What’s Up With Your Belt

“Where is your other belt?”

This is a question one of my 9-year-old students asked me the first day I wore my plain black belt to teach class as opposed to the 5^th dan belt I had been wearing. The very simple answer was that Karen (my wife and co-instructor) and I had just received our new matching belts with our logo embroidered on them from Kataaro, but this was a teaching moment. It’s not every day that a young student with less than 3 months’ worth of training has the observational skills to set you up for a perfect life lesson.

There are many reasons why traditional martial artists have worn various colored belts. Those reasons are rife with rumor, misinformation, metaphysical and philosophical exaggeration, as well as some truth. All that does not matter to me, however, because that is not what this article is about. This article is about why we, as in, the students of W.O.L.F. Martial Arts of Lenexa, KS, wear the belts we do. And when I say “students” I am including Karen and I in that grouping. Before you ask, or comment an objection, yes, we use a colored rank system typical of most traditional karate schools in the United States. It is our philosophy and outlook on the belts we wear that is communicated to the students on day one that may differ.

Surface Reasons

The first thing that is made clear, is that the instructors in the room (being Karen and myself) are also students. “Karate-do” is the “way of empty hand.” The word “do” can be translated to mean path or journey, so as I explain to our students, Sensei Karen and I are on the same martial arts journey they are on. We are just a little further up the road than them. We are not the same rank, but we wear the same belt because we carry the same responsibility as their instructors. My words are her words. Her words are my words. Us wearing the same belt assuages any confusion students (new and old) may have. Did you notice that I said we carry “responsibility”? Remember that phrasing. I will come back to it. But the thing to note here is that our belt represents the same journey we are all on, as well as what stage of that journey we currently find ourselves enjoying.

The second reason I give the students why we wear the belts we do is that Karen and I have a lot to teach them. It can be overwhelming at times for us as instructors to keep everyone straight as to where they are in the curriculum. We tell them, unashamedly, that their belts are a “visual cheat” for their instructors. Without any verbal dialogue, we can look at our students’ belts and know exactly what they are working on, what they need to work on, and what we can test them on. We have made this infinitely easier by making them take “quizzes” for the different sections they will be tested on for their next rank. Each successful quiz earns them a stripe on their current belt. Not only do we see where they are in the curriculum, but what they are working on at that specific rank.

THE Reason

The last, and most important, reason for why we wear the belts we do is a simple fact about our dojo’s culture. Your rank is not a privilege but represents your responsibility. Yes, we all understand that a black belt instructor is responsible for teaching lower ranks. That is not what I am talking about. Karen and I make it clear from day one, we as their instructors are responsible for making sure they succeed in their martial journey. Their “failures” are our failures. Then we have the students look down the line to every student who is of a lower rank than they are. The students they outrank are their responsibility too. The students who outrank them are people they can go to for help when they need it. Your rank carries with it the weight of responsibility not only for yourself but also for those who know less than you. It is with this mentality, this last reason for why we use the belt system we do, that our students learn to not be selfish with their art. They are given to freely but are also expected to give freely what they have learned to others.

Is this perfect and without flaw? Absolutely not. Does it work in the context of W.O.L.F. Martial Arts of Lenexa, KS? Absolutely it does! We are sure that other schools have very profound and personal reasons for why they have colored rank and what that represents. That’s great. This is ours. The important thing is to remember that unless you communicate to your students exactly what the belt around their waist symbolizes, then it is just fabric that holds their uniform closed. Sometimes it doesn’t even do that. If you do not take every opportunity to build the culture of your school then it will build itself.