Where are your stripes?

[skribs107]

Whether you're talking about a white/colored belt with tape stripes until the next solid color, or else a black belt with the dan rank marked with stripes on one side, where do your stripes hang?

• Right Side
• Left Side
• Doesn't Matter
• Don't Know
• Don't Have Stripes

 

[Christopher Adamchek]

Weve done both sides mirroring the same rank (we do karate fyi)

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Within NGA, many instructors are quite adamant about which side is "correct". Unfortunately, they don't agree with each other. Mine are on the left, I think. It's always the same side, I'm just really not sure (without tying my belt) which that is. Now that I think about it, it's probably the right - they start on the left before tying.

So, yeah, I have no idea.

 

[drop bear108]

Only on the left side, yeah that's the crip side.

 

[dvcochran]

To the question, I do think traditionally they are on the left side. Hopefully someone else will chime in. As a BB do are you adamant about having the stripes on your belt? My belt is half the original belt I was given in 1984 and half a belt given to me from my GM about 10 years ago. It does have his name and Dan ranking on it but still no stripes. There is no mistaking me for him as he is Korean and I am a red-neck from the south.
I think they are largely an ego stroke for the wearer when you get into the higher Dan levels. I get the advantages of organization and motivation at color belt but should not a BB be beyond this?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

To the question, I do think traditionally they are on the left side. Hopefully someone else will chime in. As a BB do are you adamant about having the stripes on your belt? My belt is half the original belt I was given in 1984 and half a belt given to me from my GM about 10 years ago. It does have his name and Dan ranking on it but still no stripes. There is no mistaking me for him as he is Korean and I am a red-neck from the south.
I think they are largely an ego stroke for the wearer when you get into the higher Dan levels. I get the advantages of organization and motivation at color belt but should not a BB be beyond this?

Within larger groups that actually have several levels in attendance, the stripes serve some of the same functions the colored belts do - helping people observe etiquette when bowing in, making it easy to use the right honorific/title (for groups that use different honorifics/titles at different ranks), indicating who is likely to be equipped to answer certain questions, etc.

In other organizations, it doesn't serve so usefully, and just becomes a matter of hierarchy.

And sometimes it matters to those of us who are used to it, but for reasons we can't really explain. I like having stripes around, even when everyone else has more than me (as at the Karate dojo where I just started teaching classes).

 

[Dirty Dog6]

We don't really care which side the stripe is on for geup ranks.
For dan ranks, we don't care. Most have them on both ends.

 

[Earl Weiss104]

IMO this is like the Toilet paper roll question. (From the top or bottom) My gray matter is occupied with matters of greater consequence. So you put it on and wherever it ends up is fine. Of course, at the end of the day if you follow someone who sets a standard you follow what they say.

 

[Dirty Dog6]

IMO this is like the Toilet paper roll question. (From the top or bottom) My gray matter is occupied with matters of greater consequence. So you put it on and wherever it ends up is fine. Of course, at the end of the day if you follow someone who sets a standard you follow what they say.

There is no question at all about how the toilet paper roll should be hung. From the bottom is the only acceptable answer. Especially if you have cats. If it's from the top, the cat smacks it once and it starts unrolling. Instant cat toy.
There are only a relative few absolutes in life. Amoung them are:
TP from the bottom.
Toothpaste should be squeezed from the end of the tube.
Pineapple does not belong on pizza.
If you order your steak well done, you should just order the chicken, you steak hating monster.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

There is no question at all about how the toilet paper roll should be hung. From the bottom is the only acceptable answer. Especially if you have cats. If it's from the top, the cat smacks it once and it starts unrolling. Instant cat toy.
There are only a relative few absolutes in life. Amoung them are:
TP from the bottom.
Toothpaste should be squeezed from the end of the tube.
Pineapple does not belong on pizza.
If you order your steak well done, you should just order the chicken, you steak hating monster.

Cats are the only excuse for bottom-loading TP. Otherwise, it's just wrong.

Usually, you're so sensible.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

IMO this is like the Toilet paper roll question. (From the top or bottom) My gray matter is occupied with matters of greater consequence. So you put it on and wherever it ends up is fine. Of course, at the end of the day if you follow someone who sets a standard you follow what they say.

I agree, except where it's being done for its own reason. I think some places only care about where the stripes end up, so folks have a detail to pay attention to. Does the location of stripes really matter? No. But learning to pay attention to a detail does.

I'm not naturally detail-oriented, and have often wondered how much of my ability to pay attention to small stuff was developed in the dojo with small steps like that.

 

[Tony Dismukes106]

In BJJ it doesn’t matter. I don’t pay attention to the stripes when I start tying the belt and so it ends up randomly one way or another.

Pineapple does not belong on pizza.

You are so wrong that it makes me question everything else you’ve ever written.

 

[JR 137]

My former organization had a strict dress code, for lack of a better phrase. Black belts wore their belt with the organization’s kanji on the left side, and the person’s name in kanji and stripes on the right side. The head of that organization is a Vietnam vet and spent quite some time in the Marine Corps, so uniform actually meant uniform. Kyu ranks got electrical tape stripes and they were supposed to be worn on the right, but that wasn’t enforced, surprisingly even by the head guy. He’d make a comment every now and then, but he wouldn’t go crazy with it like other things.

