Why The Red Belt is the MOST Important Belt | ART OF ONE DOJO
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- The Red Belt is a wild card in the martial arts and holds many different meanings. Depending on the art practiced, it can mean expert, novice, be a forefront presence or completely omitted from a system. The red belt is unique and in this video we ask the question, why is the red belt the most important belt in the martial arts?
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because my dad was in the military I ended up having to train at about four different taekwondo schools before I got my black belt. Though, I remember that the last master that I had, always said that the red belt stood for danger, because the practitioner has the skills of a black belt but has not yet learned the control of one.
Now that's the best martial-arts-ranking quote that I've heard in years!
:)
Thats what we said about the brown belt division in tournaments. The guys were real good but alot lacked the control of a black belt so u could get hurt alot worse in the brown belt division than the black.
The tkd art I train in is somewhat similar but also different.
In most tkd schools red represents danger or an animal, vicious and strong.
But we used brown in the place of red as he doesn't want blood thirsty fighters, but fit happy people that can defend themselves if they ever need to.
@@kob3178 i agree with that👍
@@sliderx1897 thanks, I thought it was a smart idea when I heard it.
I can’t wait until I get my BJJ red belt 😂
9th Daveed red belt in Bjj takes you’re whole life bro. Keep striving if you want that shiny red belt!
y d what about Amazon prime?
y d fake Bjj black belt I see coming
That takes over 40 years or more.Rickson took 55 years.
Apparently, the laughing face emoji after the statement doesn't make it that clear that it was a joke. 🙄
I remember asking my old Sifu why we wear red sash. I expected to hear something about tradition and deep symbolism. Sifu's answer was way better than I anticipated.
"The sash is so your pants don't fall down. It's red because I like red"
😂😂😂
In many Taekwondo schools.
White - the color of innocence or the color of the beginner who has no previous knowledge of Taekwondo. A seedling.
Yellow - signifies the earth from which a plant sprouts and takes root as the Taekwondo foundation is being laid.
Green - signifies a plant's growth as Taekwondo skills begin to develop.
Blue - the color of the sky toward which a plant grows as the Taekwondo training progresses.
Red - color of danger. Cautioning the student to exercise control as they could be a danger to themselves or others without control.
Black- the opposite of white therefore signifying the maturity and proficiency of Taekwondo growth the student has obtained.
This is awesome, thank you for the explanation!
Yes except they took the colored system that other martial arts used and added these descriptions after the fact.
The ranking system most martial arts used was created by judo's Jigoro Kano and inspired by the existing Dan ranking system in the game Go.
The coloured belts system was invented by another judo master in 1930s Mikonosuke Kawaishi who was teaching in Paris. You'd have to read his biography to find out why he chose those colours and order. (I read a french book/article a lifetime ago which claims that he got idea from his students in England where he had a school before moving to France)
@@vlada yes, those explanations came after, as a McDojo marketing scheme.
Interesting! Where’s brown though?
@@VaibhavGajjala No brown in ITF Taekwondo
I started in Shotokan and made it to Yellow Belt. In our dojo, the ranks went as follows:
Beginner: White, Yellow, Orange and Green
Intermediate: Green with Black Stripe, Blue, Purple and Red
Advanced: Red with Black Stripe and Brown
Black Belt 1-10 Dan
In TKD, the red belt is like a brown belt in Karate, it is the previous belt before black belt
I thought it was Brown belt, black belt, THEN red belt, which is the highest you can go??
Not at all schools red is the first gup, in some schools that traditionally where associated to the judo federation, like in Spain where the first eastern martial arts federation was the judo federation and associate sports, the first gup is represented by a brown belt. In other schools where they use belt tips the red represents the second gup and the first one is a red belt with black tips. This choice doesn’t make sense when we see the red and black belt, that is basically a dan grande for young people who didn’t achieved the minimum age to get a black belt, but is a kind of tradition, thats why we must not talk about colors but GUP.
In Kukkiwon Taekwondo the highest belt you can get is Black 9th Dan, no other colors are used beside black.
@@sirdeetoh Thanks for clearing that up!
All belts r before blacc
In American Tang Soo Do, just like its Korean counterpart red belt is used in lieu of brown belt. There are three levels of red belt: 3rd gup (1 stripe), 2nd gup (2 stripes) and 1st gup (3 stripes). Some ATSD schools have changed it so that for each level/degree its a different type of red belt. One is a regular red belt, followed by a red belt with a white solid stripe down the length of it and then one with a black stripe. Some schools have also added an extra rank, what's known as "cho dan bo" rank after 1st gup which is a half red/half black belt.
As for the Dan ranks, ATSD traditionally only uses regular black belts. No "masters" or "grandmasters" belts. Neither Chuck Norris, Pat Johnson or Bob Wall for example, wear special belts. With that being said, over the past few years some schools have added Korean Tang Soo Do style "masters" and "grandmasters" belts.
When I startet Kyokushin Karate someone told me the belt means nothing it is all about yourself and he was right someone could train 5 years of Martial art then switch to a similiar art starting as a white belt.
So always believe in yourself regards of the belts, and stay open mindet.
You 're right. Belts don't matter because the system itself is extremely flawed and stiff. Against a fluid and fast opponent, such as a traditional wing chun master, he wouldn't stand a chance in hell!
I did exactly that. I had years of training, then spent 5 years as a senior student/assistant instructor, then got hurt and after my rehab I started going to a traditional ITF style taekwondo school. The 1st Dan black belts were unhappy when they thought they were going to show me how tough they were..
@@mightymeatmonsta one special ed practitioner picking on an other similar art form seems uncalled for. 😏
@Sergio Díaz NilaI like what you said. I agree, I'm a Karate student. As we develop our skills in kata, bunkai is a great skill. We at higher ranks of colored belts we sometimes do for warm ups by doing a kata and then after working on some of the Bunkai with our partner, then we take a section of the kata that we like and work on it, and develop our own bunkai with our partner. The logic behind doing this is to help us learn to not be all stiff learn to be more fluid. It helps develop a way of understanding how to apply the moves in a fight. In a fight on the street. Every move we make must be made by instinct and follow through with no hesitation once an attack happens. We must react accordingly, not trying to think of what move we should use. If I were attacked and tried to think what moves to use, I would be done for.
Bro. I haven't trained seriously in months and I can't even bring myself to wear my brown belt. I feel like I would be disrespecting it if I wore it now. Time to put on my white belt again!!!
