensei Seth, I think that you’re quite admirable in your open approach to all of these martial arts and talk about them fairly. Even I learned new things. I love your channel.
My belt order was as follows, white,red,yellow, orange, green,green and black, blue,blue and black, purple, brown, brown and black, and finally black. I totally agree that my journey is far from being over. Unfortunately, my age now will stop my progression.
So pumped for a new Sensei Seth video on my birthday! I was worried something happened to you, turns out you were doing a TON of research for this amazing video! Always was curious about the belt system as a former TKD guy, however I only made it to yellow belt (I guess I peed on it lmao 🤣) . Thanks for the information and great video! Oos!
I love my Karate Black Belt. Took me 7 years. Still have my jiu jistu white belt. Even though I've been training in multiple gyms for around 12 years lol.
It's amazing seeing the different systems and their belts with Karate. Our school has white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, red, brown and black.
Our Dojo belt system: White, Yellow (5th Kyu), Green, Red, Brown, 2nd Brown (1st Kyu), Black. No stripes. 5 to 6 years of training is average to test for 1st Degree Black Belt. Our school/style goes to 5th Dan. It is primarily Eskrima-Kali-Arnis, but we also do Traditional Karate & Classical Yoga, so we follow the Karate belt system. 5 Kyu then 5 Dan. Each coloured belt test is consecutively longer, building up to the 20 hour black belt test.
Atleast for Judo (which is the only one where i can speak from experience) the belts varies alot from club to club and from country to country. In Sweden your black belt exam has to be examined by judges provided by the swedish judo federation. So its very official. And personally id say the time to get a black belt in Judo atleast where im from is most commonly 9-10 years
@@jamesbyrd5175 I've heard this, but then again, I have trounced Japanese Black belts at our dojo...and even some that didn't know basic throws...so I wonder about the validity of the one year black belt ( 9 years studying Judo Brown belt, ex wrestler)
@@jamesbyrd5175 No, not really. In Japan many kids learn judo at school. There the basic idea is that as long as you follow the program and all it's requirements you get your Black Belt at HS graduation and go off to University to really start your serious judo training. In Japan the Universities are the feeder clubs for national and international competition. But at HS level you can kind of bimble through it and still get a BB, but you won't be any good. There are also private judo clubs for non-university and worker types. the so called Machi (Local) Dojo. Here the standard of judo is much lower generally though of course there are exceptions. Again, you can kind of bimble through and get a BB that way. For Judo and Aikido and maybe others there are also intensive programs where yes, you can get a BB in a year. But they are training every days for hours at a time. Yoshinkan Uchi-Deshi program is a good example of this - read the book "Angry White Pyjamas" by Robert Trigger for more on these programs. So many routes exist up the mountain and BBs of various qualities can be gained along the way. Do martial arts for long enough and you'll realize it's all a bit of a fugazi. Standards and competency vary massively both within arts and within geography, and within organizations also. It's really impossible to make comparisons. Even BJJ is starting to water down requirements. There's always money to be made in granting belts - it's natural that over time standards slip as unscrupulous coaches increase revenue.
Brief note: Quite a few BJJ gyms don't have stripes. For example where I train at (ATOS BJJ) there are no stripes for colored belts, and sometimes no stripes for white belts as well.
When he said there are 21 ranks in BJJ, I was thinking, "Most people consider all blue belts the same rank, regardless of stripes." I've visited a few places where people will apply stripes in the calculation to line up in order, but many that don't. A 3-stripe purple belt doesn't really "outrank" a 2-stripe purple.
Jits BB here w/20 years in. The vast, vast, vast majority of gyms that give stripes for colored belts these days are money mills that care more about keeping students happy by giving them stripes than they do about producing great jits practioners.
I was trading Kudo. And our coach said "Forget about belts if you want you can buy it and I give you a paper". What matters was to win competitions of regional, national or international levels. And he trained us to win and not collect any belts.
That’s totally normal. It took me like 3 years to get a blue belt in BJJ from ages roughly 15 to 18. I was busting my ass in class with grown men every week.
