From White Belt to Black Belt

[jarcyn...@yahoo.com]

When someone tells you they study karate, or any Japanese martial art,
your first question is probably, "What belt are you?" If they say
black belt, then no doubt you're thoroughly impressed. However, if
they say white belt, you might simply nod, tell them that's very
interesting and wish them luck with their martial art training. What
many people tend to forget is that those impressive black belts had to
start somewhere.
What does the white belt really mean, though? Did you know that in
traditional martial art training, the practitioners had no ranking
system? Sure, there was a certain hierarchy within the dojo (formal
karate training school): there were the beginning, intermediate and
advanced students, the senior instructors and the Sensei (head
instructor), but they had no colored belts.
Everyone had a white belt. The orthodox Japanese martial art of karate
didn't start with a colored ranking system until it came to America.
As this author's Sensei explained, the American student needed a
measurement of progress, unlike the Japanese students....

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