Sensei Dan you are definitely the personification of a martial arts scholar, in my opinion. You present things in such a professional, concise, methodical, historical, chronological and academic manner. Indeed the red belt is ambiguous, in terms of its meaning, relevance and level of prestige, across the global, martial arts landscape.
As you said in martial arts systems such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu it is awarded to grandmasters 9th dan black belt and above, yet in some Karate styles it is awarded to those of a 5th or 6th degree black belt, ranking pedigree!
You are absolutely spot on Sosai Oyama Masutatsu, altered the colour of the red belt to orange, out of respect for some of his fellow martial arts masters and friends, in other Japanese Karate styles and Judo, where they themselves wore these red belts as the ultimate representation of mastery in their arts. Nevertheless as you mentioned some of our Kyokushin Karate schools or organisations, have retained the original red belt. I have been part of dojos and organisations, that utilise either the red or orange coloured belt. Nevertheless as you said in the end belts colours are at the end of the day, symbolic representations of a person's progression in a system of combat, they do not reflect the actual individual's capabilities as a martial artist.
Oddly enough the first inaugural, as well as the second Kyokushinkaikan Karate World Champion from Japan, Nakamura Makoto, who is now head of his own independent Kyokushin Karate organisation, wears both a black Kyokushin Karate Karate typical black belt, however controversially having awarded himself an 11th dan, one higher than our Kyokushin Karate founder Sosai Oyama Masutatsu, who was 10th dan black belt himself, but in addition to this he also wears a red belt simultaneously, underneath his black belt.
Then there is the late Dutch Kyokushin Karate master, as well as Judo grandmaster Kaicho Johannes Cornelius Bluming, who upon forming his own Kyokushin Karate and Judo, amalgamated association wore a solid and complete 10th dan red belt with gold embroidery for his dan bar ranks, as well as his personal name and that of his organisation in Japanese characters.
Aside from these two gentlemen in Kyokushinkaikan Karate, we do not use the red belt, as a colour of masters or grandmasters rank levels, rather as you mentioned Sensei Dan, the first coloured belt awarded after the white novice rank belt in some of our schools. In Enshinkaikan Karate under its founder Kancho Ninomiya Yoko, originally from Japan and residing most of his life in Denver, Colorado, USA, their black belt ranks are all the way as the designated colour, all the way up to the top grandmaster rank level. Nevertheless in Enshin Karate they use the red dan bars like in American Kenpo Karate and some other martial arts systems, to clearly show the various dan levels of progression of an individual's black belt ranks progression. In some other cases in some other arts, I have come across some styles of Karate using a black belt with a borderline in red, with the vast majority of the black, coloured belt textile, in the middle of the actual belt itself.
My observation is that throughout history, the red colour has been associated with passion, power, leadership and nobility. The Roman centurions wore red garments including their cloaks, as part of their military uniforms, kings, queens and other members of the nobility in the West again with the case of Roman Emperors or the British royals for example wore red capes, mantles, robes and even as part of their crowns ornaments. So I am not surprised that red has been adopted into the martial arts, belts colours, ranking system to either represent the foundations of the art, or its ultimate pinnacle of mastery. In the end as you said what is important, is our dedication, hard work and what the actual colour of the belt, actually represents and means to us. I hope all is well with you Sensei Dan, as well as your loved ones, may God Almighty bless and keep you all safe as always. Greetings from Melbourne, Australia 🇲🇽🇦🇺🥋🙏Osu!
When I studied Jui Jitsu not BJJ, but the Jui Jitsu style from Japan there was a red belt that over saw all the Dojos in the region. On occasion all the dojos would meet together and the head instructor/red belt would come in.
I have argued with so many people over the red belt rank including black belts who said that red was not a “master” rank.
This guy does an excellent job of explaining the red belt
I. My system the belt holds up your pants
In mine it helps hold your gi top closed, our bottoms come with draw strings. Lol
Like Mr. Miyagi said
In mine it holds the sword in place... xD
To add to the conversation, in my organization we use belts with red on them as ceremonial belts. These belts are only worn at offical functions and events like promotions and tournaments. They go as follows:
5th dan - Black with red stripe
Kari 6th dan (my system is weird) - black with 2 red stripes
6th dan - red with 1 black stripe
7th dan - red with 2 black stripes
8th dan - red with 1 white stripe
9th dan - full red
I know that in some okinawan styles they use the renshi, kyoshi and hanshi belts in the same way. However those of the time I see those belts being worn all the time.
In my kenpo class red was between green and brown. Red was very difficult because of how much more you had to learn from the green belt. You had to learn almost all of the forms, and techniques that a black/brownbelt. A lot of people including myself would get stuck on the red belt for many years because of how much you had to learn to go from green to red.
I love the symbolism for the black belt.
Back in the day, you start with a white belt, and as you trained, your white belt would get dirty and stained by sweat and dirt from training, eventually becomming blackened by years of intense training. Then, when you have achieved a fully blackend belt, it meant that you have already spent enough time on your basics, it showed you REALLY had put time into it, and hard training at that. your belt wont be blackened by standing around, but intende training, being taken to the grund by other students, etc. So a blackend belt REALLY meant a guy had trained.
The traditional white-brown-black also reflects this.
I love this symbolism
Furthermore, by the time you reach the master ranks, you'd probably switch you old and worned belt which started its life as just a cheap un dyed for new, shinny and expensive red belt as at this point you probably have status and really earn some cash from teaching.
The white belt turning black is actually a myth and not how the black belt came to be. It has great symbolism to it but the black belt was implemented by Judo founder Jigoro Kano and in the grand scheme of martial arts, hasn't been around that long. We did a video topic on this a while back. ruclips.net/video/KGRGzyWBArY/видео.html (the black belt part starts at 2:28).
Howdy! I am a Karatedo practitioner in Shudokan! In the style I study, Redbelt is equivalent to 10th dan, the highest rank of Blackbelt. The last thing I noticed in Shudokan Karatedo, the rank of Ichi-kyu was the third rank of Brownbelt (which is actually 1st degree) (3rd degree, San-kyu, 2nd degree, Ni-kyu, and 1st degree, Brown Belt, Ichi-kyu) now Ichi-kyu is now represented by a Red belt with a Black stripe that goes parallel along the Belt!
In soryu Karate that comes from the root of Shudokan the Red belt is the 10th Dan. The brown belt is sankyu nikyu ikyu. I have been in Soryu karate since 1966. At my age now the belt is invisible to me. But I wear one on occasion for my students.
In the system I was taught, red signified a learning instructor between 1st degree black belt and 2nd degree black belt. They're black belts, but they're learning to teach, and run classes.
