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
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.
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 ;)
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
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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
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'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 🙂
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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..."
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 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.
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).
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.
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.
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”.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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 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 ❤
Half hour video, let me sum it up; Belts are for instructors to know what a student should know. That's it. If I walk into my school and see a red belt I know he should be perfect at certain movements and forms, one steps. That's basically it. They also act as small obtainable goals to help with confidence.
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 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.
The last reflection of this video is golden. Even then, I do believe that a blackbelt should mean a certain degree of proficiency and dangerousness at fighting, something way above just exercising and be fit. So if you want to give recognition to a kid that does not have the above degree of proficiency at fighting then create some other color belt diferent than black or some other thing for them, but not black. Reserve black belt for pelple that could defend your art's reputation.
I have just achieved my judo black belt after 9 years of training, here in the UK the British Judo Association does things slightly differently, to get each dan you must beat 10 opponents of your level or higher (1st kyu and up through the Dan's) to earn the points for your next grade, similar to the batsugun mentioned in the video it just doesn't have to be done in one day, then a theory test to finally get the promotion
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 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.
judo kyu grades are white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown in canada and most other places i’ve been too. stripes are sometimes used with some clubs. getting a black belt in canada is a “big deal”. that 1st dan is hard work and the testing rigorous. getting a black belt in japan is much easier and faster. however, by the time you get to 4th dan, the japanese practitioner is scary good. scary scary good. when facing someone on the mat, i don’t look at their belt to determine their skill, but feel the way they move.
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
Great video. I had no understanding on belts outside judo. It was very interesting how Enkamp skipped orange and purple in karate, because there's a not non-significant group of people who think judo doesn't need an orange belt, and most places don't have purple belt in judo (but I recall it does exist somewhere). But how did the judo person skip blue belt altogether? At least in Finland blue is the belt that permits you to start teaching lower belts. My judo passport says "1st kyu brown, 2nd kyu blue, 3rd kyu green, 4th kyu orange, 5th kyu yellow, 6th kyu white". The stripes were also interesting in other martial arts, because in judo you have 2-3 stripes per belt BUT the stripes are almost exclusively used for kids (to split their training into smaller steps and keep them interested by demonstrating the progress). I looked more into it and found out that the junior stripes in Finland also mean that you aren't allowed to perform joint locks, chokes and strangles on them. And that many countries have a little bit of variance in their belt system even though the general system is the same. In Japan they often do just white and black, sometimes brown for advanced kyus and elementary schoolers can have green belts, but the belt colors are related to the age of the student. I'd say for judo yellow belt means that you graduated the beginner class which means to say you know how to fall, you know basic styles of practice and movement and you can perform a throw from each category (arm, hip and leg throws) and the basic pins and escapes on ground - essentially you understand an example of fundamental categories of techniques. It depends on the instructor and beginner class if you get to do free practice, randori, as you are learning for your yellow belt. Many are starting to think just like Seth stated that it's probably for the best to leave sparring to the next belts still as you learn more about the basics and start having tools to apply to the free practice. In judo people start tying the belt neatly without the crossing at the back once they are experienced enough to find someone to show how to do it like the Japanese competitors (or look it up on youtube because they're tired of their jacket slipping and belt opening or moving), because a neatly sitting belt is just so much better for it to sit in place instead of starting to move around. They also learn a better front knot like that so it won't slip or come loose. One thing I'm not a huge fan in judo is the belt graduations. They feel bigger and more scary than they are. I've had yellow belt for 10 years because I had a long break for studying and life taking time, and since then it was about not being able to afford it for not being in a student