what are the top ranks for karate that is the belt? how one can go for national level competition?

Question

i want to know this for my 10 year old child he has interest in boxing. he has green one belt. he has craze for competition how can he participate through proper channel

Answer 1

There are two main national organizations for competition for martial arts at the national level. There is the North American Sport Karate Association (NASKA) and the National Blackbelt League (NBL). Both have competition for children as well as adults and different divisions based on rank, age, height and for fighting in the black-belt adult divisions weight classes as well. Each has what they call regionally rated tournaments that points earned count towards a regional rating and also national tournaments that points earned count towards a national rating. A few years back NASKA started having also what they call an international circuit since they draw many competitors from other countries for their larger national tournaments. This was after I retired from competition but when I was competing I competed against a number of martial artists from different countries as well as their national teams and competitors from all over the U.S. on a regular basis.

These tournaments are also what they call open tournaments so any style can compete although they do break out some of the more exotic type styles for kata and weapons competition but for fighting it is all one division based on the rank, age, sex of the competitor. I would liken the level of competition at the national level to that of professional football verses college football. It also can get very expensive since you are chasing rating points so you would need to hit at least several national tournaments per year and that can cost about $5,000 or more in traveling, lodging expenses and entry fees depending on what region of the country you live in. There is prize money at the adult blackbelt level but the promoters took out the really big prize money back in 1995 so winning my divison went from winning $300 or $500 to $50 or $100 and grand champion money went from $1,000-$5,000 down to $500 or a $1,000 at a AAA national tournament. I believe it has gone up now a little and some do offer money in the black-belt childrens divisons to help defray the costs that the parents have to absorb if they have a child who competes.

I would check them both out on the web, see which one has a multitude of tounrnaments in the part of the country that you live in. Then have your son try his luck at regional competition first and see how he fares. For me-I dominated competition at the regional level for several years but it took me almost four years after I moved up to be competitive at the national level.

Answer 2

The top belt in karate is a "black belt" and then there are different degrees, but there's no other color belt higher than black.