In Okinawa the "Gold" (Not dark yellow) is a tenth Dan. TKD uses red before black to insult the Japanese belt ranking system,. (This goes back to the 60-early 70's. Back in the 60's I went from white to green to brown and then after being a brown for about ten years I received a third dan.
Took a couple of days to think about this one, but I think what resonated with me the most was your commentary at the end that it doesn't matter what belt/sash is around your waist. It's abound the training and what you put into it
In Isshin-ryu and Jiu-jitsu, the red belt is the master rank. Neither teacher plays around with it. They both kept it traditional.
My Taekwondo class was interesting. They used 3 ranks of red before Bo-Dan, aka Bo-Black. And the Red-3 belt was actually optional. My instructors decided to let students choose either Red-3 or Brown when they reached 1st Gup. I personally went with Brown because after a year of red, another 6 months at 1st Gup, and then another 6 months at Bo-Dan which is a half black half red belt, I really needed a break in there so I wasn’t seeing just red for 2 years.
As for custom belts that we give meaning to, I did this. When I was way younger, I was enrolled in 5 different martial arts all at once because I was stupid. And I had a different rank in each one. I really enjoyed working out in the dogi because I loved the sound it makes when you move and the snap when you strike. So since I had so many different ranks, I sought out one belt I could wear to represent everything and I settled on a Camo belt. Camouflage is a mix of several different colors and I thought that was the perfect representation of how many different styles I was in with different ranks.
I understand today that the Camo belt is pretty much the telltale sign of a McDojo, but you know what? I don’t care. I love my Camo belt. I still wear it today. It’s the most worn out belt I have. I wear more than my Black Belt. Out of all the arts I was in back then, I only stuck with Isshin-ryu and Taekwondo, and I recently joined a Jiu-jitsu class, but I still like my Camo belt and feel like its mix of colors represents the different arts I do.
I like this! Despite how many people view the camo belt, you gave it a valuable representation and it means something to you, which is great. You put the meaning in the belt...not the other way around.
I practice ITF Taekwondo. So for us "Red signifies danger, cautioning the student to exercise control and warning opponents to stay away."
Being a "Karate Kid" enthusiast, you may remember in part 2 that Sato wore a red belt with a black gi top & white gi pants when he was practicing chopping hitting a beam of wood and Miyagi visited him. As a kid, that mystified me ("Why isn't he wearing a black belt? Isn't he a karate master?").
But where did he recieve said red belt?!?!? Miyagis father was his teacher and miyagi didnt believe in belts🤔🤔🤔
Ive pondered this for years!
I think it is implied that Sato commercialized Miyagi Do or the teachings into his own school. He was a businessman from a wealthy family. He had a school downtown to teach the American servicemen and had posters everywhere at the airport. I think it is implied that he's a local martial arts celebrity and wearing a master belt is part of that image. He's all about the show. Look at the billboard...it's red white and blue while he's advertising teaching American soldiers and even lists himself as "Master Sato".
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@@ArtofOneDojo Thanks for the pic. Wow, you ARE a Karate Kid fan!
@@ArtofOneDojo very very true. Just as i suspected... self appointed red belt
Art of One Dojo suddenly thinking - have you made any videos about favorite or classic martial arts movies? Or generally martial arts in pop culture?
So a bit of history of the red belt and the belt ranking system in general. It originated in Judo (Originally known as Kano Jujutsu), much like the custom of practicing in a gi, in which Jigoro Kano would use the black belt to represent students and the black belt to represent instructors. Later on intermediate belt colors were added as a way to retain students. Currently in Judo it's white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown then black. When the kodokan was established they added a striped red and white belt for their sixth instructors, and the red belt for their ninth dans and higher. To date the Kodokan has never promoted anyone above tenth dan, and few living individuals altogether.
Now Bjj is a descendamt art of Judo through Mitsuyo Maeda (Known in Brazil as Conte Combe) who taught the first of the Gracies and Osvoldo Fadda (creating a lineage of BJJ that isn't part of the "Gracie System"). A lot of the belt system was directly incorporated into BJJ, however the Gracies do a lot to distance themselves from the Kodokan although many of them have Judo black belts. The gracies maintain a red belt for ninth degree or higher, but only a gracies have one in BJJ, due to the age requirements.
The belt system was adopted by other martial arts due to geographic proximity. Really, Judo was one of Japan's first contribution to the Olympics and helped to inform the world's idea of a "Black Belt". Kano would actually send his instructors abroad to teach Judo in other countries to help grow the sport. All in all though, the practice of a belt ranking system is a relatively new practice that came about in the 20th century with the growth and proliferation of sports organizations. It's a convenient way to match competitors by rank and experience rather than throwing all competitors into a giant pool.
My Martial Arts instructor Chief Grandmaster Rudy Jones in his Ninjitsu system it takes a while to get to your Black Belt, after you received your Brown Belt, it takes four Black Stripes to get to your black belt 🥋.
But in his system there is no full red belt only red stripes on the black belt to indicate your Dan
The arrangement of tkd belts here in the Philippines is different from how the tkd belts are arranged there in the US. Belt arrangement of wt tkd here is white,yellow,blue,red,brown and black. It's nice to know that belt arrangements are different from the US and other countries.
Fun Fact: Red, in Shintoism, is the color of the gods. This is why red is used by many systems as master. In other countries, however, its possible to see different color belts according to the meaning of certain color. For example, there are various karate and jujutsu systems in England and the UK that do not designate red as master, but rather royal purple.
Interesting tidbit. If I were in the UK however, this would have caused me confusion, as in Isshinryu, among other schools of karate, purple comes right before brown.
In the dojo where I teach we define Red Belt as the transition from beginner student to advanced student. *White, Yellow, Green, Red, Brown, 2nd Brown, Black. The yellow & green tests are pretty easy. The Red Belt test is a miniature Black Belt Test, usually taking 8 hours, but up to 9 hours.
In the Kempo system I studied in the 90s, Red belt was a teaching belt, All Jr Instructors who were not black belt would earn a red belt, the testing for it was more rigorous, and also focused a lot on philosophy. You could not even test for a red belt until you reached blue belt, and you had to be sponsored by a black belt instructor. You wore you red belt only when you were teaching other students (always students lower rank than you), otherwise you wore your regular rank color belt for your lessons.
I forgot to mention that, good point about the teaching belt! We had an instructor MANY years ago who was a green belt but REALLY good, but our head instructor didn't think parents would like their kids taught by a green belt so he got to wear a red belt with the words "ASSISTANT" embroidered on it. Looked advanced and no one questioned it.