club. Now that I'm back to university club I can afford doing judo again and I probably know enough techniques and have enough refinement to graduate for two belts, but paying the federation fee to be eligible to graduate a belt would still be a rough economic hit. And since I haven't graduated any, it'll put like a year of waiting just because you have to wait between belts no matter how long you have been practicing. And it feels like the belt graduations are such a mystery on what all you have to know, because you might be asked something about the japanese names of the training methods and whatnot, but almost all of your time is spent practicing your technique and judo. Almost like taking a quiz on judo trivia. And you don't want to brainfart in the graduation like doing the wrong technique for mixing up the names or not remembering how to escape a specific pin etc. I feel like judo could benefit from graduation being a more casual event for the first few belts (the yellow belt at the end of beginner class was well prepared and instructed) so you can get confident in the graduation itself, not feeling like you're just about to go embarrass yourself and missing your chance to progress symbolically. Also it's funny to watch instructors and professional athletes talk about for example brown belts that to a beginner are almost full judokas, they're just about to get their black belt because they know so much and are so good. But just like turning 18 and then 30, over the years you start realising that when you were young looking up to 18 year olds as adults, the 18 year olds aren't fully grown up yet. So at 30 you're like that professional judoka or experienced black belt instructor who knows the brown belt is only just about to have the full range of their basics together and still very raw. Like getting the driver's license - you know the rules and showed you can drive following them, now you start to accumulate your own understanding and skill in practice. I find the bjj belt system fascinating. They really don't mind spending ages in white belt, that's just your student belt and it's not derogatory type of thing or anything to be a white belt after a long time. And some clubs award the belts to people who have practiced enough and demonstrated their skill without ceremonial graduations. One thing that's odd though is how huge bjj is in the US. Judo is big just about everywhere else and bjj is somteimes almost negligible. I mean here in Finland people probably still respect you for being a bjj black belt and don't think you're the toughest guy if you have judo black belt. I just think here people in general aren't exposed to martial arts much and wouldn't know any professional in the sport, they have no concept of what that black belt actually means. But I suppose there's still some magic to that mystical black belt of pro martial artist. Sorry for a huge wall of text again, these videos always spark my love again :)
A little expansion on the bjj belts - adults does go white blue purple brown black, but in the black belt you can get 10 stripes. 1-6 is a black belt, 7-8 is a coral belt (white red white red or black red black red), and 9-10 is red belt. However, no people can get 10 stripes, as only the founders have that honor as a sign of respect.
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
If I can be ultra specific it would be my local branch of Kyokushin Budokai. It was founded on Jon Bluming's blend of Judo and Kyokushin and the striking allowed Bas Rutten style open hand strikes to the head. My local branch, specifically, always put you through the same rigors as a standard Kyokushin dojo including 100 man kumite for black belt and, in addition, had a boxer and wrestler on staff to add to the standard curriculum. They also put people forward for MMA fights regularly.
20:57 actually the kyu ranks are a bit different between countries. In Germany we have white, white with yellow stripes, yellow, yellow with orange stripes, orange, orange with green stripes, green, blue, brown
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.
For an interesting look at early judo and its relationship to jujutsu, I highly recommend Sanshiro Sugata, by Akira Kurosawa. The film is eighty years old, but is still amazing!
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.
Shinkyokushin Shodan here and my take is this; the belt is not as important as the behaviour of the person wearing it. If your style helps you become a better person, who is respectful, does their best and is a good example of human, then the rest sorts itself. All systems should have a set syllabus for grading. It is to be a nationally (or globally) recognised and it is the measuring stick for all who attempt to grade for any rank. Granted, we can’t compare one individual to another, but if each of them meets the grading standards, that way people can all accept that they all sat the same test
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.
I got a black belt in karate as a kid. It took me about 7 years. I have a yellow belt in Judo which took me a few months. I also have a brown belt in BJJ which has taken me over 12 years to get. BJJ black belt is definitely the toughest to get.
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
In Kuk Sool Won it takes 5-6 yrs to earn a black belt. Belts in this order: no belt, white, yellow stripe, yellow, blue stripe, blue, red stripe, red, brown stripe, brown, one black stripe, two black stripes (black belt candidate level). At double black stripe level you start black belt testing, which is a series of quarterly tests, with a minimum of 8 tests/2 yrs. Most people take ~10 to 12 or more tests to achieve 1st dan black belt.
Go to DrinkLMNT.com/SenseiSeth for a free sample pack with any order!
