What's the Deal? Kyu Ranks and Colored Belts.

[Jonathan Randall]

I started my Judo study in 1972 under Senseie Ben Palacio of Mission Street Judo in San Francisco. At that time, children had white, yellow, green, purple and (junior) brown belt ranks available. Adults had simply white, brown and black. I have been out of Judo for almost twenty years. What color does a san-kyu normally wear? Some wore purple, some even green, some brown (myself, Yudo - ended up under a Korean master, actually). Is there a standardization between federations (USJA, USJF, Kodenkan, independents)? Dan ranking normally took 5-7 years to achieve - except in the case of klutze's like myself.