Man, I just want to make Black Belt in Kenpo as soon as I possibly can get back to taking classes again!
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🥋
🐅⛩️🥋🧘🏻♂☯️⛩️🐉
👊🏻💪🏻😎
My red belt story
I spent a few years training at a Kempo school. I got up to green belt, next would have been brown then black ( no red). Than my family moved to a small town 50 miles away, i couldn't afford the commute.
I started training at a small TKD school that was trying to become a " More street effective system." After a month or so, the head instructor approached me and said. " In our school green belt is a lower rank. I think it's confusing the students. I'd like you to wear this black belt in class."...
I thought about it for a minute, and said. " I don't feal comfortable taking a belt I didn't test for." Next class he presented a RED belt, and said. " I don't know how to test you, but I'd like you to wear this belt in class because it better represents your skill level."
This time it was in front of the students, I couldn't say no... That's how I got my honorary Red belt.
That's awesome! He wouldn't have given it to you if he didn't think you earned it or performed to that level!
You are definitely the best RUclips martial artists out there you have such Direct way of expressing yourself and this video explains what I explained to my students. The belt you wear it in your waist and not in your forehead so it really doesn't matter what belt you have what matters is who you are and what achieve and if you have a good purpose for it. Oss
The school I grew up in, the Grand Master started out with four belt colors: you started wearing no belt, then went to yellow, than blue, then red, then black. Yellow was after about six months to a year, blue a year to two after that, red two to five years after that, then black was five to ten years after that. He had no degrees. Once you had a black belt, you were a master.
When he started joining competitions, people complained that his blue belts had been practicing as long as some other people's black belts. So he looked around at other schools and adopted a new scheme that was kind of an amalgamation of other systems. That was about six months before I joined, and my instructor was still adjusting to the new system. One of the advantages of the old system was that there were only two forms for the yellow belt, so you spent most of your first three or four months learning stances and basic step movements. Than you learned the first two forms in the last two months. When it transitioned, out was unclear to the satellite schools (like mine) which if any forms were needed for yellow belt, and when I took my first test in front of the grandmaster it was, to put it mildly, chaos. Some people testing for yellow belt with me only knew basic movements and some who had been there less time than me knew five forms but did them very poorly. My school were in the middle: we had learned the forms in the last week and did them *very* poorly (wrong moves, moves out of order, lots of pauses) but our stances and movements were awesome because we had been doing pretty much only those for months.
I learned over the years as the grandmaster adjusted things that what the rank means is not important, what's important is that everyone knows what it means.
What style?
Northern Shaolin Long Fist and Praying Mantis. He grew up in styles with no belt rankings so he was doing his best to make sense of it based on what he saw around him.
My Sensei is a 9th dan, I half jokingly asked why he doesn't wear red belt, he laughed and said back in the day in japan red belts were used to denote women black belts(for some sexist reason women could not be presented a "black" belt at the time) also in Japanese karate a red belt is not typically used as a rank but is widely used for competition purposes to denote your side and correspond with the color flag. In shobu ippon there is a white and a red. In wkf competition there is a blue and a red. Red or "aka" will have to wear a red belt with red gloves.
At my sons previous Goju-Ryu Karate Club his first colour belt was red. Their system works - Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown, Brown with Black Stripe and Black. The system at the Shotokan Club is - Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Purple, Red, Brown and Black.
In my early days of Karate, the first style of Karate I trained in was Shito-Ryu. The school had pretty much every color you can think of. The belt after white was red and then you move on to orange.
very interesting and informative. Also good to avoid misunderstandings. The most important though to me are white (the beginner) and black, which are older than the colour system which originated with Kano. I like the BJJ approach where you know that a black belt has 9-12 years of practice. Giving black belts to teenagers or after just 3 years is just ludicrous.
I always enjoy your videos. In my system we use the red belt for student instructors who aren't black belts yet. To become a student teacher you have to go through special training on how to teach (like being able to mirror your stances, techniques, etc. to make it easier for students to just mirror you back so they can get the technique right, we have something called 'sensei left' and 'sensei right' which is basically right and left respectively) Once you go through the training you can help teach, usually the younger students with the bigger classes (and not for free, you get paid to help teach). I think the red is to prevent anyone from talking back to the instructor by saying something like 'well you're only a green belt, what would you know?' That's my guess as to why we use a red belt. Some say it makes it easier to identify the helpers, but I've had little kids come into the dojo who need help with something (outside of a class) and they'll ask me simply because I'm an adult, so I think the real reason for the red belt it to prevent talking back.
I will agree with this, and I wish I would have remembered this when filming the episode. My first instructor had exactly this, an assistant who taught classes and was a green belt, but he was really good but parents didn't want to see a green belt teaching classes so he got to wear a red belt with the gold letters "ASSISTANT" on it. I never questioned it until one day I saw him take his own class. Thank you for bringing this up!
@@ArtofOneDojo oh my gosh I bet it IS 100% because of the parents. I can't believe I didn't see that. I assumed it was the kids, but I couldn't imagine my dojo letting anyone talk back in a nasty manner to anyone regardless of rank (versus just being silly). (For example even to be a junior Blackbelt you need maturity and a sense of humility and grace or you can't get promoted no matter how good your skill is) but I could absolutely see the parents throwing a fit! It's why parents will insist their orange belt get taught by the master of the dojo (a 6th degree black belt) when really a blue belt and up would still give the kid a million helpful things to work on. Parents man...
Oh wow, that is really interesting. In the dojo I had trained in, which was Isshinryu, all those purple and above had to help teach, and even the green belts were expected to go over drills with lower ranked students, if called upon to do so by the sensei. And on top of all that, it was without pay. I don't even think that the lower ranked sensei was paid to teach, under the head sensei. So I think that kenpo seems to be all the more so considerate in that respect.
I never seen red belts in Goju. It was white, white with green stripes, green, green with brown stripes, brown, brown with black stripes and black
Love the messaging at the end.... spot on
The closing is awesome!
In our Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo association, which is based on Tang Soo Do, red is the last of the color belts before black belt. Plain red belt is 3rd highest color rank (3rd gup), then you add a stripe for 2nd gup, then another stripe for 1st gup. Next step after that is 1st dan black belt. In our system, red belt signifies the ability to draw blood. Red belt or 3rd gup is the first rank where we are allowed to strike the face in sparring. We are also expected to occasionally teach full classes in preparation to become an instructor. As you get into the upper color belts, you begin to see how everyone becomes their own martial artists, as two students of same rank can show very different levels of expertise and each will have their own specialty, whether it be sparring, forms, breaking, self-defense, etc...