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
I've tried ordering element before however, unfortunately they don't ship internationally
No Kendo?
Thumbs down.
Hey sensei seth could you do a video on hapkido?
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.
Thanks for having me on your channel again Seth! 🙏 Karate nerds 4 life!! 🥋
thank you, always so helpful
You and Seth are my favorites on youtube. Please combine force's on the next KNX🎉 And please let it be in Europe😅 #osu
No way
Sensei Jesse are you in America now, or do you travel a lot? I'm confused.
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.
That's absolutely true!
@@johnnapoletano An infallible statement!
Very true, my dad even recommended that I stop at brown to avoid getting prosecuted in some sort of Con Air situation.
Here are a couple more;
1) If you swim right after you eat you will get cramps and drown.
2) A real man never hits a woman.
The 70s to the 90s were the golden age of Bullshittto.
"i think i have someone else that can help us out with that" immediately in my head with an accent" Okinawa is the birth place of karate"
Yep I heard Jessie in my head immediately too...
It's amazing how much Judo has contributed to/helped create different martial arts.
I really wanna learn Judo.
It’s hard on the knees
Judo is an amazing martial art.
@@vedu8519 uncle Chael says it sucks
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
i’ve been doing since i was 5 and im 21 now lol but its definitely worth it 👍🏻
Just got my BJJ Black Belt last Saturday after almost 12 years and wouldn’t have it any other way!
Congrats🥋 I have been doing TKD for 6 years and I could have gone my black belt but not sure any more because it seems my dojo is being closed down 😢
@@cecil3602 don’t give up on that dream! Switch schools or styles! You got this!
Congratulations. Hopefully you can beat 99% of people at this point. Would suck training all that time and still losing fights against most people .
@@KentPetersonmoney 99% is pretty steep haha
Namaste. Congratulations and God bless.
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.
Thanks for having me on Seth!
If I had a black belt it be in Okinawan karate or judo
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 ;)
How can u forget the judo blue belt?? thats crazy hahahaha
@@danielhestvik4419Do they have blue in his dojo?
@@danielhestvik4419 fr
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.
yes, that. i 100% agree.
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.
韓国人がユーチューブにあげている動画は高い場所の板を蹴ったり、クルクル回ってるだけですが格闘技ですか？ 音楽も露出してお尻振ってダンスしてますが音楽ですか？ 選挙でも自分の公約を掲げるのではなく、相手を蹴落とし、不正の訴え合いをしてますが·· 色々調べてみると面白いですよ。世界中の人はあの国を全く理解していません。果たして本物があるんでしょうか？？
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.
Yeah it’s crazy the variation. At my club it’s white-> green-> brown-> black
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
It depends my style I don’t know how to right the name of it but it is very hard to rank to black belt
Huh I did Judo as a kid in Sweden and it went white - yellow - red - idk because I quit lol
Interesting
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
Congrats
@@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.
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 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.
I can see the headlines. "Florida man hospitalized after tornado kicking a crocodile"
@@christopherspohn8071well the guy shouldn't have been engaged with A MARRIED WOMAN now should he have?
@@spencertilton5853Nah, dude, the gator would need a hospital
you are the only channel I watch that I don't see the advert a mile a way so I dont skip that part like i normally do
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.
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.
Gained my black belt and actual felt I wasn’t ready. Sensei said, “now the real training starts and he was bang on. “
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
Lucky I’m so close to my TKD black belt 😅 , at some point I’ll do BJJ and karate .
@@cecil3602 Watch out First degree black belt is a huge quit point but arguably its one of the nicer times
Watching Karate or The Karate Kid?
Remember...in Okinawa belt only means, no need rope, hold pants up.
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
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.
Karate and Judo black belt AND a BJJ brown belt ?? Strike, Throw and Submissions. You are definitively a complete martial artist.
this is my dream. the only 3 black belts with any weight that correlates with the skill.
Damn you a beast 😂😂. I'm trying to get to that level as well
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 🙂
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.
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.
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.
