dan rank bars, where did they start?

[Stuarto85 4]

Americans like to boast and show off more than others it seems. I don't know when, where or by whom the blackbelt stripe thing got started. I think the only way to get a clue is to review numerous old photos from the 1940's and 50's of blackbelts from various styles or search thru old writings. That's probably too time consuming (unless one has a lot of free time and the interest to devote to it) so may remain one of karate's mysteries. I have the time but not the interest to research it.

It seems to be the norm in American Kenpo systems. Almost every Kenpo school I have looked at has bars (either red or gold) for their black belts. Some systems like Nick Cerio Kenpo have stripes for brown belts.

 

[HighKick]

It seems to be the norm in American Kenpo systems. Almost every Kenpo school I have looked at has bars (either red or gold) for their black belts. Some systems like Nick Cerio Kenpo have stripes for brown belts.

We do stripes on color belt. Simple black electrical tape, purely for organizational purposes. The motivation they provide are a plus.

 

[Stuarto85 4]

We do stripes on color belt. Simple black electrical tape, purely for organizational purposes. The motivation they provide are a plus.

I think that is the main purpose behind adding bars or tape. I see tape on colored belts for children more often than adults. This gives a child that positive assurance that they are doing good and making progress.

 

[Earl Weiss124 24]

We do stripes on color belt. Simple black electrical tape, purely for organizational purposes. The motivation they provide are a plus.

ITF standard is to add tape to a solid Belt for each "Odd Gup" number. 10th Gup - Solid White. 9th Gup gets a yellow stripe / band near end of belt. 8th Gup solid yellow etc.

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

I recently spent some time training in S. Korea with people from all over the world. Something that stood out to me was that the only people who had rank bars indicating dan rank on their belt were from the USA. None of the Koreans had rank bars, none of the people from any of the other countries that I trained with had them, just the Americans. I know that in some Okinawan styles the bars indicate the title, not the rank (renshi, hanshi, kyoshi) so how did the bars come to represent individual dan rank and why does it seem to be exclusive to the US?

I haven't been here in a while, so this is late I know.....In Canada, I've seen the dan bars at all the schools I've attended in the past 20 years (5 schools I think).

 

[skribs127 148]

ITF standard is to add tape to a solid Belt for each "Odd Gup" number. 10th Gup - Solid White. 9th Gup gets a yellow stripe / band near end of belt. 8th Gup solid yellow etc.

That's interesting, because there's a similar-ish practice at some BJJ schools for kids belts. The idea is that in BJJ, kids should get lots of promotions (stripes and belts) to keep them interested, and merit-based rank is largely given at adults. It's why the color scheme is completely different.

Most BJJ schools will have for example gray-and-white belt (with 4 tape stripes), gray belt (with 4 tape stripes), and gray-and-black belt (with 4 tape stripes). But some places will just have a solid gray belt, and the stripes will change color. For example, you go up to 4 white stripes, then you replace white stripes with red stripes, then you replace the red stripes with yellow stripes. Then you get the next color belt.