Love those shout outs to Tang Soo Do. In our TSD federation red symbolizes summer, ripening, and the Yang portion of the Korean Um-Yang. This comes before the calm, maturity, and harvest of midnight blue.
Ive been learning tkd for a while and as a kid i just accepted that red belt was before black and i thought it was a normal thing in any other art with a belt system
I looked up belt rankings like a couple years ago and i was surprised to see that the red belt is actually associated with the 10th dan (the level of "true mastery" or the highest level) in some martial arts
Very informative video Mr. Dan and quite accurate. I truly believe what you said when you ended the video about the idea of any kind of belt. Imo “it’s not what’s around your waist that says what type of a person or martial arts practitioner you are, but rather what you do when you step on the mat and how you conduct yourself in front of your peers and others.”
I am currently a solid red belt in what I believe is kenpo. In our dojo we have solid and high belts of each color (white, yellow, green, blue, red, brown) plus candidate belt before black belt. After watching this video again, I can appreciate how red can feel like a beginner expert or an expert beginner.
No not Kenpo does not have red it goes ⚪️🟡🟠🟣🔵🟢🟤🟤🟤⚫️
I’m in kenpo so just saying . Sorry if I sounded mean
In my school of Taekwondo we see the red belt as a warning for the opponent to stay away and also a warning for the student to exercise control.
Red was predominantly an instructors color for us, until it was integrated as the 10th belt preceding the 11th and 12th you receive prior to your 1st Black (I Tuan). However, I think your statement is enticing and valid when examining the curiosity behind the usage of the red belt.
The multiple colours of belts for junior grades came in when Karate became monetised and commercialised,
The majority of people don’t have the self discipline to continue training without a public symbol of their achievements to show for it.
As you say in the early days a Shotokan student would train from 9th Kyu to 4th kyu as a white belt which could be a period of 2 years or more, before spending another year or so as a brown belt from 3rd to 1st kyu before going for black.
In today’s world we are fickle and need our little badges of honour. But in reality the colour of the belt means nothing.. it’s the person who wears it that matters.
Another outstanding video on the martial arts thanks, team. Regards Harry
Nicely done Dan! Very interesting and informative. In some arts of Ju Jutsu like Miyama Ryu, and San Yama Bushi Ryu, there is no red belt. Their highest ranks attainable are "Kaiden", belts which have red on the top half and white on the bottom half. Also their title is modified from being referred to as "Shihan"....all other, lower black belt ranks are referred to as "Sensei". The Headmaster's belts, which were unattainable (Red for life on the upper half, and black for death on the lower half), were uniquely referred to as "Shinan". This was reserved for the founders of the art. Another interesting note is when a martial artist dies (especially a high ranked one), they are buried wearing a white silk sash for a belt, signifying the completion of the circle of life.
William W some one trained
With grandmaster A . Perrier
I do Sanuces Ous
The belts are inconsistent because they are an import from judo and are not native to traditional karate. In Isshinryu there were was variety in the 90s, but the one I best appreciated philosophically only had white, green after you learned the first four kata, brown after you got the next two, and then black for all 8. Kobudo was then taught to black belts. But there were no belts in the early day of Isshinryu. If you look at the photos from the 1950s. They most often didn't wear shirts and the pants were the length of modern capris.
When i tudied Choe Lay Fut Kung Fu the red sash was the belt you wore at the very beginning. When I studied Korean Hwa Rang Do the red belt was the next belt after the brown, then was a black and red striped belt then black. I had often wondered about it as it seems to be the only color that doesn't have a universally accepted meaning...everyone knows a white belt means beginner and black means expert at least it most systems and other colored belts denote some level of intermediate learning. But the red is more...enigmatic. If nothing else I suppose the red belt is a good lesson in not assuming someone's skill level based on a colored belt because of the differences in ranking systems throughout the marital arts. Admittedly the same could be said for other colored belts for the same reason but this on in particular is so malleable in its placement that I think it warrants the particular attention that it has been given.
...adding in, respectfully, a clarification for Bujinkan; white @ 10th kyu, green until 5th kyu, brown thereafter until Shodan, regardless of gender...and we have a saying, "don't trip over your belt, or anyone else's." Great channel, many thanks, keep up the good work!
That's interesting, I haven't seen brown associated much with Bujinkan. "Traditionally", green is male and red is female but a lot of schools will keep both green or like you mentioned, utilize other colors.
In the Kenpo dojo where I grew up...the Red Belt was a Jr. Instructor belt. It was awarded to certain individuals who were invited to a class (and passed a written and oral examination) that taught the basics of teaching. This was (un)usually awarded after Purple, but in my case (and that of my Sensei) it was awarded near the end of Orange. It was for Instructors who were below the rank of Brown, and was worn on a daily basis. You wore your actual rank in your belt tests. As such I wore my Purple, Blue, and Green belts twice; when receiving them and when leaving them. As a Red Belt I taught all ranks of Junior students, and any rank of Adult that I had personally attained (but typically one rank below)...and often intro lessons and exercise classes.
It absolutely accelerated my learning curve tremendously.
I've studied two Korean arts and both have interesting uses of red. My main style is Moo Duk Kwan Tae Kwon Do. It's related to Tang Soo Do and the red belt is not only the rank before black, but is also used as a master color. When one reaches 4th dan, which is the master ran, they get a black (or midnight blue) belt with a single red stripe through it. At 8th dan, one reaches grand master, and the belt now as two red stripes through it. I always thought it was strange that red is both above and below black.
My other style is Hapkido. When my instructor first opened his school, red was originally the third belt (white (no rank), yellow, then red), but this caused a lot of confusion with other Korean styles where red is just before black, so he changed it to orange.
@George Amaru: Fellow student of Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo here! Really enjoy all of the forms(poomsae) in the style and all of the kicking techniques that Taekwondo is known for.
I got up to green belt in my Shaolin class as 9 year old, but it waas the third grade up in that class, so I guess it was just a beginner belt really, cool vid x
I do Kenpo and we do two Brown belts 3rd, 2nd then 1st brown is really a Red/Black belt
I am doing shotokan karate in Germany. We use the red belt exclusively in kumite to distinguish the partitioners. We have shiro, Japanese for white, without an additional belt, and aka, a short red belt you wear on top of your regular obi. The WKF (World Karate Federation) uses red (aka) and blue (ao) for the same reasons. Thank you for broadening my perspectives on the red belt! =)
I study Gracie JiuJitsu and Judo, which you've already touched on. In both cases, Red is a master color. Coral belt and white/red belts are very high up. Then Red belt is the highest in both systems. I've also started training IKCA Kenpo Karate, where our belts go orange, green, blue, purple, brown, and Black. No red at all until you get much higher up.