Wut u gonna do if someone wrestles u to floor. Gonna be like khabib n mcgregor
@stevejung6470 I wouldn't choose mma, if I've got a sticking base why would I bother striking with a wrestler, I'll stick to glory/K1
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
Yup. If you win gold in the IBJJF World Championship your Professor can shorten your progress to next Belt by one year
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
Same here in Italy. We have FIJLKAM which is divided into Judo, Wrestling, Karate and other martial arts (BJJ excluded).
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
Thanks for letting me be a small part of another great video brother, and for calling me a bad ass. 🤣
"Belt for holding up pants." - Mr. Miyagi
belts DONT holds up your pants.
to be or not to be..
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.
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
In Japan it takes one year.
@@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.
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
I really enjoyed this video Seth. I recently achieved my black belt at 53. It took me 7 years of training over a 9 year time line.
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.
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.
We got the same order here. What style? I'm in shito-ryu
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.
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..."
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.
Same, no stripes in my gym
We don't do stripes either! And we test for belts.
I’ve trained at 3 different BJJ gyms none had stripes.
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 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.
I rather ask for years in practical training in the martial art, as what belt ones have.
Years of once a week, or years of all day every day? Years are not all the same...
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).
Wow. The pressure there must be enormous.
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.
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.
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”.
I really appreciate this format of the animations and breaking it down how the sparring differs theoretically. Would love if you did more of these.
Never compared my PhD to a black belt before, but it is a really similar process and, if you don’t take breaks, time scale!
My PhD took four years to get but I’m still a BJJ white belt (2 Stripes) after more than a year. This is so much harder! 😂
Jesse loves to give you enough info to get you hooked to do more research! So cool!
I grew up doing Karate (Goju Ryu specifically) and we had 8 belts but we had white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, black.
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.
I dream to have Black belt in BJJ someday. Currently still a white belt after a year.. 🙃
Stick with it, keep learning and you will get it.
There are no shortcuts.
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.
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.
The difference between a white belt and a blue belt in bjj is usually gigantic
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.
Blue belt in BJJ means street ready in bjj
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.
Hey Seth, Would you consider doing a video on Hapkido? I'm sure my dojang would love to show you some stuff.
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.
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.
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 .
The Kudo black belt is goals.
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.
Kudo looks savage
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.
Judo all the way. I'm testing for my yellow belt next week and it's been such a grind but it's so worth it
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.
You should talk more about ITF taekwondo🥋
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.
I love this episode!!!!!
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
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!
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday 🎉
Thanks so much!@@SenseiSeth
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 ❤
I don't like when you make interesting, informative videos because I can't think of anything to roast you about. I also love LMNT. Dammit.
Half hour video, let me sum it up; Belts are for instructors to know what a student should know. That's it. If I walk into my school and see a red belt I know he should be perfect at certain movements and forms, one steps.
That's basically it. They also act as small obtainable goals to help with confidence.
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.
Frank pretty much nailed it without writing a dissertation on it like most of us BJJ nerds would do. Chill lol
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).
@@mfp5585 good to know! Thank you. So it's less time then overall?
@@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 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.
Black belt at 11 is insane
The last reflection of this video is golden. Even then, I do believe that a blackbelt should mean a certain degree of proficiency and dangerousness at fighting, something way above just exercising and be fit. So if you want to give recognition to a kid that does not have the above degree of proficiency at fighting then create some other color belt diferent than black or some other thing for them, but not black. Reserve black belt for pelple that could defend your art's reputation.
Bjj and judo
I have just achieved my judo black belt after 9 years of training, here in the UK the British Judo Association does things slightly differently, to get each dan you must beat 10 opponents of your level or higher (1st kyu and up through the Dan's) to earn the points for your next grade, similar to the batsugun mentioned in the video it just doesn't have to be done in one day, then a theory test to finally get the promotion
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 completely agree with you
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.
bjj and judo
The 2 I train in , complete thruth
same
I have done Judo for over 10 years and am almost a black belt, have recently picked up jiu jitsu and bjj as well
real
The best combo for Gi grappling
judo kyu grades are white, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown in canada and most other places i’ve been too. stripes are sometimes used with some clubs.
getting a black belt in canada is a “big deal”. that 1st dan is hard work and the testing rigorous.
getting a black belt in japan is much easier and faster.
however, by the time you get to 4th dan, the japanese practitioner is scary good. scary scary good.
when facing someone on the mat, i don’t look at their belt to determine their skill, but feel the way they move.
