Are younger black belts different from older black belts?

Question

At my school there a little kids that are probably 10 years old that are black belts. I have friend that is a junior black belt she is 12. Then their are only 10 adult that are black belt. The rest of the school is below that. Is it good to have black belts that are little kids or wait until they are older?

Answer 1

There are alot of different schools of thought on this subject. I think a true black belt should be at least a young teenager with a high level of maturity.At least they have an understanding of what it means to be a martial artist by that time. I've seen so many studios with child B/Bs that cant even tie their belts properly or tell you the meaning their style. I think its a pathetic and a insult of the arts in general when that happens. While some kids may have a few skills does that really mean they understand meaning of the martial arts. With power comes responsibilty. How much responsibilty are you willing to give to a 9 or 10 year?

Answer 2

Yes, honestly I find that younger black belts are able to mimic the movements and remember the techniques but they tend not to grasp the subtlety or philosophy of martial arts. A true black belt is never actually achieved. In the old days it was only achieved when your initial white sash turned black since you were not able to wash it. After decades of blood, sweat and grime and dirt from training and perseverance your sash would turn black and you would then be considered a black belt. Children just don't have the mentality to be a black belt. A child has not survived the struggles of adolescence yet and thus is incapable of understanding the struggles and hardships that martial arts are suppose to possess. These schools that hand out belts to young kids are just trying to show progress to the parents so they keep sending there kids back and they can keep making a buck. (There are some exceptions and they are really rare and usually come from "gifted" individuals).

Answer 3

Black belt first degrees/dan is not the highest form of mastery of an art. Rather, some arts go up to nine to ten degrees/dans. First degree, like Frank the Tank stated, is merely the beginning of really learning the art- you know all the simple stuff now- its time you used it effectively and creatively. Different dojos/dojangs have different ways of testing a skill level. Therefore, a judo black belt of the same rank can be better or worser than a taekwondo black belt in a fight. Heck, a black belt from one particular club could be way strong stronger than another who does the same style, just because the training methods are different. I personally do taekwondo and when I tested for my black belt, I did the following: 1. Sparring 2. Breaking Boards 3. Several poomsae (thats a combination of combat movements that you memorize and perform) 4. Several one step sparring methods 5. "Frozen" Kicking (you lash out your leg/fist, leave it in midair for ten seconds, then you retract it) 6. Two hours long written examination (history, etiquette of taekwondo etc etc) 7. 75 push ups (100 if you are male) and a 5km run (even though most of us were too tired and just jogged). The test took me the entire morning (it commenced at 8am and didn't finish until past noon). As for how does one get promoted? Well, you get recommended in my dojang but I heard of places where you just test when "your time was up". Yes, there are some people who get black belts in under two years. Thats because they are very talented or their school's testing regulations are not strict enough or the school is in it for money and is a ripoff (more testing= more money). In my dojang, the black belt to colour belt (including one belt) ratio is 30:420 (an approximate). Not too bad, eh? Hope this helps! :)

Answer 4

the school really needs to have some sort of "junior division" for kids who earn black belts.. I've seen small kids with black belts who are obviously not skilled enough to be wearing a black belt, but their parents have given the school a lot of money over the years and so the school feels obligated to award the kids with belts.. the whole belt system is unnecessary in my opinion.. my kung fu school doesn't even use belts.. we know who is good and who isn't based on their performance in class.. I can immediately point out which students would have black belts if we did have a belt system..

Answer 5

I am a black belt in karate and I am in my late teens and I know someone who got their black belt when they were 12. At my karate school, we had to work hard to get each belt and our teacher didn't put us up for our next belt test unless we were up to that level. Because we were in the kids classes, it took longer for us to advance from belt to belt, but adults were in the faster paced classes so they mastered the techniques in half the time. I think age doesn't matter as long as the student is at the level for black belt because someone that is at that level shouldnt be denied a black belt just because of their age, but like I said only if their skills are at that level.

Answer 6

I have to say yes and I think you have to look across the entire spectrum. Older black belts like myself that started karate forty years ago learned and promoted under a stricter standard. There were no kids in classes and adults had more free or discretionary time to train and study and you spent a lot of time doing that. If you did not-then you were not promoted.

Once the karate boom hit in the early 70s martial arts really started to take off and you started to see children's classes as well as adult classes. People started to have less discretionary time also and this caused a reduction in the standards at many schools. The older, stricter, more traditional schools slowly fell out and were displaced by more successful schools that catered to the entire family and were largely children oriented. I saw many well trained, skilled, knowledgeable martial artists close their schools as costs and competition for students increased. Also the advent of the VCR and video camera made it more easy for everyone to learn different aspects of martial arts-even the watered down schools and instructors with their child oriented programs.

In the late 80s and early 90s martial arts became more widely accepted as a great way to motivate and instill confidence, especially in children; not just for self-defense. That along with academics getting stricter for children, the world becoming more of a violent place in general, and the sudden rise in learning disorders in children accelerated this all that much more. Those martial arts schools have turned out many young blackbelts with what I would call in some cases, but not all, people that are now instructors with their own schools with even lower or more watered down standards.

I think you also have to look at and consider the combat aspects of martial arts and remember that in feudal times a poor martial artist usually lost an arm, hand, or even possibly his life. Their skill and art had a whole different aspect to it than martial arts does today for most.

While I don't think it is bad to have black belts of younger ages it is the standard that a school, instructor, and style imposes that is more important. Some schools and instructors like myself have been able to maintain a high standard and yet move forward and still produce a student that is superior in skill, abilities, and knowledge and comes closer to those to meeting old standards. Instructors like this usually have one school-not three, ten, or twenty five and that one school has only a hundred to two hundred students usually. As those students who may have been younger black belts at one time mature they continue in many ways to develop their knowlede and skill and can stand on their own abilites unlike those from a school, instructor, or style with watered down standards.

Answer 7

i think they should have a Junior black belt, because at 10 years old they will be just bragging that they are a black belt but they probably won't even be good enough to have it.
i think its stupid when you see young kids running around with black belts. i mean before i had a fight with this boy who did karate and i managed to pick him up and throw him, he was completly rubbish, and this was 2 years before i even started learning karate. he acted so big just because he was doing karate, after that he was sooooo embaressed.

Answer 8

Yes. Older black belts are older and younger black belts are younger.

Answer 9

The only thing belts are good for is holding your pants up.

Answer 10

i dont think so cause i think you could get your bleck belt when you deserve it!!!