Continuing Steps in Karate

The purpose of the belt And I don’t want to rehash the old, old, old ‘joke’ about it holding up your pants (karate belts hold the top closed in any case). Why award a belt in the first place? What purpose does it have within the eyes of the awardee, their sensei, their dojo, their organisation, and outside their organisation? The individual The purpose of a black belt, in the eyes of the person awarded it, is the hardest question to answer. Each person will likely have their own take on it, depending on how they view the continuum of ranking in the martial arts, what preconceptions they brought into their training prior to beginning karate, and environment and the attitudes of their dojo and peers. So, I’m not going to discuss this aspect, as I will probably only project my own values onto others if I do. But it is an aspect that I think each person who is aiming for, or has achieved a certain level within karate needs to reflect on. For me, my personal opinion is the real arbite...

What’s in a belt? A belt of any other colour would be so neat (with apologies to Shakespeare). It’s the perennial whipping boy of the karate internet - What is a black belt? What does it mean? They don’t deserve theirs! Our gradings are tougher than yours! How did they get their belt? You’re only an x-belt, what do you know? So why not add my 2-bob’s worth to the melting pot of vitriol, opinion and disinformation out there? What I want to explore, because I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, is what the belt could represent and why it can vary from person to person. I’ve got no interest in rehashing the old chestnuts of its history/derivation myths; nor of how it meant so much more in the good ol’ days. I’m hoping to maybe tread down a less well-worn path or two. Who says you can have a black belt? In the general run of things, people don’t award themselves a black belt. (Yes, I know it can happen, but if someone does, then they’re probably someone to avoid. Make an excuse a...

Sorry about that (not that anyone’s probably reading this anymore). It wasn’t intentional, just life and family and work came between me and writing my thoughts down on this blog. But I’m back now, as fortunately karate didn’t stop for me, even if posting about it did. So what has happened for me in the martial arts since 2011? I have graded three more times: nidan in 2013, sandan in 2015 and yondan in 2019. I have set myself year-training challenges of 300+ days of training in three different years and was successful twice (pneumonia during one year stopped me in my tracks though). I have been to a number of seminars in silat, my parent school of goju and other styles of goju, a Patrick McCarthy seminar (highly recommended, might I add) and visited briefly a goju dojo in Carlsbad, California (living in Australia, that’s more momentous than it might otherwise seem). I have also become an instructor with our group, assisting with colour belt classes and running black belt classes. ...