My current organization doesn’t care which side stripes are on. My teacher gets asked this one occasionally, and he says he’s asked several times with no definitive answer. He looks at our founder and his son who is his official successor, and both wear them opposite of each other. He watches when Kaicho ties a black belt on people after they’ve been promoted, and it’s whatever side it ends up on. The only universal thing is have the embroidered side out instead of the underside.

 

[skribs107]

My former organization had a strict dress code, for lack of a better phrase. Black belts wore their belt with the organization’s kanji on the left side, and the person’s name in kanji and stripes on the right side. The head of that organization is a Vietnam vet and spent quite some time in the Marine Corps, so uniform actually meant uniform. Kyu ranks got electrical tape stripes and they were supposed to be worn on the right, but that wasn’t enforced, surprisingly even by the head guy. He’d make a comment every now and then, but he wouldn’t go crazy with it like other things.

My current organization doesn’t care which side stripes are on. My teacher gets asked this one occasionally, and he says he’s asked several times with no definitive answer. He looks at our founder and his son who is his official successor, and both wear them opposite of each other. He watches when Kaicho ties a black belt on people after they’ve been promoted, and it’s whatever side it ends up on. The only universal thing is have the embroidered side out instead of the underside.

This is how it is at my school. There is a dress code, but some of the details aren't enforced. For example, students are allowed to wear a white t-shirt under their uniform. The color is generally not enforced, but if they show up with a collared shirt or long-sleeve shirt they get told they're not allowed to do that.

The same applies to belts. School name on left side, your name and rank on right side. Most of the black belts, when pointed out, will apologize and fix it. But there's one girl who's attitude is "this is how I do it". I think she thinks I'm either joking, or that it doesn't matter and I'm just being a stickler. She just tested into my rank, although at the time we had this discussion I was a higher rank than her. I was just curious if other schools had a loose code on this, or if there was a definite way of doing things.

And to see if it was a similar rule or if the rule was different at every school.

 

[skribs107]

Edit: double post

 

[wanderingstudent]

Cats are the only excuse for bottom-loading TP. Otherwise, it's just wrong.

Usually, you're so sensible.

Not necessarily. At my house it is over the top, except for the Winter; when the heater blows and unrolls it. Although, I've been experimenting with crushing the roll slightly; this seems to work. It also helps limit over-rolling when unrolling.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

This is how it is at my school. There is a dress code, but some of the details aren't enforced. For example, students are allowed to wear a white t-shirt under their uniform. The color is generally not enforced, but if they show up with a collared shirt or long-sleeve shirt they get told they're not allowed to do that.

The same applies to belts. School name on left side, your name and rank on right side. Most of the black belts, when pointed out, will apologize and fix it. But there's one girl who's attitude is "this is how I do it". I think she thinks I'm either joking, or that it doesn't matter and I'm just being a stickler. She just tested into my rank, although at the time we had this discussion I was a higher rank than her. I was just curious if other schools had a loose code on this, or if there was a definite way of doing things.

And to see if it was a similar rule or if the rule was different at every school.

For a situation like that student, my view is that if it's not enforced, it's not important. But if it's enforced (even gently) for others, then it matters. More importantly, I have an issue with people who decide that the rules don't matter just because they don't want to bother with them (or think their way is special) and decide to simply ignore them, even when reminded. This is one of those things these details can be used for. And some would say that doesn't matter, but there are many places in life where we can get along better and communally accomplish more if we accept some rules and standards that don't really matter at an individual level.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Not necessarily. At my house it is over the top, except for the Winter; when the heater blows and unrolls it. Although, I've been experimenting with crushing the roll slightly; this seems to work. It also helps limit over-rolling when unrolling.

Hmm...I see you're trying to find a loophole here. I'll just close that loophole by saying you clearly have a ghost cat.

 

[JR 137]

This is how it is at my school. There is a dress code, but some of the details aren't enforced. For example, students are allowed to wear a white t-shirt under their uniform. The color is generally not enforced, but if they show up with a collared shirt or long-sleeve shirt they get told they're not allowed to do that.

The same applies to belts. School name on left side, your name and rank on right side. Most of the black belts, when pointed out, will apologize and fix it. But there's one girl who's attitude is "this is how I do it". I think she thinks I'm either joking, or that it doesn't matter and I'm just being a stickler. She just tested into my rank, although at the time we had this discussion I was a higher rank than her. I was just curious if other schools had a loose code on this, or if there was a definite way of doing things.

And to see if it was a similar rule or if the rule was different at every school.

That girl seems like an interesting case. With protocol and the like (this could be considered part of protocol) black belts usually only need to be told once. That whole rebel thing should be gone. And how hard is it to remember which side is which?

The “this is how I do it” mentality should be gone. Furthermore, if it’s not a big deal, then it shouldn’t be a big deal for her to do it right without being reminded either. IMO it seems like a passive aggressive power thing, to put it nicely.

 

[skribs107]

@gpseymour @JR 137

I agree with you. It's one of those things that because it's not too strictly enforced (except when it is) it feels kind of petty to bring up higher. It was more the attitude than anything else. Like Gerry said, it's more the attitude than the rule.

This girl is basically right behind me in rank and seniority. We're the same rank now, but I've been the rank 4 months longer than her. There's only one student above us, out of about 150. So we're pretty close to being equals, and it's kinda hard to pull rank.