Is there a form of karate that still turns a white belt into a black belt the old fashioned way? If so, where?

Question

When a person began the study of Karate, he or she received a white belt to hold the uniform together. After many months of training, the white would begin to discolor and become yellowish and possibly orange. After many months of rigorous practice, many times in grassy fields, the belt would take on a green appearance as it discolored further. After several years of practice, the belt would further darken, assuming a dark blue or purple hue. After numerous sparring sessions, the belt might develop a red or brown hue from the accumulation of bloodstains. After several decades of training, the belt would gradually turn black. If the student devoted his or her life to Karate, the belt would continue to darken, but it would also begin to fray and show spots of white from its inner core. Gradually, most of the black would wear away and the belt would become white again, signifying that the student had come full circle and reached the final stage of enlightenment.

Answer 1

Doesn't matter which style. There are alot of similar ones out there that have good training methods. It depends on the practitioner or the school. Go to local schools, look around, see if the black belts have any idea what they're talking about or move like they earned the belt. In any case, whoever said TKD gets beat by boxing doesn't realize how fast some of the guys out there are. If you talk to people who have been to Asia (Korea for TKD especially), there are guys who train there all day every day. In the US you think you see guys that are fast with hands, well go to Asia. There are guys like in Korea who are so fast with their kicks that you wouldn't believe it. Some guys really can kick as punch with the hands. Anyway, some karate or other types of fighters hit so hard and are so fierce that you never want to know what they are doing to condition themselves. They beat on stuff and toughen their bodies to the point that pain may not even be a factor anymore after they kill the nerves on their shins, for instance in Thai boxing. Nobody cares about lawsuits over there. Break a bone, tough luck. There are still countries where people fight for real. Absolutely unbelievable stuff some instructors have told me, anything from their old teachers practice drills using real knives and have hundreds of knive scars all over their arms and legs, to guys breaking tons of ice with broken wrists, or even one guy's old 90-year-old sensei who beat the heck of out five street thugs trying to jump him. Any style works if you know how to use it. There are definitely some styles that have that tough mental and physical focus. It seems that for karate, kyokushinkai is pretty devastating. Gosh, just watch some of their demos. They beat the heck out of each other and even draw blood, knocking each other out because they hit pretty aggressively. Their grandmaster test is taking on like 100 guys in a row, which only about 13 guys in the world have passed; one account told of a guy who stopped counting after the first 20 guys and ended up doing over 6 hrs. Dolph Lundgren's 3rd degree test was 20 guys he had to take on to pass. Thai boxing is pretty dangerous with some of those kicks and elbows. One of the absolute toughest to get a black belt in, hands down, is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It could take you at least 10 years to get to black belt, if you make it there. It's hard because you have to beat most other guys around you at your level to advance. However, the ground game is solid but the standup needs to be supplemented with something else in that style. Kajukenbo is a nice hybrid of everything soft and hard if you want to really earn a blackbelt with a heck of alot of well-roundedness, everything from soft to hard, standup to ground, to weapons.

Answer 2

Martial arts had no belt systems until we (usa) got ahold of it. Yes that is the general progression of the belts. You'd wear a belt until it got faded and worn. I have one of my two original white belts around. My first one was ragged and misplaced. My second one went from white to a redish brown in a matter of a few years. Still have it around somewhere. I, myself, really have no use for a ranking system. I do, however, see value of it in a business aspect let me toss that out. I would be happy wearing my old stained and tattered white (redish brown) belt all the time. Most business martial artist won't let you wear such a belt in there school. If a school uses a belt system it is usually an ego thing and a way of making money, these schools wouldn't allow such a practice. A school that would allow it most likely won't care about ranking. Find an eclectic "garage" dojo. If you can find someone who trains at home and does it becaue they want to not for money that would be your best bet finding someone like that.

Answer 3

The actual old fashion way in karate is no belt. The men of Okinawa did not begin using belts until they saw the Judo students using them.
The Okinawans often practiced in groin clothes alone (no thank-you).
They did not have a rank system until the art traveled to Japan.

I do not not believe the "dirty belt" myth to be true.

Answer 4

That's a bunch of BS. The belt ranking system was introduced by the founder of Judo and it had nothing to do with a white belt becoming discolored.

Answer 5

I wish it would go that way.Then you would have true black belts,I have heard of people buying them.If it is true then you can't tell from someone who earned their black belt to someone who just bought them.I will ask Mrs.Nikki my karate instructor about that way of earning a black belt.No,to many pathetic people would try to sue.I wish I would defiantly go to that place.I would feel more accomplished.But then again that belt is going to smell terrible and people will probably throw it into the washer or something and its going to go straight back to white.Back then they wouldn't have had anyway to wash their belt.And I wouldn't really like coming to practice with a belt that smells like it hasn't been washed in a couple of years.

Answer 6

Thats really cool to know. It really sounds true! I am in Tae Kwon Do and I really never thought to find out where the colors came from. Thank you for your question! And, I am pretty sure that there is nowhere in America that does it that way. I don't think people here train in fields or get blood on their belt much.

Answer 7

That's some really cool information, I've been in Tae Kwon Do for like 3 years and our cycle goes similar to that, I'm a blackbelt, but we didn't go through all that dirty stuff, we just got new belts. . .I think that trend is over because of the health risks of practically carrying a plague around your waist

Answer 8

Are all you TKD guys serious? We have to learn off the meaning of each belt for our gradings. I did my yellow belt grading today; "Yellow signifies earth from which the plan sprouts and takes root as the Taekwondo foundations are being laid". You must be doing a far more relaxed style than me (I'm doing ITF)

Answer 9

lol yeah what u say sounds really awsome , and should be the only way , but not here in america. now days ,if you got the cash you get the black sash. im just a amature boxer and i have layed out "black belts" like they where nothing, wich should not be the case. i know it sucks but the fact is , if you live in america or do take won do ( sri answer above me), you are just going to a Mc dojo , they hand out black belts the same way mc donalds hands out fries and a shake.

Answer 10

That's a good one, dunno if it's really true or just a product of a really good writer's imagination, but i can see the profound insight of whoever wrote that. It's the kind of zen stuff that usually accompanied a martial arts style's history that we used to read about in Martial arts magazine articles.