Would’ve loved to see Seth’s reaction to cord systems in capoeira 😆
Was planning on adding that, sashes and “gloves” in savate but was too long. I’ll do another one in the future!
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
Been training for my black belt in bullshido wish me luck 🙏
Great video. I had no understanding on belts outside judo. It was very interesting how Enkamp skipped orange and purple in karate, because there's a not non-significant group of people who think judo doesn't need an orange belt, and most places don't have purple belt in judo (but I recall it does exist somewhere). But how did the judo person skip blue belt altogether? At least in Finland blue is the belt that permits you to start teaching lower belts. My judo passport says "1st kyu brown, 2nd kyu blue, 3rd kyu green, 4th kyu orange, 5th kyu yellow, 6th kyu white". The stripes were also interesting in other martial arts, because in judo you have 2-3 stripes per belt BUT the stripes are almost exclusively used for kids (to split their training into smaller steps and keep them interested by demonstrating the progress). I looked more into it and found out that the junior stripes in Finland also mean that you aren't allowed to perform joint locks, chokes and strangles on them. And that many countries have a little bit of variance in their belt system even though the general system is the same. In Japan they often do just white and black, sometimes brown for advanced kyus and elementary schoolers can have green belts, but the belt colors are related to the age of the student.
I'd say for judo yellow belt means that you graduated the beginner class which means to say you know how to fall, you know basic styles of practice and movement and you can perform a throw from each category (arm, hip and leg throws) and the basic pins and escapes on ground - essentially you understand an example of fundamental categories of techniques. It depends on the instructor and beginner class if you get to do free practice, randori, as you are learning for your yellow belt. Many are starting to think just like Seth stated that it's probably for the best to leave sparring to the next belts still as you learn more about the basics and start having tools to apply to the free practice.
In judo people start tying the belt neatly without the crossing at the back once they are experienced enough to find someone to show how to do it like the Japanese competitors (or look it up on youtube because they're tired of their jacket slipping and belt opening or moving), because a neatly sitting belt is just so much better for it to sit in place instead of starting to move around. They also learn a better front knot like that so it won't slip or come loose.
One thing I'm not a huge fan in judo is the belt graduations. They feel bigger and more scary than they are. I've had yellow belt for 10 years because I had a long break for studying and life taking time, and since then it was about not being able to afford it for not being in a student club. Now that I'm back to university club I can afford doing judo again and I probably know enough techniques and have enough refinement to graduate for two belts, but paying the federation fee to be eligible to graduate a belt would still be a rough economic hit. And since I haven't graduated any, it'll put like a year of waiting just because you have to wait between belts no matter how long you have been practicing. And it feels like the belt graduations are such a mystery on what all you have to know, because you might be asked something about the japanese names of the training methods and whatnot, but almost all of your time is spent practicing your technique and judo. Almost like taking a quiz on judo trivia. And you don't want to brainfart in the graduation like doing the wrong technique for mixing up the names or not remembering how to escape a specific pin etc. I feel like judo could benefit from graduation being a more casual event for the first few belts (the yellow belt at the end of beginner class was well prepared and instructed) so you can get confident in the graduation itself, not feeling like you're just about to go embarrass yourself and missing your chance to progress symbolically.
Also it's funny to watch instructors and professional athletes talk about for example brown belts that to a beginner are almost full judokas, they're just about to get their black belt because they know so much and are so good. But just like turning 18 and then 30, over the years you start realising that when you were young looking up to 18 year olds as adults, the 18 year olds aren't fully grown up yet. So at 30 you're like that professional judoka or experienced black belt instructor who knows the brown belt is only just about to have the full range of their basics together and still very raw. Like getting the driver's license - you know the rules and showed you can drive following them, now you start to accumulate your own understanding and skill in practice.
