black belt what it means and what it does
BLACK BELT: WHAT IT MEANS (AND WHAT IT DOESN’T) When someone finds out you study karate, one of the first questions they usually ask is “are you a Black Belt?” After all, the Black Belt is one of the best known parts of the martial arts, and people have all sorts of expectations about what it means. “Can you beat someone up?” “Can you ‘karate chop’ a brick in half?” “Wow, I’d better not mess with you” In addition to the awkwardness of conversations like these, they also show how little is understood about karate and its practitioners — and, sadly, that lack of understanding isn’t always limited to outsiders. How many of us have heard a fellow student ask (or maybe we’ve been guilty of this ourselves), when they can “get their next belt (or stripe)”? How many times do students get frustrated if they’ve spent ‘too long’ at one belt rank, or place too much importance on that newly achieved rank? How many times have you heard a Sensei remind students that their rank isn’t