Learning Shorin-Ryu in the west, the belt system was explained to me as first there was only a belt (layman's usage of the word). Then when things formalized into the early "systems" there was just white a black as a means of distinguishing between student and teacher and you'd stay a white belt from day 0 until got your black. Then because of extrinsic motivational factors the original color system when I was a little kid was added, white->yellow->green->brown->black. That then evolved into adding just color tape wraps, 3 per belt of the next belt color, at the end of your belt to further break down where you were in your progress. Then they got rid of the tape wraps and instead added more belt colors to serve as a more formalized replacement of that intermediary tracking. But no matter how it was tweaked it was always under the framework that it was all completely arbitrary and that black belt itself wasn't even the be all/end all. It merely signified that you've demonstrated a foundational level of competence that you could begin your actual journey with the martial art as an art form. The difference in the two sentences of "I practice to become a..." vs "I practice as a..."
I recently got my shodan in Goju Ryu last September and boy am I happy after 17 years of training on and off because that test was WAY more difficult than I thought. Intensity level 10000
My children and I study in the United Ryu Kyu Kempo Alliance, one of the the Oyata lineage schools. We have 10 Kyu ranks, white, white black tip, yellow, orange, purple, blue(where my 9 year old daughter is who has been training since she was four), green, brown, brown one stripe, brown two stripe(where my 12 year old son is who has been training since he was five and is testing for youth shodan this summer), and then the dan ranks. I started when I was 36, earned my shodan at 39, and will be testing for nidan this summer at 41. We have both youth and adult dan ranks. The youth is apparent because of the red embroidery on the belt, where as adults have gold embroidery. The embroidery is the Japanese kanji for "Ryu Kyu Kempo Kobudo". The Dan ranks are identified by the embroidery on the gi jacket which has the kanji for the dan rank embroidered on the left lapel.
That’s an interesting take on the black belt by Jesse. We have the same take in Kajukenbo, which has elements of karate. Black belt in kajukenbo means “death into a new beginning”.
Here in the UK we have slightly more kyu grade belts - white, red, yellow, orange, green, blue and brown. You can earn your black belt either competitively (as I did) or technically. To do it competitively you need to beat 10 1st kyus (or black belts) in contest by Ippon (either at a level 3+ competition or a dan grading). If you go to a specific Dan grading, and you win your first two fights by ippon, you are given a line up of 3 people. You have to beat these 3 people by ippon one after the other with no break. There is also a technical requirement to the competitive route where you have to demonstrate a number of throws as counters and combinations along with any set of the Nage No Kata. Once you have achieved this you are awarded your black belt. The technical route requires a 5 year time in grade for brown belt, then a whole host of throws, counters and I believe the full set of the NAge No Kata (I'm not familiar with the exact requirements as I got my black belt competitively). Also, a technical 1st dan is considered a 1st kyu for competitions (i.e. not eligible to compete as a 1st dan).
This was really inciteful! I've always had mixed feelings about kids black belts, but I really like both of your perspectives when it was talked about. I think I'm going to adopt the same mentality for it.
Wow! I never thought of quitting as a purple belt, but boy did it feel like I hit a looong plateu!. Hearing these words made me feel better! Thanks, Mr. DEES! BTW. Seth, one of my life's biggest goals is to earn a black belt in karate and then continue on that journey. While it might not be popular for the zeitgeist. It definitely is a beautiful, fulfilling, and effective art.
Having spent the last majority of my martial arts career in kickboxing where there is no defining belt system I never thought I would earn a true black belt, but now I'm so close to earning my black belt in Sanda under coach Ian Lee and I'm surprised at how important it has become to me.
I love Shintaro, he has always such a down to earth kind of words to explain his stuff and in the same moment it is "you just do this tenthousend things at once and its done". Thank you Seth for this video :) you are the inter martial arts comunicater ❤
1st Dan Judoka here. In brazil, the exams are 100% standardized to get your black belt. In my city, Brasilia, it’s a year-long corse where every Saturday you meet with every dude getting their black belt and have classes from the citiy’s federation from 7-8 am to 3pm. We have to aid in competition (assemble all the mats, tables, organize the fighters, call them up and referee) and those take about 12-13 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday, every month. The exams are: Referee exam (senior referees evaluate us during comps), Nage-no-Kata, Katame-no-Kata, and TeWaza & NeWaza techniques. For those last two we have to know every throw, submission and ground position and we have to do 20 techniques. The examiner tells us the name of the technique and we do it. You get one mistake in the whole thing. It sucks and I hated it with every part of my body and mind.