I find the bjj belt system fascinating. They really don't mind spending ages in white belt, that's just your student belt and it's not derogatory type of thing or anything to be a white belt after a long time. And some clubs award the belts to people who have practiced enough and demonstrated their skill without ceremonial graduations. One thing that's odd though is how huge bjj is in the US. Judo is big just about everywhere else and bjj is somteimes almost negligible. I mean here in Finland people probably still respect you for being a bjj black belt and don't think you're the toughest guy if you have judo black belt. I just think here people in general aren't exposed to martial arts much and wouldn't know any professional in the sport, they have no concept of what that black belt actually means. But I suppose there's still some magic to that mystical black belt of pro martial artist.
Sorry for a huge wall of text again, these videos always spark my love again :)
0:23 we all knew he was talking about Aikido and Taekwondo 👀…
And karate
A little expansion on the bjj belts - adults does go white blue purple brown black, but in the black belt you can get 10 stripes. 1-6 is a black belt, 7-8 is a coral belt (white red white red or black red black red), and 9-10 is red belt. However, no people can get 10 stripes, as only the founders have that honor as a sign of respect.
Kinda just said what I said but thanks lol
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
If I can be ultra specific it would be my local branch of Kyokushin Budokai. It was founded on Jon Bluming's blend of Judo and Kyokushin and the striking allowed Bas Rutten style open hand strikes to the head. My local branch, specifically, always put you through the same rigors as a standard Kyokushin dojo including 100 man kumite for black belt and, in addition, had a boxer and wrestler on staff to add to the standard curriculum. They also put people forward for MMA fights regularly.
Judo by far.
Respect to all martial arts🤙🏼🥋
Same tbh! Especially pre Olympic rules judo
For me judo and karate
@@thunderkatz4219 Hell Yeah Judo and Karate covers everything you ever need.
20:57 actually the kyu ranks are a bit different between countries. In Germany we have white, white with yellow stripes, yellow, yellow with orange stripes, orange, orange with green stripes, green, blue, brown
In germany we have different judo belts. There are 8 kyus. White-yellow, Yellow, yellow-orange, orange, orange-green, green, blue and brown
I think that's the common european standard
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.
For an interesting look at early judo and its relationship to jujutsu, I highly recommend Sanshiro Sugata, by Akira Kurosawa. The film is eighty years old, but is still amazing!
JUDO, always!
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.
Nice video as always!
Here is a video idea:
Compare kick box styles
Shinkyokushin Shodan here and my take is this; the belt is not as important as the behaviour of the person wearing it. If your style helps you become a better person, who is respectful, does their best and is a good example of human, then the rest sorts itself.
All systems should have a set syllabus for grading. It is to be a nationally (or globally) recognised and it is the measuring stick for all who attempt to grade for any rank. Granted, we can’t compare one individual to another, but if each of them meets the grading standards, that way people can all accept that they all sat the same test
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.
That is the same as a dancer. Let's give blackbelts to dancers too. And lets say that the "martial" aspect is about dancing wars at the dancefloor.
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.
I got a black belt in karate as a kid. It took me about 7 years. I have a yellow belt in Judo which took me a few months. I also have a brown belt in BJJ which has taken me over 12 years to get. BJJ black belt is definitely the toughest to get.
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.
Not really... That's why weight classifications for fights exist.
@@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
In Kuk Sool Won it takes 5-6 yrs to earn a black belt. Belts in this order: no belt, white, yellow stripe, yellow, blue stripe, blue, red stripe, red, brown stripe, brown, one black stripe, two black stripes (black belt candidate level). At double black stripe level you start black belt testing, which is a series of quarterly tests, with a minimum of 8 tests/2 yrs. Most people take ~10 to 12 or more tests to achieve 1st dan black belt.
I love your more educational content like this, or the video on stances and why they are the way they are (my favourite).