When someone is choosing to enter a tournament that has point sparing the belt ranking typically go like you said for the most part.
Beginner
White, yellow, orange
Intermediate
Purple, blue, green
Advanced
Brown, black, red
So if a system has a red belt at the beginning of there system how would they work that out at the tournament? Would they just have to explain that red belts are a beginner in their system or would they have to do more than that?
If it is a mixed tournament I don't think it would be organized by belt rank, but rather classified as "beginner" or "advanced" or something like that. You could technically put on any belt you wanted for a tournament, they don't check for certification usually.
Tournaments are WORTHLESS because they do not depict the REAL STREETS and the REAL DANGEROUS of said streets! You can't win a fight on the streets doing point karate!! Sorry, it just doesn't work that way! The same goes for ALL boxing derivatives including MMA, boxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu, kickboxing, JKD and all other boxing derivatives! They are SPORTS-ORIENTED which is a nice way of saying FAKE FIGHTING, not REAL STREET FIGHTING, where, weapons and multiple opponents could be involved!
I just got my red belt in kyokushin! I'm so happy and excited for this journey!
CONGRATS!!!
The reason the Korean Taekwondo systems replaced the brown belts with a red one was to insult the Japanese. The insult being that a red belt master in Karate was below a black belt in Taekwondo !
I did shotokan when I was a kid and got up to 2nd brown belt before other priorities took over and I had to stop. My school when White, Yellow, orange, green, purple x2, brown x3. from what I've gathered, some schools add blue belt instead of a second purple, and red instead of a third brown. It's probably just to keep kids engaged so they're excited to get a new belt
when I did tkd, red was second to black, when I did
Shorin ryu, red was an exceptional level of mastery beyond black...
got my bujinkan green belt...
In the system I've trained in white is unranked and then red was only used for those who would be at the brown belt level but were under 16. Essentially a "junior" brown belt. Our black belt also had a white stripe for those rare individuals who earned it before 16.
The curriculum was the same and the only need to distinguish between "junior" and regualr was about emotional intelligence and physical strength. If you turned 16 between ranks your next belt would be a regular brown belt or a regualr black belt. For junior black belts you might be given and invited to wear a solid black belt after turning 16 before earning 2nd Dan, but mught also just have to wait until you earned 2nd Dan.
The local Karate DoJo here in England, uses the following belt colours / levels:
9th kyu - Red Belt
8th Kyu - Orange Belt
7th Kyu - Yellow Belt
6th Kyu - Green Belt
5th Kyu - Purple Belt
4th Kyu - Purple and white stripe
3rd Kyu - Brown Belt
2nd Kyu - Brown & white stripe
1st Kyu - Brown & double white
In my school, when we were part of the Genbukan, the belts were white, green, brown, then black. One spent the most of amount time on the green belt, taking at 6 stripes, or kyu levels before receiving brown. As a female, Tanemura Sensei said we were special and we could choose to have a red belt as an equivalent to green. So, I earned and choose the red belt and kept that until 3rd kyu.
At the company that I teach at we use Red belt with a black stripe going across the middle of the belt for students that have been certified by our Z-Ultimate University system to teach Karate but have not yet reached the rank of Black in their town individual training. I was a red belt when I became an instructor(actual rank, Green w/ brown stripe) until I got my Shodan in Novmeber of 2021
Thank you, very interesting. This subject is long overdue for some explanation. I appreciate this video. In our school a great deal autonomy is given to each black belt, each lineage holder, so they can structure the individual requirements for grading up to black belt. At which point proficiency with the whole of the curriculum is the goal. This leaves students with ample material for their health and basic self-defense needs, while providing them a strong foundation with which to pursue future progress in the finer points of these arts.
It has taken me forty-five years to come to these conclusions, in my own school I offer students belts white, green, brown, and black. Not testing any student before two years of regular training. My motto is ''Ten years to black belt. A lifetime to mastery.'' After receiving black belt, prospective students work on specialized technique, skills, or qualities, which become their unique talent. And for this the particular Chinese character is sewn in red thread in their blackbelt. The plan here is to give rise to the development of more individual assets, and less bureaucracy. Black Belts should see themselves as no more than sincere students. The Black Belt testifies that the student has developed themselves, physically, morally, and spiritually. At least it should be an assurance that the person holding the title has an elevated sense of justice, is merciful, humble and wise. In my school the brown belt is a sign that the student can fight, and is capable of defending themselves. And the black belt a sign they know when not to do so.
Peace, its good karma.
Laoshr#60
Ching Yi Kung Fu Association
It's funny that you put this video out as I was looking at this the other day. In my judo club there is no red belt in the adult syllabus but there is in the junior's and it's low ranking. When I was looking for a club to join I saw one local club that had red after white, while another one had it instead of brown! ... Also, as far as I'm aware in BJJ they don't even give out red belts anymore :(
Really cool video! I am really curious about the red and white alternating stripe belt. Will you be doing a video on it or know what it's about? I cant find anything.
The Red and White alternating stripe belt is called a Coral belt, and is usually for higher ranking seniors. Typically above 5th Dan but below Red belt, if they have a red belt. Not all arts use this. BJJ, JuJustu, Judo, and some Karate systems have this belt.
I'm from shotokan karate, when I used the red belt as a color I was 4th kyu.it was the color before brown. I still use the same red belt for WKF competition.
Belt colors only matter within your own school. One black belt is not equal to another black belt in a different school. Personally, in my opinion, a belt is just a piece of clothing; it's what you know and how you can effectively apply it that interests me.
Yes. Yes. I’ve been preaching this for decades. Thank you!
In my system the red belt is the highest belt. However no one gets awarded a red belt not even myself. We use black Belts with a red master core from Katarro belts.
The longer you’re in your belt the more it shreds. Your level of Mastery depends upon the amount of work to put in which is reflected by the wear and tear on your belt.
It was and still is my dream to become a black belt. just need the money for classes.