I studied TKD through Grand Master Ho Yung Chung. We are connected to the KUKKIWON JIDOKWON association. Our belts back when I went through (Now they have added an Orange belt before the yellows) were White, two yellow, two green, two blue, two red, Bodan then black belt. I currently hold a 5th Dan in TKD and HapKiDo, It took me 2 years of training 6 days a week 2 hours a day to receive my 1st Dan. I started training at the age of 12 in the mid-1980s, I will agree that many TKD schools today are belt givers and have lost much of the tradition of the schools I was a part of in the 80s. As for the black belt, I'm not sure how the Dans work today but when I received my 5th Dan I had to test in Korea. The Dans in my day go up after the years of training. Such as from 1 to 2 you had to train for 2 years for 2 to 3, 3 years, from 3 to 4, 4 years of training, and 4 to 5, you trained for 5 years before being eligible to test, and so on. At 5th dan, you are considered a Master and at 7-9 Grand Master, 10th is honored promotion straight from Korea.
I'm training for a black belt right now, in Taekwondo. I've had my 1st gup red belt for over 20 years now, so it's time to earn my 1st Dan. In other martial arts, I have a 8th kyu orange in kenpo, a white sash in wing chun, and technically, a white belt in hapkido, because I went for a month. Lol I intend to make them all black before I'm through.
Oh good luck! I’m currently training for my ITF taekwondo black belt too! It’s been years and I’m very excited and had many years of hard work sweat and dedication. When is your exam date? How are you finding king fu? I was looking at it the other day. I quite like the look of the weapons training.
@jasonorourke1787 I started back about 5 or 6 weeks ago, so it'll probably be close to a year before I test- nonetheless, I'm going hard as I can. Lol The wing chun is a lot of fun. I understand the principle, but getting it to work is another thing entirely. You can see the benefit though, with tkd being great covering distance, but not so much in close ranges, so I think of it as a way to fix that issue with my overall fighting style.
In my humble opinion kids should never get black belts. I love how that is structured in bjj, you have kids belts and then when you turn 16 you get into the adult belts. At black belt you should be a master of the martial art you practice, you are not a master of anything when you are 12 years old.
That is a eurocentric way of looking at things. In the east where the arts started black belt is not a sign of mastery. In Japan for example most kids start karate and KG and then at the end of primary school they will get their shodan first dan black belt and 90% will leave to play something else at high school. But they have such a large pool of practitioners they still dominate the sport world-wide. In India karate is just for kids. We don't have a particularly advanced or widespread MMA club system but there are those who train hard and Manipur just won a featherweight MMA title. But he made the news for his acceptance speech. So in the East they'd take notice once you started saying you were higher than a fourth of fifth dan. What it would mean to practitioners here is that you understand the basics of the system. So for shitoryu you have memorised and can perform 116 katas without necessarily understanding advanced bunkai. With judo that you know the basic throws and katas but don't necessarily understand the flow how throws line up with each other in terms of muscle memory even if you undestand intellectually which to link together. The shodan would still be the belt kids take before leaving a martial art to pursue something else. Even if that's anotehr martial art. And for traditional indian martial arts there are no belts. You complete a cycle of training usually starting at 6 or 7 usually taking five years and then repeat several times until the guru thinks you are good enough to teaach or practice on your own. Something like that. But even in the west its become a lot easier to get black belts and it doesn't carry the mystique that it did probably falsely in the 1970s. But just another opinion this one from Bangalore
@@descoutinho-e1y So you are telling me how the karate or the judo black belt are basically blue belt level in bjj. As I said the ranking system is far superior to the traditional japanese ranking, just as the martial art is superior to traditional no sparring martial arts like karate, taekwondo and such.
@@uros2321 I am telling you that you're either someone who has little or no personal experience or you're a proper pukkah master of one art form. There are a few with I am going to say a more spiritual higher consciousness way of approaching life's experiences. But they are rare or they don't spend so much time on social media. But yes if you're one of the two types you're meant to say my god is bigger than your god because this is a variation of the school playground. So we do get told important information but usually without context and in the most odd ways. At least that's how I learnt the facts of life. Teachers were in that age too embarrassed to talk to us like parents. But I digress. TL:DR but you would say that now wouldn't you. And no I'm not challenging you to a fight because too old mate and don't want to play that game but yeah I have a plan for my kids and the plan keeps changing keeps being updated But it involves their learning every art they can when they are old enough to learn them just dropped them off to art school art art and in two hours they'll learn Silambam. No belts in Silambam but your art form is clearly better than Silambam. No contest. Now get out and train.
@@uros2321Judo black belt is about the same amount of mat hours to an advanced BJJ blue or maybe a fresh Purple. Also Black belt has never been meant to represent master its meant to represent your now competent. How can you be a master of Judo at 1st Dan when there are still more Judo ranks above your grade left to get than below it?
