Brown Belt Degrees?

[Ray]

At what level did you guys change from white gi to black?

Our Brown Belt went:
3rd degree - no tabs
2nd degree - 1 tab
1st degree - 2 tabs

We wore black gi's from the start, assuming you bought a gi. There was no restriction on the colors we could wear - and this probably produced some extra sells...we wore red gi's, black gi's, white gi's, US flag jackets with blue pants and so on. Some of us got the great idea that we could mix and match the pants and jacket color.

At some point, somebody started tucking in their gi top and that became "all the rage" for about a year.

 

[DavidCC]

3rd kyu, 2nd kyu, 1st kyu, 1st dan, 2nd dan... it makes some sense I guess (my school does it that way too)


we have white belt as 9th kyu

white, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green, brown, brown, brown, black

we get a black gi at blue. The blue belt test is long, difficult, very taxing. Up until this point, your promtions come in class when the Instructor knows you are ready. For blue, you get specificaly and rigorously tested, and could fail. For green, and browns it's back to "when you are ready the belt is awarded". Then for black it is "beat down time" again. We do that becaseu, that black gi symbolizes experience and ability. the lower belts see that gi and know it is someone who will know the best answer to their question. So we need to be sure...

It's also the whole 'rite of passage' thing too, I gotta admit it, the "black gi club" is kewl "I am somebody now" hahaha

 

[Scott Robinson]

We do things a little different (in a Cerio derived system).

We have kyu ranks (called "classes") from 1st brown to white. We have three classes of brown - starting with "brown 3 / sankyu". For this class we have three stripes. We take stripes off as we advance through the brown ranks. So - for "brown 2/ nikyu" we have two striped; for brown 1 we have one stripe.

I like the metaphor of stripping away as one moves towards black - but we seem to be one of the few systems that do it this way.

It is interesting to see all of the variations on a core practice (three browns).

 

[Gufbal1982]

Just like Joe, I used to call it the countdown to black belt. We changed to black gi's at purple belt. Black was the symbol of "being let into the temple to train" or at least that's what my instructor told me...however, they wouldn't consider you intermediate until green and advanced at brown. USSD I know consider's you advanced at blue belt...that way you can go to headquarters and test there.

 

[Danjo]

Just like Joe, I used to call it the countdown to black belt. We changed to black gi's at purple belt. Black was the symbol of "being let into the temple to train" or at least that's what my instructor told me...however, they wouldn't consider you intermediate until green and advanced at brown. USSD I know consider's you advanced at blue belt...that way you can go to headquarters and test there.

And pay your money directly to them as I remember.

 

[Gufbal1982]

yup

 

[IWishToLearn]

First Degree Brown is the highest, with no stripes.
Second Degree Brown is the middle rank, with two stripes.
Third Degree Brown is the first brown belt rank you attain, with three stripes, this rank is just above Green.

 

[Doc]

Yeah, it was confussing to me when talking to EPAK guys. They were talking about 1st degree brown and so on. I knew EPAK had degrees/kyu to the brown but didnt realize that 1st was higher than 3rd. Anyone know why that is?

The ranking structure comes from the Japanese, who were the first to install this belt structure in the sport of Judo. Because competitive sparring, (randori) was a requirement for advancement, and classes had people of all ages and both genders, a rank classification was created by Jigoro Kano. Students then could compete in ther own classification reasonably and fairly against students of similar experience.

The system utilizes the "kyu" that counts downward from beginner at 8 to advanced at 1st kyu. The brown belt ranks correspond to 3rd, 2nd, and 1st kyu. The "dan" ranks then began to count upward from there.

I dumped the Japanese kyu system years ago while still maintaining the three levels of brown, but put in proper American numerical order ascending instead of descending with "3rd degree brown" the highest.