In our system red comes just before black. And when I earned my 5th degree I got a black belt with red fringe and a solid red bar at each end. At my current rank of 6th degree I just continue to wear the same belt. Frankly, the belt ranking systems are interesting in that there is such a wide variety. At my age I’m just glad to still be training every day. 😊
That you for the shout out to my first art, tang soo do
In soo bahk do, red is right before midnight blue... But once you become 4th dan tmyou get a belt that is midnight blue with the center color red all through the belt... and those who get from that belt up need to pass s kilitsry bootcamp type of testbfor each belt
I had a friend that was maybe still is the head instructor at lomita park soo bahk do. He used to invite us to watch the testings. Man those things were intense!
Why is the red belt the most important belt? Because one of America's greatest playwrights, David Mamet, didn't make a movie called "Orangebelt"
Also a funny story: One of my fellow teachers is a Shotokan Karate Instructor who represented Thailand at the JKA Championships back in the 90's. Back then, like in old school Judo, both competitors wore either a white or red belt. He showed us some old videos he had transferred from VHS camcorder of his competitions (in the one we saw he was wearing the red belt) and one of the other teaches asked "why are you beating up on some poor white belt?" His English wasn't fluent so I helped explain that they were both black belts. and that in competition back then one person had to wear red and the other white so the judges could tell them apart in scoring. I guess they must have changed from red and white to red and blue to get away from the implied nationalism of red and white being the Japanese flag.
Also my style's system: white (un-ranked) yellow (5th kyu) green (4th kyu and usually a hakama if you're a lady) blue (3rd kyu) brown (2nd kyu) brown (1st kyu Hopefully if one day you forget to bring your belt to class, you can find your old one in the back somewhere and if you are lucky nobody will notice) and then black (Shodan and men finally get their hakama as the women laugh as you trip over yourself trying to learn to wear it.)
The last couple years in my program ive actually implemented a gray belt. Its basically a yellow belt for adults. I figured no adult wants to wear a yellow belt with a bunch on 6 year olds runnin around in em. So yellow and orange are strictly kids ranks. They are replaced by gray belt and gray belt with a black stripe. Adults seem to dig it it puts a clear division between kids and adults. And this way no child ever out ranks an adult. Similar to bjj.
I like that. Not many schools use a grey belt.
@@ArtofOneDojo i wanted there to be a clear cut separation like in bjj. I didnt wanna use red for reasons in this video. And camo mmmmm no lol. As far as belts go ur about out of colors, then i started seeing the gray belt pop up in my suppliers inventory. It works it actually looks really nice next to the other colors
@@sliderx1897 And *cough* *cough* Leopard/Camo/White Dot *cough* *cough*. You're welcome :D
@@ArtofOneDojo thats reserved for the super duper advanced ninja program😁
My GMs belt is thick and red with gold running through the middle. But it's really his ceremonial belt. He wears his black belt with gold stripes because he was also the Shihan.
In traditional Kang Dukwon TKD we go brown, red, red/black then black. The reasoning behind it is we are creatures that seem to need affirmation of progress. In the past it was 3 degrees of brown, denoted by black stripes. Holding at brown belt for so long seems to have a negative effect on some people and causes "brown belt blues". I'm currently a brown belt in Kang Dukwon, working towards red. I also want to add, our red/black is a red belt with a black stripe through the middle. Junior black belts (poom) wear the red/black bi-color belts. That's typical of the Kukkiwon rank system. Years ago I was in TKD that utilized red belt then 3 degrees of brown before black...
Keep up the good work, Dan.
In one of my styles, Shorinji ToraKen ryu Kempo Karate...the red belt comes just before 1st dan Black. This system is a composite of Kenpo, Shitō-ryu karate, and Hapkido/Tae Kwon Do. There have been several splits in the system. When I was 6-8 yrs old, the myth was that you had to kill someone in a specified manner to earn the red belt. Amazing what little boys will come up with!
A lot of organizations don't even have red. We have red as a teacher's rank (Renshi/Kiyoshi/Hanshi), but the Kyu ranks are white, green and brown.
A couple years too late but thought I'd share: My time in the martial arts was more than 25 years ago. Originally it was National Karate (really it was Tae Kwon Do). I ended on red belt, which for us at the time was the first advanced belt. Order went like this: White->Gold->Green->Purple->Blue->Red->Brown->Brown with black stripe->Black. Later I moved and took up Shuri-Ryu (sp?) karate for a short time that had no red belt. Interestingly enough the sensei invited me to wear my red belt if I wanted. I decided not to bother because it'd be confusing and single me out as being a lot better than I actually was (I knew nothing of Shuri-Ryu anyway) so simply started over as a white belt again.
I never had the view that the belts are meaningless. To get each one you had to memorize and learn certain things, after all, and in a particular order. So as a (whatever color) belt you knew and could do all the things that were at the previous belt levels, and your proficiency in general at the art had to be higher. Having said that, I lost a sparring match in a tournament to a fellow yellow belt, while I was really a red belt in another style... So as for one's sparring ability, yeah, it's probably not terribly meaningful! I was good at form/kata though which I enjoyed more than anything else. I overheard one guy after my form in the tournament ended say "there's no way that guy is only a yellow belt." He was right. Oddly enough I was too good for that belt level in form, but too awful at sparring to even play with the beginners!
Did the Shuri Ryu have 3 brown belts? The Red/Brown/Brown with black stripe sounds like the same "rank". A lo of school will split the brown up up into different colors, with red being one of them. In Kenpo we have 3 brown belts, but some schools will use the alternate colors of brown, red, and half red/black.
@@ArtofOneDojo I want to say there were one or two browns at that Shuri Ryu school, but this was 25 years ago, and I was only in it for a year (if that) so I'm not sure. I couldn't speak to the ranks either or how they're really mapped to the belts. In my brain, the belts themselves were the ranks, but obviously as a 5th+ dan you'd know a lot more about how that works than I do. I don't even recall the exact belt order in Shuri Ryu. There was no red anywhere though.
I was in Tae Kwon Do as a kid up through high school for a number of years off and on so I remember that much better. That had the single red belt that I had just earned before life got in the way and I stopped attending. I remember people would typically be red belt for a long time, then the two brown belts after red might take a couple years to get through before testing for black. In our school red was the first "advanced" belt, so maybe it would map onto a triple brown system as the first brown? Not sure. I hadn't heard of three browns until finding your channel. How that maps to Kyu(?) rank I have no idea. I don't think I was even aware of the ranks until recently thanks to RUclips.
Anyway, I'm enjoying your channel. It's fun to learn about how all the different styles and schools do things. I was perhaps a bit belt-centric back in my day so it's interesting to see.