I have been doing karate since I was 5 or 6 years old and I'm, still continuing my training each week. And I just graded 2 weeks ago, now which was a full grading even though I'm a brown belt just earned another black stripe added to my belt i already have for 4yrs and I am officially a 1st kyu brown belt as a student and now I have to practice my endurance every day and have to learn 2 new katas and also have to learn how to use a bo that is 6ft tall and put in a lot of work to earn a grading form and we get a green light to a pre-grading before I grade to get my black belt in a year or two when I'm 23 or 24 years old that's when I get my black belt. There are classes for little ninjas and then juniors but I was in that class at my dojo I train at for 18yrs so I was told to move up to the next class for seniors 16-50-year-olds. The main thing is never to give up a black belt is a white belt who never quits.
It took me a longtime time get my blade sash in kung fu. It’s a combo of Chen tai chi, hsing I, and bagua. Great arts mixed together. Takes about a decade to get one, but you’re learning three arts combined.
In my karate it goes: White White red Red White yellow Yellow Yellow black (no real grading for the one with the colour then black, just shows that your ready for grading) Orange Orange black Green Green black Blue Blue black Purple Purple black Brown white Brown Brown black ( you do grading for this and it is like another level ) Black white (junior black belt ) Black Then all the other black belts Additionally most of the time we put different coloured electrical tape on the belts to show what you have done (like perfected kata) and there is basics, combos, pairs, kata, and one to show you’ve got all of them down (these aren’t necessary though) I have been doing karate for almost 9 years and I am only doing brown black grading after Easter
Absolutely no disrespect to Frank Dees, but I don't think he did the best job of explaining the origins of BJJ and even the belt requirements. You also put way more effort into researching Judo than BJJ and there was no mention made about coral and red belts in BJJ. I've trained in both, and BJJ on average forces you to spar way more, way earlier and learn more techniques in more positions. We also have to learn basic judo and wrestling throws, grips and fundamentals on top of that. Many gyms also have a curriculum and testing. My gym specifically tests at every belt except for black. At purple belt for example I had to know and demonstrate 51 techniques and then we're scored on an 8-round shark tank with no rest. I can send you the requirements for each belt. The Gracies and a few other gyms have something similar. BJJ also holds you longer at each belt than any other martial art and the journey to black belt is highly dependent on your training volume/consistency as well as your ability to demonstrate what you've learned in live rolling either via competition or in training. When you take injuries into account, which are very common, it's usually closer to 10-15 years not 9. It's not crazy to be 3 years at white, 4 at blue, 4 at purple and then 4 at brown. That alone is 15 years. That said, the absolute hardest black belt to achieve is the BJJ black belt without a shadow of a doubt. When you consider how few people make it to black belt I would rank it's difficulty somewhere between very high and improbable. Many black belts I've spoken with have said that for every 1000 students, 1 will make it to black belt. So that means if you start training in BJJ the likelihood of you achieving a black belt is 0.01%. There is no rank in any martial art that comes even close to being that difficult to achieve. A judo black belt CAN be close in difficulty but that's highly dependent on the gym. Although on average it's usually not nearly as hard to attain.
Wrong, judo black belt doesn't depend on the dojo. You can only get a certified one via an external jury at an official exam organized by the national judo federation. There are standards for this and the committees typically have very high dan grades themselves (typically 5-9).
@@bryanfontez I got my first Dan black belt in 12 years, and my second Dan took another 16 years (although could have been faster, corona and 2 children caused a few years delay). If you are very good, train very often (>4x per week) and push hard for it, you might get 1st Dan judo in under 10 years.
@@bryanfontez or you can become national, continental, world or olympic champion. Way harder but you don't need to do an exam for Dan 1-3 if you get that (automatic promotion).
I was really into Taekwondo in high-school. My association had 6 belts: white, yellow, green, blue, red, black. The absolute fastest you could achieve a black belt was in 6 years, and you could not get one before the age of 16, even if you started training at 3 years old. It was a LONG time between ranks, but I really felt like I earned them. Promotion was skill based, and also included fitness testing. It doesn't mean anything if you just get them on a schedule, like military promotions.
I started both Judo and TKD at the same time and both had the same belt system. No stripes, and colors white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown and black. And the time to move up the ranks was totally up to the teacher.
