Wing chun, 9th Duan, my goal
13/09/2016, 23:37
Interesting, but I don't know if these are universally accepted. For example, in the Jiu Jutsu school I trained in, orange belt came before yellow (yes I'm aware we were the unusual ones in that respect, but my point is not all schools agree on order.)
Just the coloured belts are a pretty modern, young tradition, beginning with the commercial schools that were built as businesses to teach kids primarily for money, as opposed to the older, traditional schools. It's easier to keep kids from getting bored and quitting (and therefor their parents stop paying their monthly fees) if there's a lot more achievable ranks they can get to faster, to feel like they're accomplishing something.
The more old-fashioned the school, the fewer belts they have. Some only had four ranks: Beginner, Advanced student (who assisted teaching the beginner classes) Teacher, and the school's Master/founder. Beginners got white belts; Teachers wore black; what advanced students wore varied from school to school, and the Master wears whatever the hell he wants, because it's his school!
So where did the idea for these dozen or more pretty coloured belts come from?
The story goes, when you joined one of these older schools, they gave you a brand new white belt, and the belts were left at the dojo when not training. They were never washed, frequently soaked in sweat, so unsurprisingly, they eventually started growing mold. Yellow, blue, green, brown, etc... and when the mold finally died completely and turned black, folks knew you'd been coming to the dojo for a long, long time.
Just the coloured belts are a pretty modern, young tradition, beginning with the commercial schools that were built as businesses to teach kids primarily for money, as opposed to the older, traditional schools. It's easier to keep kids from getting bored and quitting (and therefor their parents stop paying their monthly fees) if there's a lot more achievable ranks they can get to faster, to feel like they're accomplishing something.
The more old-fashioned the school, the fewer belts they have. Some only had four ranks: Beginner, Advanced student (who assisted teaching the beginner classes) Teacher, and the school's Master/founder. Beginners got white belts; Teachers wore black; what advanced students wore varied from school to school, and the Master wears whatever the hell he wants, because it's his school!
So where did the idea for these dozen or more pretty coloured belts come from?
The story goes, when you joined one of these older schools, they gave you a brand new white belt, and the belts were left at the dojo when not training. They were never washed, frequently soaked in sweat, so unsurprisingly, they eventually started growing mold. Yellow, blue, green, brown, etc... and when the mold finally died completely and turned black, folks knew you'd been coming to the dojo for a long, long time.
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