Our dojo has red belt as part of the beginner levels however because the school is a mix ( hybrid system) red is present in the black belt rank too same as American Kempo.
in our shinkyokushinkai karate training the system is
white
red
blue
yellow
green
brown
black
At the TKD school I went to I dont remember which one is before brown but it's either purple or red, probably red. We had red then red with black center stripe 👍
10:03 ouch RIP 🙏😞
Man that's great information thanks
As a judoka and jujitsuka, I've never had much faith in the significance of upper red belts. I usually see coral and red belts awarded for political contributions to a federation and often has little to do with mastery of a style. I've always heard the red belt started in Judo and was adopted by karate systems later as a master or founder rank.
I think it is silly and have no use for it.
I can't say that I disagree with you there.
had a red belt cus I liked it. wore even after receiving black, it reminds me of the heavy conditioning
Awesome video! :)
My belt is only red when it's awash with the blood of my enemies. 🥋😡☠
Other than that it's white
And is that the one you are wearing as tie on neck as i can see in your dp 😒
Grrrr😡😡😡
@@saumikroy r/woooooosh
Interesting designations for the red belt. Traditionally fundamentally I study an Okinawan karate art.
However I'm an affiliate of a blended martial arts school. I don't think they use red belts at all.
Actually my hanshi said it's a gaudy ugly belt. So we wear gold Stripes as designations on the black belt. We only use belts with red coloring in them for formal ceremonies.
So I'm actually a Rokudan. I have black belts with five and six stripes on them. And the traditional renshi belt which I flipped white on top for 5th and red on top for 6th.
Honestly 7th and up might be out of my reach. But the more I've learned over the years I realize the more I need to learn.
And out of respect for my deceased teacher...
and his wife... Hanshi's.
I don't think I would ever put a red belt on in that capacity as hanshi.
Also I believe karate is not a sport so I don't even think I would do point fighting where I would have to put on a red belt.
Very nice video. Thank you so much
It's really interesting to hear about American Kempo from you Sensei Dan. I just got my start in Goju Ryu, and it reminds me a lot of your style. In the sense that it's very live sparring and pressure tested focused like Kyokushin, I didn't realize there were multiple styles of Karate with sparring involved beyond just kyokushin, show's what I know right? One thing I'm really curious about is what the diffrences are, between American Kempo and Goju Ryu for example does Kempo focus a lot on Kata like Shotokan which has 26? Or is it more like Goju Ryu which only has 12 and focuses more on live pressure testing? And what's the first Kata for Kempo begginers to learn? I've been in both styles one focused on Kata only until black belt or above (the one I left) and one focused on Kumite and Kata the one I'm currently training in.
Oh, one final note I'm obviously starting at white belt again, I finished shotokan at Yellow I'm sad about it but also a bit happy. I've asked my sensei to essentially give me my yellow belt again and I want it done properly this time where I've really felt like I've earned it. Because my first yellow belt I don't really count. The reason being on the day I graded despite training non-stop for two weeks straight a police officer with no karate experience and who only came in once a week was actually double graded from white to orange we were both grading together. It was so strange, whilst I recieved only a passing grade barely above a fail. His grading sheet was a pluses across the board and he didn't do anything diffrently. One thing that really pissed me off was that he was asked to do a Kata we both knew but I wasn't asked to do that kata, and he messed it up and made a mistake that was so obvious I could clearly see it and he was so angry about it when he came back down to sit next to me. It was a mistake I would not have made if I had done that kata. When I asked the people why he graded twice I was given vague answers ranging from "he has some martial arts experience" and "it was some technical stuff" and "You can't compare yourself to other people." stupid stuff like that which I don't really care for.
So yeah I do not count my current yellow belt in Shotokan as my first belt I'm still a white belt, and I wish my current Sensei, Sensei Adrian to give it to me properly. Where I really felt like I earned it and I can get it and wear it with pride and happiness not misery like when I first got my yellow belt. He told me he does not double grade ever even if the person has previous martial arts experience if he does he will grade them to the level they were at if they did karate before. I'm really excited to recieve my proper yellow belt in Goju Ryu in November.
There is a lot of similarity, but I would say the main difference American Kenpo has versus just about any other system is the way the curriculum is taught. We have 154 self defense technique sequences. Many people criticize Kenpo saying these techniques don't work, but they were never meant to be memorized and used in a fight. They are basically textbooks, and each technique highlights certain basics and combines them with principles to show how they work together. The idea is after going through the techniques (which are really just a lot of variations of 5-10 techniques) a practitioner should be able to question, analyze, and respond spontaneously to a situation.
So I would say that while Kenpo incorporates a lot of Karate and Kung Fu into the material (even Boxing and Judo to a degree), it's the WAY the curriculum is taught that makes it different.
@@ArtofOneDojo I see that's very interesting it would be nice if I could find a decent Kenpo school where I live.
At my school (I train in a kenpo blend) here are the ranks.
White
Yellow
Orange
Green (me!)
Purple
Blue
Red
Advanced red (red with black stripe)
Brown
Advanced brown (brown with black stripe)
Black. Just my school, a bit odd. Great school though. I’ve been training since November every single day for hours. Going for my black within hopefully 3 years.
I just earned my Red Belt in Tang Soo Do Karate 6/28/21 ! 🥋 Black Belt (Midnight Blue) Is coming up in 2-3 years! 😅
4th Dan and and beyond is Midnight Blue with a red stripe throughout the length of the entire belt.
Awesome! Congratulations! Keep working hard!
I like that most bjj tends to be consistency with belts actually fitting skillset
Not anymore most bjj schools are becoming Mcdojos nowadays
I use gold belt as the highest instructor rank (chief instructor) in my school in place of red belt. And I use red belt right after orange belt for students in my school.
For my school (songham taekwondo) our order is white, orange, yellow, camouflage, green, purple, blue, brown, red, recommended black (half red half black) then black and black has 9 degrees with stripes until fifth then stars until ninth with 5 stars. ( I could be wrong but I believe that there is technically 10th degree for the eternal grand master who was the founder of the art but not entirely sure about that.) I’m currently recommended black so hopefully I can get black later this year.
If you’re curious the belt colors represent a tree growing (orange-black I mean. white is still pure without knowledge) orange is the sun is rising. yellow is the seed seeing the sunlight. camo-brown is the tree slowing growing more each belt. Red is the sun setting. recommended black (or red/black) is the sun rising again and black is the tree at maturity planting seeds for the future.
In Wado-ry karate we have white belt 9kyu and 8 kyu is White belt whit Red stripes or fully red belt.
In Japanese jujusto is white belt 6 kyu and yellow belt 5 kyu.