I am in TKD and I am a black belt at 15 years old, I started when I was 8 years old, and now 15 (ik I already said that), every school is different, at my school we have 10/11 belts (white, yellow [half white, half yellow], gold, orange, green, purple, blue, red, brown, brown with black strip through the middle [its belt], bo dan [idk how to spell, also is black with a white strip in the middle, then black) now my black belt is the one that he said was a bo dan, we call them junior black belts, because im 15 I get that one, once im 16 and get my next degree, I will get a full black belt, ik some schools in us just basically give you a black belt if you show up and try and pay for it, but for me, you had to work as hard as you can and try hard for 7 years to do a 4-hour black belt test, when your instructor is old school and doesnt let alot get away, I think its difficult, the odds are said to be, 1 in 100 people that do TKD will get a black belt, and for the second degree it goes to 1 in 1000, and just add a zero every degree, like i said every school is differant, my instructor wanted the best for us, so he doesnt have to worry about us in the world, if you have any questions ask
I think the guys in the video just forgot blue. Judo has the IJF which means there should be little to no variance world wide. The only variance I have ever seen is just some clubs have mixed belts or stripes for kids. The stripes and mixed belts are just to help keep the kids motivated and adults don't generally do them in my experience.
In Norway it's white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black - but only striped ranks until you are 13, at which time you cross-grade to the equivalent solid colour. Striped ranks exclude chokes and arm bends.
I really liked the interpretation that a black belt isn't about being able to beat anybody up, it's more about being able to express yourself and achieve mastery of your art.
It's a *martial* art. The purpose is to be able to use it on other people. If you can't make it work on other people, then you have not achieved mastery of the MARTIAL art. As such, you should not wear a belt that signifies mastery.
Found it very interesting. For context i'm french linving and practicing in france i'm a Judo black belt and a bjj blue belt I practiced judo for 13 years starting at 5 years old and it took me 11 years to get my black belt for multiple reason. In france the judo black belt is not given to you by your instructo rbut by the french black belt college. Back in my time it was required to be at least 18 years old to be eligible. If i'm not wrong it is now 15. You need to demonstrate your nageno kata but also earn a certain amount of point in competition . btw there is no belt category in competition in france so that mean that if you start the sport as an adult you will be thrown in a mix of brown belt that are fighting to get their point for their black belt or black belt chasing higher degrees whil you are still a beginner. Additionally to this you wil need to perform tasks such as refeering and judging fight. All of that is mandatory. Due to this process in france getting a black belt in judo is not only getting good enough but also preparing an exam that will last for at least a year. that is the reason there is a ammount of new black belt that quit after getting promoted ( and i was one of them) I'm still on the beginer side in BJJ (just getting promoted after 2 years with injuries in the middle ) but i think getting your new belt is not as overwhelming. I think that is due to the more friendly attitude people in bjj have compare to judo wher everything is very strict. But in bjj if you look at a black belt you can think if i'm dedicated for long enough i will be able to achieve it .
I think it's strange for kids to get black belts because if a white belt adult could easily beat them then the belt is a bad display of their combat effectiveness
Funny thing: in our bjj gym on beginners classes (white belts) there is a 14 y.o. girl, who is a daughter of one of the coaches, and she has some kind of youth white and grey belt. The thing is that she easily ragdolls adult while belt women (as women don't have that exponential growth in strength during their puberty, and her technique is superior to even most of men in the class), and often rolls with adult lightweight men (of course they limit their strength, when rolling with her). However she cannot progress to the blue belt until she turns sixteen. And I don't really know if it is good or bad, as maybe, it should be allowed for women, as they don't have that jump in strength from a child to an adult, and on the other hand, higher belts - more techniques allowed - more risk of injury.
I'm not sure if that logic makes sense. There are guys at my BJJ gym who are black belts, but they only weigh like 140. If you took them and made them fight Shaquille O'Neill, who's twice their size and twice their weight, they would get thrown around like a ragdoll, but that wouldn't mean that they weren't great at BJJ and didn't earn that belt. See what I'm saying? I think as long as the person put in the time, and can perform the technique really well, they have earned that belt. Size and weight shouldn't be a factor because that can't really be controlled.
@@solarissv777 this is fine. She will get her blue on her 16th bday, purple a year after, eventually getting her BB by like 20. She still has her entire life in front of her to wear the belt. Nothing is gained by promoting students early. It's not good for them, the school, or the art in general.
Mate you know that in martial arts before any fight wheight hight extra shall be near for example a 90kg can’t fight 70kg a 11 yr old can’t fight an 18 year old
It also varies HOW you want to get your black belt. In judo the easy way is through kata, the hard way is through competition. I just got my black belt after 16 years of doing judo (started when i was 5, now 21) and i wanted to get it by fighting. To do so you have to accumulate 50 points (2 points each match you win) in specific tournaments and you can only start accumulating points after you get into the under 21 y.o. (18 or older) category. Disclaimer: I'm italian and this is how it works in Italy, but i assume it's similar across Europe.
first of, what a great video. Its very fun to see the difference in grading between the marchal arts, but even more the difference between country. Im a dutch 1ste degree black belt judoka nearing my 2nd exam and my instructors exam. Seeing the difference in not only what the requierments for a new belt are, but also the steps we take between the belts really gets my mind going on how a, at first glance, unified sport also has so many differences between each governing body. the only real constant ive heard in this video is, the black belt is where the sport accually starts XD
I've been doing judo for 15 years now. It took me 13 years to receive my first degree blackbelt (shodan) in judo. I wanted to get my blackbelt earlier in 2020, but due to COVID that didn't happen. For my blackbelt test, I had to do the five sets of Nage no Kata (Forms of Throwing), then I had to demonstrate the remaining 25 throws of the Gokyo no Waza (Five Sets of Techniques), followed by eight Kaeshi Waza (counter techniques), eight Renraku Waza techniques (combinations), as well as eight Osaekomi Waza (hold down or pin techniques), eight Kansetsu Waza (arm or joint lock techniques), eight Shime Waza (strangle or choke techniques), then four turn-over techniques, and four guard pass techniques. I also had to demonstrate how I would teach particular techniques, and answer some questions verbally. No written test for me. All up, my blackbelt examination took almost two hours. Honestly, the most nerve racking part was the Nage no Kata. Once we were done with that, the rest was actually pretty easy. The Nage no Kata typically lasts less than 10 minutes but my goodness, it was one of the most stressful situations of my life, ha ha.
I did karate for 12 yrs. and 9 yrs. of MMA. I started BJJ two months ago to improve my grappling skills. It's good to know both submission wrestling and bjj as it's true 100% of fights end on the ground to think otherwise is stupid. However grappling on its own as someone else mentioned is useless. It is important to be trained in both stand up fighting like muay thai kickboxing along with a grappling art. The guy in video saying that fights only end on the ground if you're cop is an idiot, it shows he has never been in a real fight.
Okay, so this is five months old already and I don't know if anyone will see this, but since I was confused by your Karate experience and there apparently are so many different ones, I wanted to share mine. (Disclaimer though: I don't know much about the history, pretty much all I know is in this message.) I have done European Shotokan Karate and I have reached the third Kyu, the first brown belt. That's the first difference I've seen: In my experience, there are very different belts to your experience. In my experience there's white, yellow, orange, green, blue 1, blue 2, brown 1, brown 2 and brown 3, and then you can get a total of ten black belts/dans, so it's very similar to what the Judo system in your video was (although all dans are black). That makes nine "colored" belts, which I was told is the reason for the name "kyu", because kyu is the Japanese word for nine. Also, there is a very clear distinction between colored belts, which are generally called "student belts", and the "master belts", aka black/dan belts - my impression was that once you obtain a black belt, you have learned enough to be a teacher for the next generation. This fits with our translations for the titles we'd call a black belt wearer (sensei aka teacher/master) and the best karateka in a training group (senpai, first student) - disclaimer that none of us knew Japanese beyond the numbers up to 10. As for the time frame, with more belts that was obviously longer, but there are also time constraints that mirror the ones in Judo. My country's karate association has a regulation that one has to have been training for at least three months between obtaining two belts - but almost everyone takes longer because you have to learn a whole new kata for each belt, both kyus and dans. We usually would try to get a new belt once a year. For the higher dans, the time progression is similar to judo, with it taking years for each new belt and the highest being more like badges of honor. This was a long one, but I hope it's interesting to someone!
I really enjoyed this. I trained for a really long time. I stopped testing after second dan in my single style and diversified to other disciplines. I’ve trained in Kyokushin, Shotokan, Parker Kempo, JiuJitsu (japanese), Tan Soo Do, Chung do Kwan TKD, JKD, Wing Chun and Chen Tai Chi. They all have their value. The belt itself means nothing. I still have my original black belt with nothing on it. And I have worn a lot of white belts over the decades. Respect to all who take the time and discipline. It really does help you in the rest of your life.
